The Black Barrel Tavern

• resultPass w/ Conditions
• critical violations1
• last inspectedApril 7, 2026 →
• address1061 W Madison St, Chicago 60607

Is The Black Barrel Tavern clean?

The Black Barrel Tavern is currently Pass w/ Conditions from Chicago Department of Public Health, from an inspection on April 7, 2026. Inspectors wrote up 1 critical violation — the kind most directly linked to foodborne illness. On Cooked's ladder that reads mid 😬.

What did inspectors find at The Black Barrel Tavern?

These are the violations recorded at the most recent inspection on April 7, 2026, in plain English, with the city's own wording underneath.

• 🚰handwashing sink blocked or barecritical
  Adequate Handwashing Sinks Properly Supplied And Accessible
• ⚠️In-Use Utensils: Properly Stored
• 🛠️surfaces / setup not up to code
  Food & Non-Food Contact Surfaces Cleanable, Properly Designed, Constructed & Used

When was The Black Barrel Tavern last inspected?

The Black Barrel Tavern has 22 inspections on record going back to December 27, 2018. The 12 most recent are shown below.

Graded visits shown below · newest first · tap a date for the record

History worth a look: 3 of these 12 displayed graded visits read cooked. The current result above stands on its own.

The Black Barrel Tavern vs Near West Side

Near West Side runs 81% clean across 1,308 tracked restaurants — 1,041 clean, 229 mid, 22 cooked.

Against the 1,308 spots Cooked tracks in Near West Side, this one comes out cleaner than 4% of them.

Other spots in Near West Side

• ✓! The Black Barrel Tavern
  mid · September 24, 2019
• ✓! Honey Bear Ham Co
  cooked · November 22, 2013
• ✓ Wishbone Restaurant
  cooked · June 1, 2018
• ✓! Fulton Galley
  cooked · June 7, 2019
• ✓! Fulton Galley
  mid · June 7, 2019
• ✓ Rooh Chicago
  clean · March 19, 2026

See every restaurant inspection in Near West Side →

How Chicago grades restaurants

Chicago does not use letter grades. Every inspection ends in one of three official results: Pass, Pass with Conditions, or Fail. Pass with Conditions means violations were found but corrected on the spot or under a deadline — the restaurant is open, with homework. A Fail means serious violations went uncorrected, and it usually brings a re-inspection within days. Chicago also flags “priority” violations, the ones most likely to actually make someone sick. Cooked reads Pass as clean, Pass with Conditions as mid, and Fail as cooked, and shows the itemized violations behind each result.

Read the Chicago ratings guide →

Inspection findings and available history come from the authority’s published records. Cooked checks daily; publication can lag behind an inspection. Read the date on each result and check the official source for newer information.

Source: Chicago Department of Public Health via Chicago Data Portal. Cooked refreshes this data daily — this listing's most recent inspection is dated April 7, 2026. Inspection results describe one moment in a kitchen's life, not a permanent verdict.

check your own block 📸

Cooked covers 10 cities on official inspection data — see who's clean, mid, or cooked near you.