Dante's Barstool Chicago backyard buildout keeps growing

The latest round started along the back wall, where a fresh row of potted shrubs went in next to the patio.

Viva La Stool

@VivaLaStool

Dante continues to improve the backyard at the Chicago office:

Some context for anyone who hasn't toured the place. Barstool moved into 400 N. Noble St., just west of Fulton Market, in fall 2023. It's a converted packaging building, about 39,000 square feet over 2 stories, and the inside already has a basketball court, a golf simulator, a commercial kitchen and the studios. The outdoor lot was the part nobody had finished, and Dante has more or less adopted it as his own project. Within about 15 minutes, Nicky Smokes posted a backyard update of their own, said Dante had "truly outdone himself" and tagged The Great Escape, the big Chicago-area patio furniture chain. Dante answered with some actual perspective.

Nicky Smokes

@nickysmokess

Dante has truly outdone himself with this backyard @ShopGreatEscape @StoolBackyard

That's about as honest as a construction update gets. Dante calls it a whole team effort and admits that with an unlimited budget they would have finished it back in June. They didn't have one, so it's going up in pieces: some dirt and grass, then shrubs, then umbrellas, then a painted wall. "Rome wasn't built in a day" is the official line, and he has the receipts to back it up. The yard in these clips doesn't look much like an empty gravel lot anymore.

The office has been talking about it on air for weeks, too. On the Yak in mid-October, the backyard and Dante came up in the middle of the usual office bickering, which is a decent sign the space has become part of the building's daily life.

Barstool Yak

@BarstoolYak

Brandon Walker brings up the backyard and Dante on the Yak, mid-gripe about not getting an invite. – Brandon Walker

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So what's next? Dante hasn't given a finish date and we're not going to make one up. The timing is a little funny, though: the yard is filling out with umbrellas and patio seating at the end of October, just as Chicago is about to turn on everyone. That probably won't stop anybody from eating lunch out there in a parka. Dante's promise is that it keeps getting better, and based on these updates he's been good for it so far.