South Side native Kesha Ford, 52, has been coming to The Family Den Lounge for their Sunday Fun Day for over 10 years. On Sunday, the restaurant turned into Chicago Bears headquarters; fans dressed in their finest orange and navy blue Bears apparel, putting all their energies toward manifesting a win against the rival cheeseheads.
“We Black people, we love the Bears, and there is space for Black people that love the Bears. The Den is one of those spaces,” Ford said.
Despite the vibrant energy inside the bar, the home team came up short. The Bears lost 28-21 to the Green Bay Packers; in doing so, they fell from the No. 1 seed in the National Football Conference to No. 7.
“You believe in them every week, but also, you’re prepared to be disappointed,” Ford said, comparing the Bears to a lovable yet disappointing relative. “You love them, but you also know they’re going to steal out your purse.”
While Ford’s thinking has been the general feeling of Bears fans for decades, most fans would agree that this 2025 season feels different. Even after Sunday’s loss to Green Bay, most fans still feel optimistic about the Bears 9-4 record — and, more importantly, about the future of the team.
Even after the loss, Ford was in good spirits. “My Bears are doing great this season,” she said. “We knew it was going to be a challenge, and it was a great game.”
Sunday Fun Day has been going on for 18 years at The Family Den, according to 54-year-old Devo Robinson. He’s an equity partner at the Den and the original curator of Sunday Fun Day. He said the concept for Sunday Fun Day was taken from a bar on the North Side called Duffy’s Tavern and Grille.
“We loved how they had music playing while the game was going on and people were dancing. So we said let’s take this to the South Side of Chicago, and it has been a hit ever since,” he said.
After 40 years in the business, Robinson said The Family Den has become a staple in the community, giving adults somewhere safe to go. On Sunday mornings when they open at 10:30 a.m., according to Robinson, there are people already outside waiting for the bar to open ahead of the games.
“What makes it so interesting here at The Family Den is it’s a different sound of a DJ as a guest every Sunday here at The Family Den straight for 52 weeks,” said Robinson. Spinning on the ones and twos this week during commercials and game stoppages was DJ L Boogie, but the resident DJ for the bar is 106.3 FM radio DJ Malik Shabazz, who’s also the official DJ for the Chicago Sky.
After the Bears game, the bar hosted “Greek Sunday,” which included more DJs spinning throughout the night, including Chicago House DJ Nick Nonstop.
“If the Bears win, the people are excited, [and] they keep going throughout the night,” Robinson said.
Ford called the Den a “Bears bar.” She keeps coming back, she said, because it’s a safe space with tasty drinks, good music and the “Den Chicken.” The bar, which attracts mostly a Gen X crowd, has a warm and family-like feeling as soon as you walk in, earning the nickname of the “Black Cheers” from patrons.
“If you’re a single lady that comes outside, it’s a super safe place to be,” Ford said. “There are no fights, no drama; it’s no nonsense.”
Even though The Family Den houses a loyal following of Chicago Bears fans, according to Robinson, the business has grown tremendously with the Bears winning this season.
“Win or lose, we’re going to be here for the Chicago Bears,” he said, “but with the Bears winning, that takes it to a whole ‘nother level absolutely.”
As fans woke up Sunday morning to freezing temperatures, Chicago Bears season ticket holder Thyatira Towns found herself at The Family Den instead of Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin. “It was too cold to drive to Green Bay this morning,” Towns said.
Towns, a 52-year-old East Side native, said she and her friends travel to every Bears game. “But it was 13 degrees this morning, I was like, ‘my body ain’t ready for that,’” she said.
During home games, Towns proudly tailgates under the Waldron deck at Soldier Field.
“We get there at 8 o’clock in the morning. We party until the 12 o’clock kick off,” she said. With temperatures at Lambeau reaching a low of 7 degrees, Towns and her girls decided The Family Den was the perfect alternative.
“We want to stay within our own neighborhood,” she said. “I mean, [it’s] just right down the street from the house. Easy to get to. We got here around 1 o clock to make sure we got a good seat today.” The game started just before 3:30 p.m.
When asking a season ticket holder what’s the biggest difference in this year’s team as opposed to other seasons, the answer was simple, “We’re winning,” Towns said.
“We’re the heart attack Bears, because two minutes before the game is over, we’re coming back, we’re going to win. Everybody’s got their blood pressure medicine. I got a doggone resuscitation machine,” she added jokingly.
For fans like Towns, the nerves and wild fourth quarter swings are all a part of the Chicago Bears experience. This season, however, it feels like the Bears are finally building towards something real.
Even in a loss to our most hated rival, the optimism and energy for the Bears’ future was much louder at The Family Den.
