Chicago Help Needed

Corridor Brewery & Provisions is your best (and closest) option for NE/DDH/hazy IPAs. It's about a 10min or so Uber/Lyft ride from the Theater. Forbidden Root is about 25min Uber/Lyft ride from there, and most would agree it's also one of your best options for that style. I'd also say not to look past Half-Acre (either taproom). Good beer all-around and they may have some sour options in bottles.

 

Bars

• Beer Temple
• Links
• Green Lady
• Map room
• Hop Leaf

Breweries / tap rooms

• Revolution
• Half acre / Begyle / corridor
• Goose Fulton & Wood / on tour / there are others around
• Forbidden root

Pick up some bottles of fresh mikerphone, and cans of Marz and Noon whistle at Beer Temple, Bottles and Cans, Liquor Park, or bitter pops.

Enjoy!

 

If you have time or are coming in from the north, come by way of Une Annee and Mikerphone.

 

Looks like the beer is handled. As far as food goes in that area, check out Sun Wah BBQ. Best peking duck in the city.

 

Breweries
Half Acre (I prefer Lincoln but both locations are awesome)
Corridor
Forbidden Root
Goose Island
Lagunitas

Bars
Links
Map Room
Hop Leaf
Fat Pour (Day Time)
Sheffields
Check out the draft lists for Merkles (its in wrigleyville but i have stumbled in to find 5-6 taps of BCS variants before)

Bottle Shops
Binnys
Beer Temple
Bitter Pops
Bottles and Cans

Resturants
Sushi - Yuzu, Juno, Kai Zan, Toro
Burger - Au Cheval (small cheval is worth a stop too if you dont want to deal with the wait for the real thing).
Steaks - Bavettes or Beoufhaus
Pizza - Art of Pizza, Pequads, Piece
Ramen - High Five or Ramensan or Oiistar
Pho - Tank Noolde or Pho Lily
Tacos - Big Star (dont love their food but I do love their whisky list and most people enjoy their food. Im more of a run down taqueira guy myself), Mecaditos Lobster Tacos are amazing. There is too much awesome Mexican in this city to pick one place.
Seafood - Alegrias Seafood Chicago ( get the nayrit style prawns, dont look at the bill, thank me later), GT Fish and Oyster, Angry Crab
Hot Dogs - Wiener Circle (go after midnight order a chochlate shake).
Beef - Johnnies is truly the best but is not exactly close to down town. Lukes in the loop is a solid runner up in my book.

Things not to do. Eat at Ginos East, Giordianos, Al's Beef, or Portillos.

 

If no one mentioned it yet...

Kuma's Corner (the original location). Among the best burgers in the city and a solid beer selection.

also...

DMK Burger ... also very good burgers and good beer selection.

 

I agree. Go to Pequads.

This is 100% the wrong information.

That’s like saying don’t go to In N’ Out if you’ve never been to the west coast.

Both of those places have great food also. Especially the OG Als on Taylor.

No matter where you go, get the beef wet, with both sweet and hot peppers.

 

This may be the most important piece of information you've been given.

 

I agree I somehow left this out. You want a Wet, Hot and Sweet, Combo.

 

No. Its in there because Both have mediocre at best food. If you in a city for 3 days there are much better places close by for all of this food. You dont go to NYC and eat at Sabaro. You dont go to philly and eat at Pat or Genos. Especially when you have a welth of local resources to get you pointed in the right direction.

 

No. But you do go to shake shack. Portillos and Al’s are like shake shack.

Speaking of which, shake shack is worth a visit as well. But Small/Au Cheval is better if you get it with the works (which includes the fried egg).

I agree that Al’s can be a miss, as all the locations are different, but I’m a fan of their au jus.

A wiener circle hot dog ain’t nothing special outside of the novelty. You can get a steamed Vienna dog with everything on it and Heinz ingredients a lot of places.

 

This is a terrible analogy (sorry for being blunt). Those beef/pizza stops are all legit even if there are better pizza places (I agree on Pequads)

 

You hush right the f**k up about weiner circle. Those char dogs are the bomb.

 

Having just spent 5 months eating/drinking my way through Chicago, you're covered with these recs above. Hopleaf is very good, but I'd say if you don't like Belgians, I'd take a pass if only there for 3 days.
Corridor and FR for the haze.
Half Acre for hop-forward anything - also if you seen Gentle Gentle (from bottle) for sale at HA, GET IT. Best sour I had in the city. Bar none.
Burger: For me it's still Au Cheval, the one and only that occupies my dreams and nightmares. It's diner burger style, so if you want a giant slab of meat, you could go to Kuma's, but I was unimpressed. DMK disappointed us on three separate occasions: boring buns, untoasted, uninspiring flavors. I dunno (shrugs).
Pizza: PEQUODS (only) for thick, if you must. Otherwise Coalfire and Sono Wood Fired are the best thin crusts in the city. Spacca Napoli a close second, a little underdone sometimes but nice soft flour base.
...and for value-price-seasoning, I would plead you to try AVEC or GIRL AND THE GOAT.
That's it. Peace out. Not engaging in food or beer wars here... just impressions of a 40-something who (still) thinks that Chicago offers world-class food and beer.
ENJOY.

 

Good choice on the location as a resident of the neighborhood you're staying in.

You are very near Chicago's "Malt Row". It's a recent gimmicky rebranding of a 2-3 mile stretch from Montrose to Balmoral where you have a cluster of 6-7 breweries/taprooms: Half Acre x2, Empirical, Begyle, Dovetail, Band of Bohemia, Spiteful and a distillery (Koval).

None of these breweries specialize/excel in hazy or sour beers. Empirical and Begyle beers are OK but the taprooms are enjoyable. Standard no frills set up with BYOF. Dovetail is your call if you're hankering for German style beers. Spiteful just opened their taproom and it's right next door to Half Acre-Balmoral. You can two birds one stone. Half Acre has an excellent hazy-ish West Coast DIPA on tap called Sailor's Kush. It's awesome. The food at Half Acre is weird. Band of Bohemia is a Michelin-starred brewpub. If you're looking for a celebratory meal this could be an option. The food is moreso the star than the beer.

As mentioned by posters Corridor is the closest for hazy NEIPAs. Good food too. Forbidden Root is a hike if you have time to dick around. Plenty of tasty NEIPAs on the taplist. Good food as well.

For sours you'll have better luck in bars: Fountainhead, Green Lady (very close to Corridor), Little Bad Wolf and Hopleaf (supposedly great food but I haven't really enjoyed it during my visits). All are within a 3 mile radius of where you're staying.

There are plenty of cheap good eats nearby your're AirBnB if your beer consumption is denting the trip budget

Carmela’s Taqueria
Chuki's Tacos (my favorite - al pastor burrito ~$7)
Pokiology (Poke in a Chipotle format ~$15 a meal)
Ba Le Sandwich (vietnamese)
Hot G Dog (successor to Hot Doug's - unique hot dogs)

Somewhat near Green Lady/Corridor is a grease joint Red Hot Ranch - Ashland. A few people have mentioned Au Cheval or Kuma's Corner for great burgers. Go here instead for a burger 95% as good as Au Cheval but without the hipster wait and hassle. Cheap too. It's somewhat similar to an In 'n Out Burger if you're a fan.

 

I live near Red Hot Ranch and finally went there recently for the first time. The Polish was so disappointing I don’t think I’ll ever return, and my wife didn’t care for what she had either (can’t recall what it was). I have a hard time believing their burger can be anything special. And comparing an In-n-Out style burger to Kuma’s is just nuts!

FYI, you can go to the Kuma’s on Diversey with little to no hassle and get the best burger around. I prefer the original Belmont location, but if you don’t have the time to,dedicate, hit up the Diversey one.

 

I’d highly recommend you go one more time and got a hot dog and a burger with fries. I can’t speak to the polish but the burger and dog are wonderful.