Any must hit bars downtown Chicago?

"downtown" is really not a great place for beer bars. Where are you staying?

In the west-loop by Haymarket you can hit up,

Beer Bistro
Publican
Au Cheval
Jak's Tap

Actually inside the loop you can hit up Monk's Pub (good burgers and decent taps)

There is some new place near rock'n'roll McDonalds called "Stout" you might look into....they have a lot of taps

Also, head into Wicker Park and hit up Piece. Awesome pizza and really solid beers!

 

Two of my faves are Local Option and Fountainhead. Local Option is near Goose Island Clyborn and Fountainhead is a little further north. Cheers!

 

Second for Piece. They make some great brews too. Personally I think that Downtown (I 'm guessing that you mean the Michigan Ave hotel area) is very touristy. You can easily cab it to a place like Wicker Park where you can walk down Division and hit one restaurant/bar after another.

Here's a link to the beer list at Piece.
http://www.piecechicago.com/beer/index.html

 

Near west side norht of haymarket, the Twisted spoke is my favorite beer bar near downtown. Ecclectic atmosphere, 18 solid taps but you never know what they have becuase they dont keep up on beer menus or even their boards but great stuff.. (Against the Grain London Balling BW last time in) great food and what I like is you go there in the afternoon and there is SUN! Big bank of west facing windows. Not another dark mahogany beer bar (no offence Quenchers)

 

And a new one i havent been to yet... farmhouse..

Heres the taplist..
http://farmhousechicago.com/beer

 

Farmhouse is great. Cozy little spot with great Midwestern beers. Their bottle selection is usually pretty solid as well.

 

im #3 in line for Piece, their beer is good and the food is better (in my mind at least)

 

others that haven't been mentioned... jake melnick's is hit or miss for me these days, but still worth a mention. timothy o'toole's has greatly improved their beer program in the last six months.

 

Local Option.

 

Looks like you've hit up some good places in the Chi. As previously stated, there are really no good beer places along Michigan Ave. You'd have to travel elsewhere to find good brews.
I would suggest you try Bad Apple as they have an extensive beer menu. It's right across the street from Half-Acre. I would also hit up DMK Burger Bar. For some reason, the Gumballhead on tap there tastes so damn good.

 

That beer list is just a list of the beers they've won awards with. It's not a current tap list. They'll post a pic of their chalkboard on twitter or Instagram on a weekly basis.

 

Monks

 

Didn't realize that. Thanks.

 

My personal favorites for "downtown" (relatively close to the Loop/Michigan Av):

Farmhouse (River North)
Monks Pub (Loop)
Stout (River North) although it gets douchy later in the evening
Old Town Pour House (Old Town)
Haymarket (West Loop)

 

Hit up the blue line and get off at Division and head West for Bangers & Lace and eventually (or not) shuffle on up to Piece. Division street will keep you busy and Rite Liquors should be your warm up stop. No reason. Just because. This is what Division street used to be. A dive for drunks. Fat Pour also just opened up further up Division way, just past Damen. Haven't checked them out yet, but they do have a lot of taps, and it looked like a lot of high top tables as well, so take that for what you will and go a little further up to Small Bar who also have a second very cozy location tucked back out of the way in Logan Square. Continuing along the Blue Line and getting off at Western, there's Green Eye directly off of the stop and further North on the Fullerton intersection, there's Quenchers.
If you want to stay in the loop area and get some pretension and a higher thread count with your beer, hit up the Gage across the street from Millennium Park. Quite a nice selection and excellent food.

 

If you are going to be in the Loop, and intend to eat and drink, I would recommend Monks Pub

 

Just a heads up to the OP, Monk's is closed Saturday & Sunday. In that case, go to Au Cheval for a burger...

If you don't have time to travel far outside the Loop (downtown): Publican, Kasey's, Hackney's, and Miller's are all interesting in their own ways. If you stay in River North, Farmhouse and Melnick's are go-tos. If there's time to travel, here are the highest-rated in the city. Check beermenus to get an idea of where to go based on current beer selections.

 

I'll be staying at Wicker Park when I come up for the Reds-Cubs series in early May. I've been to Piece and Map Room (and will probably return) and will visit Revolution Brewing too. Do you have any other recommendations for places in Wicker Park/Bucktown where the food and beer are both good?

And is Lincoln Park Binny's the closest good beer store? (Not looking for hard-to-find beers, just picking up some not distributed in my state.)

By the way, your link to Piece does include the current tap list--at least it does now.
Thanks.