Deuce’s and The Diamond Club, a twin-concept bar and lounge built from the ground up on the site of a former parking lot in Wrigleyville, may have opened quietly on August 1, but in a neighborhood with constant foot traffic and an insatiable taste for beer, word gets out.

Our photographer stopped by late Saturday night and caught the height of the crush at the two-level space: Deuce’s, a slightly posh sports bar on the ground floor that DATDC’s event coordinator, Erica Morisco, compares to Hub 51 and Bull & Bear, and The Diamond Club, a higher-end lounge on the second floor with fancier furniture, bottle service, and a dress code (“We had some issues with Cubs fans coming in and dancing on the tables,” Morisco says; read: no jeans and no backward caps).

The complete menu—mostly burgers downstairs, a raw bar only upstairs to help preserve that furniture (do we smell a trend?)—is still in the works, as is outdoor seating. The owners, Kevin Killerman of Casey Moran’s and James Geier of the design firm 555 (whose handiwork is also on view at GT Fish & Oyster and Girl and the Goat), hope to have everything set by early September. Judging from Saturday’s crowd, the masses aren’t waiting for every last detail to be in place.

Photography: Jeff Schear