Any night of the week you can belly up to Christina's Place, which is no bigger than a large living room, for big specials: $3 Guinness, $2 PBR and $10 buckets of Coors Light. This four o'clock neighborhood joint in Albany Park lights up later into the evening, when the 10 barstools are full, the tables are occupied and there's a wait for the pool table. Saturday nights prove the slight exception, when a karaoke machine takes the place of the eight ball.

It's a good dive, with divey bathrooms. A big screen behind the bar gives the place a strange feel, as if you're being watched, and broadcasts Direct Ticket for the NFL along with the MLB equivalent. A quarter-worthy jukebox holds such classics as Hank Williams Sr., Dead Milkmen and Huey Lewis and the News. The music represents the clientele as much as the staff, who can be found patronizing the bar on off nights. Everyone seems to know each other, but it's by no means exclusive.

Christina's is a perfectly good place to catch up with an old friend, but don't go hungry because there's no food. It does offer bottled beer, but who cares? For $3 the Guinness tasted good, with no bitterness or sour aftertaste from stale lines; oh, yes, Christina's love its Guinness. And the PBR was deliciously cold.

Centerstage Reviewer: Robert Duffer