Chris Claboltz isn’t sure he likes what some people say about the new bar he manages in downtown Geneva. But he understands those impressions, which haven’t deterred people from liking the place.

“Some people describe it as an ‘upscale dive bar,’” said Claboltz, the general manager of Bad Alice, at 204 W. State St. “But I think of it as a friendly bar.”

In that regard, Claboltz, has been overseeing a business the past six months that is exactly what the team of restaurateurs Marshall McCarty, Devin Beerman and Laura Beerman had in mind when opening Bad Alice and asking Claboltz to join their team.

Their other restaurants in Geneva, The Walrus Room and The Alchemist, provide much different atmospheres. The Walrus Room is best described as a traditional supper club setting, while The Alchemist is a Chicago-style restaurant with high-end cocktails and food offerings.

When a former tenant at the State Street site closed, McCarty and the Beermans saw it as an opportunity to open a bar in Geneva unlike any other in town, said Claboltz, a 38-year-old resident of the Fox Valley area.

“Initially, the idea was to have a spot for craft beer and do something different with cocktails in general, like a Tiki bar,” Claboltz said.

Bad Alice owners stuck with that premise, but emphasized the friendly bar aura — just what Claboltz and his partners wanted.

“When I came in last September to start the project, we started talking about it, and I thought the best move was to do like a neighborhood bar, like a ‘Cheers’ bar,” Claboltz explained.

Claboltz had established a relationship with the Geneva restaurateurs because a company he co-owns, Manbot Coffee Roasters, sold coffee to them. But he did come with plenty of experience in working as a chef and assistant director of operations for Bourbon Belly Hospitality, which operates spots like Barrel + Rye and Burger Local in Geneva.

That made it easier for his new partners to take his suggestions for Bad Alice and run with them.

“We wanted something affordable and friendly,” Claboltz noted. “It’s like something you can call your own when you go there, and you are not breaking the bank to have a drink there.”

Bad Alice has an aura of a clean, cozy bar, with comfortable furniture in the front entrance, about 20 bar stools, and a recessed wall that includes room for a few table settings.

Claboltz acknowledges if the bar had 70 people on a busy weekend night, “that would be a full house.”

There is a TV, but this isn’t a sports bar, though a Chicago sports team doing well can be put on if patrons request it. In the background, you’re likely to hear music playing at Bad Alice, creating an atmosphere for people to just “hang out.”

Bad Alice has Vinyl Sundays in which patrons can bring in their own vinyl albums to share on a turntable, near what Claboltz calls a “shrine” of odd things overlooking the bar.

The emphasis on vinyl records reminds me of a place called Seve’s Tavern in St. Charles in the 1980s, where great records were almost always playing.

The setting encourages patrons to come up to the bar and have a beer or cocktail, but some food choices are available.

Bad Alice offers pizzas from East Side Café in Warrenville, Chicago hot dogs, and what might be called the house special in the Spam melt. That’s a couple of fried Spam slices on toasted bread with Thousand Island dressing, Swiss and American cheese, shredded lettuce and tomato,

“The Spam melt is my favorite food we have,” Claboltz noted.

Business has been good at Bad Alice, he added. “It has been interesting to see how this new concept has been taken by patrons, as there are other dive bars or full-service restaurants around.

“But this is just a good, old neighborhood bar,” he said. “We want good people and good times in here.”

As such, the bar offers bingo nights on Tuesdays and trivia nights on Wednesdays, while Thursdays offer special tiki cocktails.

Bad Alice is open seven days a week, from 5 to 10 p.m. Mondays, 5 p.m. to midnight Tuesday through Thursday, 3 p.m. to 2 a.m. Fridays, noon to 2 a.m. Saturdays, and noon to 10 p.m. Sundays.

A “shrine” of odd items, including a smiling Mike Ditka, accumulated over time graces the top of the bar at Bad Alice in downtown Geneva. Courtesy of Dave Heun

And the name, Bad Alice? What’s that all about?

“The Walrus Room has sort of an ‘Alice in Wonderland’ theme, and Bad Alice is a play on that,” Claboltz explained. “It was a name they had in the back of their heads to maybe use at some point.”

Claboltz suggested the best neighborhood bars always seemed to be named after a person.

“My daughter’s name is actually Alice, so we thought the name was perfect.”