My wife and I are planning a weekend in Chicago, last weekend in January, and I'm looking for one or two breweries to visit (we'll land before noon on Friday). We know its Restaurant Week, and plan on doing at least one Restaurant Week themed dinner while we're there. We're not looking for "that rarest of rare whalez, bro" spots, just decent spots (good crowds, good location, not hole-in-the-wall-need-to-be-in-line-at-3-AM-type places). The BA people have always been great at this. Thanks!
Revolution is a must visit. Half Acre is also really nice, but usually pretty crowded. Also, there are a couple Goose Island brewpubs.
Restaurant Week always has some good deals..I'm sure you'll look up who's participating, maybe you can find a place with great comfort food and some great beer. As for breweries, yeah if you're looking for just a couple i'd go with Revolution, Half Acre or one of the Goose Island locations. Lagunitas is a really nice place as well. Local Option is an interesting experience to say the least. If you're in the suburbs that opens up a number of options.
http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/breweries-in-chicago.351007/ http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/chicago-trip-advice.339394/ http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/chicago-recommendations.337960/ http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/chicago-visit.335643/ http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/chicago-area-beer-trip.325628/ http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/trip-to-chicago-for-the-4th.309193/ http://www.beeradvocate.com/communi...o-for-a-long-weekend-what-must-we-hit.306912/ http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/chicago-beer-suggestions.306264/ http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/chicago-illinois-trip-does-my-list-look-good.301992/ http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/bar-brewery-advice-in-chicago.292012/
Some of my favorite combos... Bad Apple for amazing burgers then Half Acre for brews Map Room for brews and order My Pie to eat at the bar... fantastic deep dish that is 2 blocks away. Piece Pizza and Haymarket... They are not close to each other, but both are brewpubs with great beer and plenty of TVs if you are a sports person. Piece also has excellent pizza. Get the Hot Dougs special if you like spicy sausage pizza. Haymarket has good food as well, but there are a ton of fantastic restaurants in that general area. Just pop up Google and look at the reviews for each place around Haymarket. Revolution is a must hit. The brewpub has outstanding food, but it can be packed on weekends. The brewery on Kedzie has no food, but has the same great beer. You can eat at various restaurants around that area though. Honey Butter Fried Chicken and Kuma's Corner are quite close. Kuma's has long waits as well, but does takeout. I'm not sure if you can bring food into the Rev Brewery. Local Option is my favorite beer bar in the city. Fantastic taplist every day and is pretty empty when there are no events at the bar. They also have above average bar food.
I don't hear about it much on here, but I like going to Link's Taproom on Milwaukee. They always have a nice selection of drafts and bottles and good bar food. Usually has some nice Midwest and Chicago beers on draft.
Bangers & Lace, Fat Pour...both good choices w/ very solid beer lists and decent enough food both are close to one another. Revolution and Half Acre if you're looking for a more tap room type place.
I've heard nothing but great things about Map Room, although I STILL have not made it there. Thumbs up on the Rev brewery; the ability to get Little Caesar's, White Castle, etc. etc. right nearby and eat it on-premise is pretty cool (if you like bad food as I do). Bad Apple is an excellent choice, great burgers. Obviously Half Acre is a top choice for me, if you've seen my comment history. Local Option is great too, as long as you keep in mind that they have a...$20 (I think?) minimum for credit card. Consistently awesome draft list, though.
To Be A Dick: There are 100000000000000 different threads on this very topic. To Answer your question. Breweries: Lagunitas, Half Acre, Goose Island Clyborne, Goose Island Taproom Bars: Map Room, HayMarket, and Hop Leaf. Fat Pour early in the day. Awesome draft list and one of my favorite spots but gets pretty "clubby" late at night.
At this point, I'm kind of darkly amused every time one of these threads pops up. But there really should be a sticky for them; I think Jaycase used to have a 70 page post he would paste into each of these threads.
I know. Like I know its easier to just ask the question but at some point i just want to slap people and say use the search bar dummy.
