Wine bars have grown so scarce in Chicago that I imagine somewhere there’s a warehouse filled with nothing but those once-ubiquitous nitrogen preservation systems just gathering dust. I don’t miss the trappings of the mid-aughts wine bars, with their fruit and cheese plates and their balloon stems etched with logos, but I do miss the easy access to decent bottles.

So if you see a schlubby guy sitting at the bar at Red & White Wines, come say hi. I enjoy this Bucktown spot, a side hustle for the city’s best natural wine purveyor, because I can try something new — maybe an unfiltered red from Provence, served chilled, that tastes like fresh juice, or a funky Loire that smells not unappealingly like a Band-Aid.

The problem is, I often want a more traditional unnatural wine. More often than not these days, I go to a restaurant to try something distinctive, even if I’m not planning to dine. Which is why the bar at John’s Food & Wine in Lincoln Park keeps drawing me back. Wine director Owen Huzar offers eight to 10 by the glass and carafe, as well as some gently priced house wines. He’ll turn you on to labels you won’t find by the glass elsewhere — maybe an unusually light Tempranillo from Rioja or a spicy sparkling Riesling from the Finger Lakes region of New York. If you’re willing to spend $20 or more on a glass (One glass, I always start out telling myself), then ask for “whatever’s open” — usually a special bottle culled from the cellar — or the “chef’s pour,” which might be a classic red Burgundy at its peak.

The corner seat at Table, Donkey and Stick is my favorite stool in Chicago. Owner Matt Sussman loosely focuses the wine list around the Alpine region, which is of a piece with the food at this Logan Square restaurant. So if you like Grüner Veltliner from Austria or Jacquère from Savoie, this is the place. I usually reserve my visits for Terroir Tuesdays, when Sussman pulls out some serious bottles with age on them and basically sells them at price by the glass. I will trade you three great cocktails elsewhere for one glass of Barolo here.