I'll be in Chicago (Pilsen area) this weekend and looking for recommendation of breweries/craft beer bars to stop at. I like a wide range of styles (from hoppy to malty, just no smoked beer recommendations please). Also what is your favorite Chicago style pizza place? I'd love to try them all but can only eat so much in a weekend. Thanks guys!
If you're staying in Pilsen, you'll be in one of the densest Mexican neighborhoods in the city. Pizza is sort of irrelevant. Check out Carnitas Uruapan, Del Toro, or La Chaparrita nearby in Little Village. Lagunitas is near there also. There are several new breweries and beer bars there, and you could probably make a weekend of just exploring Pilsen and the surrounding area. It's a great walking neighborhood, and you don't want to spend your limited time driving or trekking across the city. Check out the "nearby" tab in the Places section above, and you'll see a map something like this:
Alright, PIZZA!!!! In Pilsen. You must order from Benny's (it isn't deep dish, but it's Chicago's best kept secret for pizza). If you like Mexican food, go to Casa de Pueblo for breakfast and get tacos de papas con huevos and you can thank me later. Or El Milagro and whatever you get is bomb. Lo Rez, Alulu, and Moody Tongue are the three breweries in Pilsen. Lo Rez is my favorite of the three. Dusek's always has a nice tap list.
If you want to try Chicago style pizza, there is a Giordano's on 18th St. Simone's bar is also not too far from there. They usually have a pretty good selection on draft. The food is also pretty good there.
Recently went to Moody Tongue which was a cool place for a pour. I echo making a trip to Carnitas Uruapan for a quick lunch. It's terrific
Uruapan is delicious! Carnitas surtidos and some tacos de sesos. Del Toro has possibly the best margaritas in the city.
Breweries were pretty well covered for the area so here's a couple beer bars. Pleasant House is a great little beer/meat pie joint at the eastern edge of the neighborhood. Cool vibe in there. A few doors down is Skylark. Skylark is an old school beer bar, one of my favorite places for a pint in the city, cash only. A little dark, a little dingy, always a good taplist. Carnitas Uruapan is fantastic and the employees are some of the most friendly, generous people I have ever encountered at a restaurant. Go there.
My man! You are on the money! Pleasant House is great food and Skylark is sneakily one of my favorite beer bars in the city. Used to go there a lot when I lived in Bridgeport ... don't get there much these days.
As everyone has said, breweries are covered, so I'll second a few things and mention a few that haven't been mentioned. Skylark is a really cool bar and always has a very solid taplist. Pleasant House has amazing food, great coffee, and great beer (plus casks). It's also right next door to F&R, which is a solid bottle shop. Plzen is an awesome Mexican restaurant with a good beer list, and their upstairs bottle shop Evans St. Liquor is boutique-y with a well-chosen selection Maria's is technically in Bridgeport but is not very far from Pilsen and is legendary. It's both a bottle shop and a bar, and their taplist is massive and varied. Last but certainly not least is the extremely unsung The Barrel, a no-frills dive bar that bills itself as, "The only Chicago-only craft beer bar." Everything on tap is from a Chicagoland brewery, always, no exceptions. The people that run the place are great, old-school bartenders who want to engage in conversation with the patrons and keep a talkative, friendly atmosphere. Their unique cocktails are also a draw. It's truly mind-boggling how unknown this place seems to be amongst the general public, but in the industry, everyone seems to know them. It has a great vibe and is always a blast. Lastly, while Dusek's is a cool place and does have a good taplist usually, the people there tend to be a bit arrogant/aloof and not as friendly as other areas of Pilsen. The food is also very much not recommended as it is everything bad about foodie culture: expensive, small portions, sometimes esoteric ingredients, but worst of all, it's not even that good (despite its association with the very high-quality Longman and Eagle; full disclosure: I consider myself a huge foodie, and I love foodie culture). I recommend staying away from Dusek's and sticking to one of the other five that I mentioned, particularly The Barrel since it'll give you a wide variety of what Chicago has to offer, Maria's for being legendary and huge, and Pleasant House for the spectacular food.
