Chicago...what ONE brewery/brewpub?

Homemade sausage flights and the Riot Burger!

 

Awww, no The Weight on tap right now but Cold & Wet collab with .5 acre is on which is amazeballs

 

After Local Option, walk a few blocks towards the lake and check out Kelly's.

 

Ummm.... dudes, you can order food into Half Acre's taproom. Hit up Half Acre and get delivery from Pork Shoppe (BBQ!), Apart (Pizza), or grab carry out from Bad Apple or the really rad taqueria on Montrose just to the west of lincoln. You can always walk across the street to Bad Apple to sample their tap list to boot, or walk down to bottles and cans (3 blocks south) to get bottles and cans.

 

My crowd does the Half Acre taproom for a couple hours, then gets a burger at Bad Apple if we're feeling rich ($10) or a couple of the best chorizo tacos in the city with the hot salsa verde at Lincoln and Montrose ($5). Then back to the taproom. Or just bring the food on your way and eat in the taproom, and never leave! Half Acre is doing 20oz pours of most beers for $6, and rumor is their new 20oz glass is a little over 20oz. It's a really big glass. The Cuda is hitting the spot for me right now, they still have Navaja on tap, and the new batch of Akari Shogun is amazing. And it's all much cheaper than anything else you're going to do.
The mussels at Hopleaf, though, are one of my favorite things in the city.
And I almost got through this without mentioning Pony pilsner.

 

If you only have one place to pick from, then your best bet is to do the following:

1) Go here to get a list of good beer bars/establishments in Chicago

http://beeradvocate.com/beerfly/city/6

2) Then go here and look up the tap lists of the various places:

http://www.beermenus.com/

3) Choose to the place that has the most interesting tap list with beers that you are most interested in trying out.

Personally, I find the "one best place" to be a moving target depending on the tap lists. One week, it might be map room, and the other week it might be Green Lady or Local Option. For me, it tends to be Local Option most of the time. That particular bar just tends to have the most interesting lineup of stuff I've either never heard of before, or just don't see anywhere else in the city. Just my own experience, but YMMV.

http://www.beermenus.com/places/1255-local-option
http://www.beermenus.com/places/2795-the-green-lady
http://www.beermenus.com/places/1081-hopleaf
http://www.beermenus.com/places/1083-sheffield-s
http://www.beermenus.com/places/2120-map-room

 

Local option is a must hit I think. It's slightly pricier than other craft bars, but they usually have the best tap list in the city & decent food.

 

Don't forget about the short walk to Mindy's Hot Chocolate for some ridiculous desserts as well. Plus there's usually one or two great beers available.

 

Agreed. Seems like fff and .5 acre are usually on

 

OP, when I come in from the burbs I have always had Haymarket and Revolution on my radar, and Piece has always been good as well. My most recent visit was to Local Option. In a world of bars with 10 of 12 taps being IPAs, Local Option is serving my favorite beers, those of the high gravity kind. I'd recommend looking at beer menus for the above locations, and choose a place (or three) to go to. Then come back with..."where do I eat if I'm at...". As it stands, I had a GREAT spread of food at Local Option as well.

 

Maria's is fantastic. I am there once a month. Great vibe, cool setup, etc. However, if you want a staff that really knows the beer, Local Option gets the nod.

I like Revolution as the "complete package", but IMO, they aren't the best at beer (Half Acre) or food (Piece). Considering you're already doing a brewpub with GI, I'd have to give my recommendation to Half Acre.

 

This thread has gotten absolutely ridiculous, and it's not because keithricker is back.

 

Well, just for old times' sake I could throw out a goose island reference, but they'll be closed down soon anyway, so that would be a moot point. But I'm sure their downfall will be blamed on me somehow ... as it is very obvious that all you have to do to shut down a brewer these days is to make a few snarky posts on an obscure message board.

 

Based on this thread, don't go to any places in Chicago. All are horrible and overpriced, brah. Stay home and tickle fight on the internet.

 

My original post gave 6 or so glowing reviews of great places to go in Chicago.. and said one place was overpriced, IMHO? Sheesh, I'll just make sure I'm not honest when offering suggestions.

 

I also recommend wearing big boy pants in the Great Lakes section.

 

Because most people are whining like little babies?

 

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