Screams, laughter and frequent groans could be heard by 8 p.m. inside Parlay Lincoln Park.
The sports bar was packed with people, mostly millennials and younger, who were brought together by one thing: a particularly raunchy episode of “Love Island USA” that had one of the contestants saying, “I’m sorry, Mom and Dad, please just skip past [this] part.”
Peacock’s dating reality TV series, based on the British show “Love Island,” skyrocketed in popularity three years ago. The American version kicked off its eighth season in June, streaming six days a week.
The show has created such a buzz that many Chicago bars and restaurants have started hosting watch parties, themed nights and trivia — an effort to capitalize on a loyal and young fan base, at a time when bars are struggling to draw in younger crowds during the week.
More than a dozen spots have advertised weekly watch parties for “Love Island USA.” Some are selling tickets. Winnie’s Chicago in Old Town sold out of its $16 “Love Island “watch party tickets for June 2 and June 9, according to its online Eventbrite listing.
Earlier in the summer, some bars dipped their toes into showing other reality shows, like Bravo TV’s “Summer House.”
“Happy hour is dead,” Sarai Marban, 24, said. She was at a Love Island watch party Thursday evening at Tacotlan in Hermosa.
“[Drinking] is too expensive,” her friend Tatiana Solis, 27, said. “I’d rather just come to space like this, where I know it’s BYOB and then support local businesses. And I know the food is going to be fire.”
A Gallup poll found the percentage of adults who drink alcohol is at 54%, the lowest since it began tracking Americans’ drinking behavior nearly 90 years ago.
And the 2025 report found young adults have curbed their drinking even more in recent years, falling from 59% in 2023 to now 50%. “This puts their drinking rate below that of middle-aged and older adults, although fewer in those groups are also claiming to drink than did so two years ago,” according to the report.
Much of the decline can be attributed to health concerns, Gallup said. Those surveyed said they’ve cut back because of the physical and mental health ramifications of drinking alcohol. The pullback has led to a growth of sober bars and mocktails, especially in Chicago.
‘Bring the girlies’
Duffy’s, a classic sports bar at 420 W. Diversey Parkway, started advertising Tuesday evening Love Island watch parties this year. It even created a special menu, with bottles of wine at half off. There’s also the viral “girl dinner” menu of a Caesar salad, fries and a martini for $20.
Olivia Milani, a 24-year-old bartender at Duffy’s, said she helped spearhead the watch party.
“[Duffy’s] is just a lot of sports. It’s a lot of guys in here, and me and my boss are both big Love Island fans,” Milani said. “We were talking about how we would love to have a Love Island night to bring the girlies in here, have a more broad range of crowd and just switch it up from just sports, sports, sports.”
Business has spiked so much on Tuesdays that Duffy’s added another server each week. Typically, Milani handles the bar by herself.
“We’re always trying to get more people in the door,” she said. “A lot of people come in and they have, like, one or two drinks, and you want them to drink more — within reason.”
The sports bar Parlay Lincoln Park advertises an $18 “girl dinner” of Caesar salad and fries, $12 bottomless fries and a cocktail menu that includes a Bombshell Margarita for $12 and a Soul Ties Spritz for $14. A $5 Red Flag shot completes its Love Island exclusive menu.
On Tuesday night, every seat in Parlay’s large multiroom bar was taken. Customers screamed and yelled for nearly the entirety of the hour-long Love Island episode.
Servers, looking as focused as a marathon runner, weaved through tables holding plates and cocktails from the Love Island-themed menu. Some guests ordered food from the regular menu.
“I’m usually at home in my pajamas, playing the Sims,” Isabel Sikora said. “We normally don’t do things like this.”
By 9:30 p.m., about a half hour after the episode finished, a table of four women in their early 20s had racked up a $272 bill. Seven cocktails were ordered, with some meals off Parlay’s regular menu, two pizzas and wings. The final bill also had four orders of bottomless fries.
Each paid about $68, money that the women said wouldn’t have been spent if not for the Love Island watch party.
“I only drink really when it’s an experience,” Emily Maldonado said. “I feel like businesses are more so moving towards the experience routes — bar crawls, watch parties, girl dinners — really kind of catering to having an experience as a memory.”
Across the room, friends Suzanna Odusote and Laila Crawley ordered specialty cocktails, bottomless fries and a chicken sandwich. The 21-year-olds, who are in Chicago for a summer internship, said a happy hour wouldn’t prompt them to spend as much as an event like a watch party.
“I feel like us being here for a while makes us buy food,” Crawley said.
Karina Leyva, 23, said part of the appeal is watching the show with other people, which creates a sense of community.
Leyva and her friends started college in 2020, when the pandemic temporarily curbed social activities. Her generation, with the oldest nearing 30 as Gen Z, likes the idea of doing something as a community, even with strangers.
“I also feel like if we can’t be in the [Love Island] villa, we might as well have each other,” she said at Parlay’s watch party.
World Cup versus ‘Love Island’
Guests crowded into the back patio at Tacotlan, a bring-your-own-bottle restaurant known for its quesabirrias. Three televisions were set up around an island-themed bar and about 40 people sat enraptured watching Love Island on Thursday.
The small restaurant hosts Love Island watch parties twice a week, giving priority to the dating show fans over those looking to watch the World Cup, co-owner Jessica Perjes said.
“When we came up with the idea of hosting Love Island in our back patio, I think it was more so not only because we wanted to be fun and exciting again for that crowd … but also because it’s been very difficult for small businesses,” Perjes said. “And I don’t think it’s just mine. I think it’s for other restaurants as well. And so this is like, ‘What else can we do to get people in the community excited and come together and have fun?’”
She owns the restaurant with her father, Everado Macias. The family business opened in 2018, with Perjes’ husband and sister, Alexandra Macias, also on staff.
Perjes said the pandemic was a decent time for the business, but in recent years, it has had to raise prices.
“As time goes by, I believe that it’s been more difficult for restaurants, specifically the small restaurants, to stay afloat,” she said. “It’s not just me. Everyone’s trying to come up with different ways to get these customers through the door, whether it’s a Taco Tuesday deal or a watch party for soccer and this Love Island party. It is very difficult, not only for the restaurants, but for anybody that’s trying to make a living because of what’s going on — inflation and all of that stuff.”
She said its Love Island events in the last few weeks have helped the business the most.
Macias said he has no idea what happens on the Fiji-based show and isn’t curious to find out.
“Well, you know, I don’t even know nothing about all these, but I got surprised that all these people were here,” he said. “I asked [my daughter], ‘What are they doing here?’”
It was a pleasant surprise, he said.
Perjes said she’s been asked if the patio’s TVs can be switched to soccer. Although she wasn’t a fan of Love Island prior to the watch parties, she’s loyal to the show’s fanbase.
“Love Island has been very supportive,” she said. “And they’ve been watching, and they’ve been consistent. So the priority is going to be given to Love Island.”