The Beer Market

The Beer MarketThe Beer Market
The Beer MarketThe Beer Market
Bar

1270 S Milwaukee Ave
Vernon Hills, Illinois, 60061-4165
United States

// CLOSED //

"Order-in" delivery service available featuring menus of area restaurants.
PLACE STATS
Average:
3.97
Reviews:
10
Ratings:
21
pDev:
12.34%
View: Place Reviews
Recent ratings and reviews. | Log in to view more ratings + sorting options.
Ratings by byronwells1:
Photo of byronwells1
Reviewed by byronwells1

4.68/5  rDev +17.9%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 5 | food: 5
The Beer Market in Lincolnshire IL is unique. 40 on draft and over 200 in bottles. Great trained staff especially Jessica and Devon. Staff is trained well and you can trust their recommendations. Unique food idea with no restaurant on site but menus from over 10 nearby restaurants that all deliver quicker than a on site kitchen but with selections from top rated and very expensive to sushi and pizza and barbecue and deli. These are all delivered with no fees or tips VERY quickly. Love the ever changing beers on draft and growing bottle selection of over 200 !!

Staff is so much better than Firkin where I used to go all the time. Great prices and extensive selection makes this my favorite in all Chicagoland area.
Sep 09, 2012
More User Ratings:
 
Rated: 4.58 by Stezz420 from Illinois

Jun 01, 2016
Photo of PatrickG
Reviewed by PatrickG from Illinois

4.04/5  rDev +1.8%
vibe: 3.25 | quality: 4 | service: 4 | selection: 4.5
Made my first visit there on a Sunday afternoon with the whole family. The beer selection is nice. As mentioned elsewhere, its mostly the usual suspects but that's fine. I was a bit surprised that they didn't have a bigger selection from (relatively) local brewers like Revolution, Off Color, Three Floyds, etc, but it's not a huge problem. As far as the food, the deal is that you order food from from neighboring restaurants so I'm not going to judge the Beer Market's service on that (our party had good service from the local BBQ but struggled a bit with the burger joint, who claimed to have problems with their phone). Our waitress was good. The vibe in the room was fine but nothing special. A fun place to hang out with friends.
Feb 25, 2016
 
Rated: 4.38 by ktarns from Illinois

Mar 01, 2015
 
Rated: 4.14 by tommy5 from Michigan

Jan 08, 2015
Photo of AuntBea
Rated by AuntBea from Illinois

4.62/5  rDev +16.4%
vibe: 4.25 | quality: 4.75 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4.75
Great selection of beers. Service was good when I was in there.
Dec 30, 2014
 
Rated: 3.75 by Sparky44 from Illinois

Dec 23, 2014
 
Rated: 4 by Davit from California

Sep 15, 2014
 
Rated: 4 by Thedaver4220 from Illinois

Aug 25, 2014
 
Rated: 3.75 by MikeThumel from Illinois

Apr 29, 2014
 
Rated: 4 by brandoman63 from Illinois

Apr 25, 2014
Photo of Hopheadjeffery
Reviewed by Hopheadjeffery from Illinois

3.5/5  rDev -11.8%
vibe: 3.5 | quality: 3.5 | service: 3.25 | selection: 3.75
Lots of beer here on draft and in bottles/cans. No food, but you can bring in snacks or order carry out or delivery. Service is ok. Because it's in a strip mall with some restaurants parking here can be a nightmare during peak dining hours.
Apr 03, 2014
 
Rated: 3.75 by lanciloti from Illinois

Feb 23, 2014
 
Rated: 4.75 by Kempski from Illinois

Oct 19, 2013
Photo of Penguins66
Reviewed by Penguins66 from Illinois

3.93/5  rDev -1%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4 | service: 3.25 | selection: 4.5
We stopped here before attending a performance at the Marriott Lincolnshire resort down the street. The place was about half-full when my wife & I walked in, fairly early on a Saturday night. It is set up like a restaurant but (as of this writing) they only serve drinks. That was fine with us because we had already eaten dinner.

Beer selection was very impressive. Dozens of taps and many more in bottles. However, I had no problem finding beers they were out of. Seriously, it shouldn't take 3 tries to order a beer!

Prices were very reasonable in our opinion.

Service was OK but felt rushed. We sat at the bar and were tag-teamed by 2 of the 3 bartenders. They were polite but definitely more interested in pouring more beer and chatting with their fellow employees. It felt like I was back in college when the bars were packed and the bartenders were just there to pour drinks as fast as they could. They also seemed to get overwhelmed very quickly. I wonder what happens when they get really busy.

In sum, if you know what you like and just want a drink or two, or are with a group of people who like good beer, then The Beer Market is a good choice.
Sep 23, 2013
Photo of bschinelli
Reviewed by bschinelli from Illinois

3.74/5  rDev -5.8%
vibe: 4 | quality: 3.25 | service: 4.5 | selection: 3.25 | food: 4.25
The world can't have enough beer bars in my opinion, and this example is actually quite good. Stumbled into this place on a Saturday afternoon on our way to a Lacrosse tournament. We sat outside on the dog-friendly patio and enjoyed the sunshine. Our server was attentive and on the ball. The number of taps and the bottle list are extensive, and have some good entries, but I wouldn't say it was eclectic or had anything hard to find. That said, I could find plenty of excellent beer so I hardly think that was a problem. We ordered food from Eddies next door, and it was delivered in minutes - and they wouldn't accept a tip.

Overall, my family was impressed and would even take me back, even though I'm the only beer drinker - besides the dog - in the bunch.
Jul 22, 2013
Photo of CesarLopes
Reviewed by CesarLopes from Brazil

4.24/5  rDev +6.8%
vibe: 3.75 | quality: 4 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4.5
A pretty decent beer selection. Yes, as others posted. the usual suspects are there. And also repeating somebody else here, almost all taps are domestic. But there is always something interesting among their 40 taps, plus the hundreds of bottles.

The environment is not remarkable, but it's comfortable, with large communal tables, plus an external area for warmer days. They don't have any food, but keep a binder with the menus of places around that deliver food over there. Service is also good, I have got interesting suggestions there.
May 11, 2013
Photo of TMoney2591
Reviewed by TMoney2591 from Illinois

3.44/5  rDev -13.4%
vibe: 3 | quality: 3.5 | service: 3 | selection: 4
Alright, I've visited this place a few times now and feel that now is the time for a proper review. I went a couple days after opening, once a few weeks thereafter, and then a few months later. The atmosphere is alright, I suppose, with the now-apparently-vogue faux-modern interior, complete with chrome-like stainless steel, wood, and plastics mixed with old-timey and contemporary beer signs and the like. A stage of sorts sits off in "back", behind and above the bar on some ethereal mezzanine level. There's a neat-seeming patio as well, but apparently they close it at the drop of a hat, 'cause it's yet to be accessible to me. Go figure. The TVs normally don't bother me, but when they turn the sound on, it tends to get a bit loud, especially when you have a full house trying to talk over it.

The selection is pretty nice, though a new joint with this many taps has fallen into the fun position similar places have thanks to distribution's little foibles: lots o' taps, with a lot of the usual suspects to fill them. Sure, I guess it's nice to have 40+ taps of good beer, but the overwhelming majority of them are things that can be acquired pretty much anywhere. I will say, though, that things are getting increasingly interesting and varied, so the future is at least bright. The bottle selection is large, fairly varied, and pretty well-priced (considering), but, echoing some of the other reviews, there's nothing you couldn't pick up at pretty much any Binny's or DiCarlo's down the street. Not that the bottle selection needs to be a world-class cellar or anything...I'm just sayin'.

The service has been scattershot for me so far. At times, the servers (this includes bartenders and the wait staff on the floor) have been friendly, attentive, and mildly knowledgeable; at others, they've been terse, humorless, confused, and decidedly hard to find and flag down. In either case, there's room for improvement. I don't mind the lack of food, especially when there are plenty of options nearby (I haven't tried them yet, but I've heard good things from friends who have) and when you can bring in whatever you like besides.

Overall, I can't really call this place a must-visit for an out-of-towner, nor is it one of my usual hangouts, but it is a nice source of good beer for the area, and such places are always welcome.
Sep 18, 2012
Photo of ThreeWiseMen
Reviewed by ThreeWiseMen from California

2.71/5  rDev -31.7%
vibe: 2.5 | quality: 4 | service: 1 | selection: 3
This place seems like a beer lovers dream. They have literally hundreds of beers to choose from. But once you sit down you begin to notice some problems. First of all, none of the beers pop out at you. They have all of the "common" craft beers. I would have loved to have had some Three Floyds or Firestone Union Jack. But Binneys has a better selection then them; the only thing Binney's is missing are some chairs and tables.

Myself and my brother went there after a hard day. Both of us have been waiters for over a year so we know what good service is and what bad service is. We got bad service. Maybe even the worst service I've ever seen. We had two different servers (we moved when the band started playing so that we could do what most beer snobs do at a beer bar: sit, drink good beer, and talk; can't do that with a band playing like it's a night club).

The first server was just no where to be found. She was cordial but kinda ditzy. Didn't really feel any type of rapport with her.

Our second server was cold, would ignore us, and literally called my friend "rude" when he tried to make a joke with her. Honestly don't know why she treated us so poorly and, I'll be honest, The Beer Market lost some business that night because we left due to her behavior.

Will not be coming back unless they are having a special event with a beer that I really want.

Also: Seriously develop your own food list. Or at least get pretzels out there.
Aug 12, 2012
Photo of BHwks
Reviewed by BHwks from Illinois

3.26/5  rDev -17.9%
vibe: 4 | quality: 3 | service: 4 | selection: 2.5
First off, the atmosphere is nice, long tables where people can gather, individual tables, outside area, etc. There was a band playing on the second floor, which is kind of an odd setup but it worked alright. Only complaint was how loud they were, which our server also acknowledged. I love music, but at 7pm on a weekday you'd like to have a conversation but definitely could not with the volume level. Also, there were a lot of TV's which is fine, but again I'm a little confused as to what they're going for - craft beer, sports bar, music venue, etc? The rest of my party agreed that hopefully they will eventually carve out a niche as right now it seems like they're trying to do a little of everything. Now, onto the beer -

The taplist was large, as a previous poster mentioned, but not really anything exotic. Highlights for me would bee DFH Aprihop, Great Divide Espresso Yeti, Firestone Walker Double Jack, etc. The tap list in general was varied, but there were definitely a few selections that were kind of a "Huh, why would you have this on tap?". The bottle selection was also fairly extensive, but again, pretty standard in terms of everything being stuff that you could walk into any local Binnys and get that day. (nothing limited or especially unusual, compared to other local options like Firkin and Whirlyball that get a lot of cool stuff) I'll definitely cut them slack as it was the first day, but I hope that they expand the selection and take advantage of the 30 taps do some cooler stuff.

Now, for the concerns I had. First off, the tap list had a ton of misspellings and errors. For example, breweries listed with the wrong state (Flossmoor Station was listed as something other than Illinois, Great Divide was something other than Colorado, etc) Also, they listed tasting notes and glass size that the beer would come in (10oz, 16oz, etc) and clearly many of these were wrong, in addition to tasting notes that were clearly not matched up to the right beer. Again, first night, but this is stuff anyone would catch with a 2 minute glance at the list, and it makes you wonder who's proofreading and if they actually know anything about their product. Food was availible carryout and our server gave us a list of local establishments which was nice. I ordered some sushi and another group of friends got a pizza. Very nice. Other than ordering out though, they literally had nothing to snack on - no pretzels, chips, etc. I understand not having a kitchen, but just put out pretzels or something. Also, this may sound like nit-picking but lots of beers being served with oranges, lemons, etc as garnish. Yes, I know this is debatable, but once again, gives off the vibe that whoever is behind the scenes is "trying" to be knowledgeable about craft beer, but doesn't really understand the product.

Overall, I like the idea of another craft beer bar, especially given the size of the place, but am a little confused as to what the place is trying to be. I can't help but think that the people behind the scenes are trying to cash in on the craft beer "fad" and really don't know a whole lot about beer themselves. I will definitely give them some time, but my first impression was very mixed.
Apr 07, 2012
Photo of LabBrewer
Reviewed by LabBrewer from Ohio

4.13/5  rDev +4%
vibe: 5 | quality: 4 | service: 4 | selection: 4
Stopped in on a Saturday afternoon in spring and the whole place was open to the patio which is a really great atmosphere. Had a Bridgeport IPA, which was good.

Beer lineup is above average. The have hundreds of bottles available and it is a wide selection. Fourty on tap as well and while there wasn't anything really rare on tap while I was there it looked like they had some more unique things coming up. That being said there was plenty to choose from, lots of styles and lots of breweries represented. Mostly domestic, but also a Belgian or two and a German kolsch.

I'll definitely be back.
Apr 07, 2012
The Beer Market in Vernon Hills, IL
Place rating: 3.97 out of 5 with 21 ratings