I looked through a few pages of posts and didn't see a similar thread, but I'm hoping to get some city folk to help this suburbanite make an afternoon in the city on Wednesday. A couple of friends and I are hoping to get to union station and do public transportation to head towards some place like revolution for a beer or two, then enjoy the day by walking over to map room for the same. Are there other pubs that are in that area that are in walking distance? Does pipeworks have a brewpub? Is there a better part of the city to head towards instead? I apologize in advance for what must be a redundant post for many, but thanks to those willing to post thoughts/suggestions.
No brewpub for Pipeworks... yet. Rumor has it they're thinking about opening one, or a bottle shop type place to buy their stuff.
Plenty of options in that Logan Square/Bucktown/Wicker Park corridor. Revolution (brewpub) - Map Room (bar only; cash only) - Piece (brewpub though food is pretty much limited to pizza) - Smallbar (kind of pricey but still a nice selection of taps; food tries hard to be really good and sort of succeeds) - Jerry's (skip the food) - Bangers & Lace (bar with decent food, though it's limited to sausages and the like) would be one itinerary. California stop on the Blue line and B&L is just at the Division stop. Absolutely walkable from one spot to the next.
The other thing you can do, if you know the spots you want to hit, Google maps has an option to give you your routes via public transport. So just punch in that you want to go to Rev Brew, for example, and it will tell you what train/bus/where to walk. Pretty nice to figure that kind of stuff out.
No problem! And those are only the beer-centric spots that came to mind. Depending on how much time you have, you could tack on Longman & Eagle at the start (great food, not the largest beer selection but it's solid -- great bourbon list, though); Big Star is around the corner from Piece and is a great bar for bourbon, people-watching and old school country-western. I think the food has gone a little downhill lately but it's not bad by any means (limited to tacos and tostadas, for the most part). And not too far from the Grand blue line stop (or walking distance from Union Station) is Haymarket -- worthwhile for the beer (they serve up 4oz. pours at a good price for everything so it's very easy to put together a flight), though I think there's better food elsewhere. Might be good for a first or last stop.
Send me a BM when you're thinking of going. If I'm available, I can help with transportation between some of the longer destinations. As long as you don't mind getting in the back of a blue and white of course.
Quencher's and Green Eye are both walking distance from Revolution and Map Room and have great selections. Green Eye is right off the Western blue line stop. Both are cash only as well and neither serve food, but still great places.
Some of the bars I like to go to are on the North Side....The Long Room, Bad Apple, Fountainhead, Hop Leaf. Those are probably all walkable once you get to the first one. Brown line is close by. EDIT: Actually Hop Leaf may be a bit of a walk from the rest. And Half Acre is right by Bad Apple
If you're planning on eating at a beer place I'd suggest doing it at Revolution, Owen & Engine (their burger is fantastic, really excellent fish & chips, really everything I've had there has been very good), Piece (pizza, but unique style for Chicago), or Smallbar Division. Continuing down Milwaukee Ave back toward Union Station, Frontier and Paramount Room have decent food and craft taps. Although Frontier's large outdoor area is quite popular and you'll get quite a significant "non-beer" crowd there. This might be a feature rather than a bug to you. Really depends on how many places you are trying to hit up. I think you need to stop at the breweries simply because their brews aren't available elsewhere (well, Revolution beers are available lots of places now, but nice to get everything in one place plus the brewpub-only beers), including a stop at Haymarket either at the beginning or end. Map Room is great. O&E for cask beer (4 engines) and perhaps food. Bangers & Lace, although pricey relative to a Map Room for beers, usually has some stuff on draft few other places seem to have.
So, I had unfortunate circumstances that led to the cancelation of this trip on it's original date. I really appreciate all of the advice here, and I am going for one last attempt this summer. On Monday, I will use what I've learned here to start at Haymarket, followed by Revolution. I intended to go to Map Room after and then play it by ear, but it seems as though they are closing for construction. So I will be rereading your notes and working the itinerary from there. Thanks again, and maybe we'll get to meet some of you out there.
