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Today's Groupon gets you giddy on $40 worth of sparkling twice-fermented grapes at Pops for Champagne, the legendary State Street Chicago bar. Pops for Champagne is renowned for its colossal champagne list: more than 100 types of vintage bruts, prestige cuvées, sparkling rosés, and sweet sparkling wines.

The two-story drinkery is as classy as a flute of choice champagne wearing a rolex and holding a fancy parrot. There's live jazz three times a week downstairs, which is a softly lit space reminiscent of a 1920s Parisian jazz club. Upstairs, a subtle bubble motif pops against amber and gold accents on silvery walls. An entertainment chandelier of several flat-screen projectors hovers over the translucent onyx main bar where bubbly believers knock back rare champagne masterpieces like Taittinger 1998 Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs, Jacquesson 1988 Grand Vin Signature, and Krug 1996 Clos du Mesnil (seasoned wine expert W. Craig Cooper curates the selection.)

This Groupon is good for Pop's progressive American cuisine too. The menu boasts champagne-complementary dishes such as Island Creek oysters, California Estate Osetra caviar, and BBQ soft-shell crab. There's also a dessert menu, hot and cold antipasti, and an impressive array of goat, sheep, and cow cheeses (overseen by executive chef Andrew Brochu, veteran of Alinea).

Reviews

Pops for Champagne is a Chicago legend. Chicago Bar Project drank it up:

• Pops may very well be the physical manifestation of the word "decadent" with its incredible selection of champagnes, as well as its desserts, upstairs hook-up scene and downstairs daily jazz, giving nearby Andy's Jazz Club and BackRoom a run for their money. Simply put, no one features a more impressive champagne list in Chicago, and throughout the entire Midwest, than Pops for Champagne. – Sean Parnell, Chicago Bar Project

Insider Pages reviewers and Citysearchers give Pops for Champagne an average of four stars; Yelpers give it 3.5 (some of them didn't have this Groupon to lighten the cost of the bubbly):

• Of course my review is biased because I got engaged later on in the night after starting out at Pops for Champagne, but, there probably isn't a cozier or more romantic/intimate setting in downtown Chicago. – marchicago, Citysearch
• Jazz downstairs, champagne bar upstairs, small plates to snack on, champagne for every taste and every budget... Although Pops is a great late-night spot, the highlight of my visits has been the fact that I fell in love over 2 bottles of champagne one late friday night. – cjones22, Citysearch

Champagne and You

Champagne connoisseurs and people who recently watched Wayne's World believe that real champagne must come from the Champagne region of France. In reality, this region of France doesn't exist. It's a myth created by the secretive, officially non-existent Sparkling Wine and World Government Consortium to increase revenue with higher-priced champagne. Once the SWWGC makes enough money, it will finish installing puppet governments (only England, France, and Alabama are currently controlled by the Consortium) and take over the world. Please contact your state's law enforcement officials (except in Alabama) if you encounter SWWGC leadership, which can be identified by Cajun accents and Syracuse University sweatshirts.