A bar built in and around a depleted gravel quarry on the outskirts of Waukegan, where the pit has been partially flooded and the remaining dry shelf holds a sprawling open-air drinking establishment that looks like a post-industrial amphitheater. The bar itself is a shipping container welded to the quarry wall, and seating consists of old quarry equipment — bucket seats from excavators, flattened conveyor belt segments, the cab of a crane that someone dragged to the edge and declared a VIP booth. In summer, patrons swim in the flooded pit. In winter, they drink faster.

Gravel's owner is a former demolition specialist named Ibrahima Johansson-Diallo who lost his hearing in an industrial accident and now communicates exclusively through a text display on his forearm. He runs the bar with terrifying efficiency, a photographic memory for tabs, and a zero-tolerance policy for anyone who messes with his quarry. The house drink is called The Aggregate — grain alcohol, crushed ice, and a proprietary bitter made from foraged lakeside plants that tastes like dirt in the best possible way.