Downtown Chicago - help needed

Revolution's brewpub is kid-friendly, and the Vas Foremost liquor store across the street would carry an excellent selection of local stuff.

 

beermiscuous might be a good option for you....I haven't been but heard it's nice. The GI Clybourn location is very much suitable for children - and you can't beat the Binny's selection right across the street.

 

Doesn't hurt to rent a Divy and ride to where you want to go as well. Although I can say that riding back to my hotel with 30 lbs of beer in my backpack, in traffic, on upper wacker might have not been the best idea... But it was an adventure

Also watch your weight as you grab everything you see. The curse of the train. Technically you're not supposed to have overweight baggage. Just handle it yourself. I had a pelican suitcase filled with beer last time and I am surprised my legs didn't snap when I had to dead lift that baby into the overhead carrier.

 

If you just want to drink on tap there's Howell's and Hood, Timothy O'tooles, Jake Melnicks, Clark St. Ale House. All usually have a pretty good tap list which you can check on beermenus.

 

i know you mentioned near your area in downtown but if you catch an uber to little village, just a 15-20 minute ride (depending on traffic) and you can visit lagunitas. family friendly and they even have a kids menu, limited, but hey, they are welcomed and acknowledged.

 

Hi fellas,

Sorry for the thread revival but am on a similar trip towards the end of April with plans to catch a Cubs game, White Sox game, eat pizza and drink beer (staying near the miracle mile). We'll be in town for a Sat-Thurs, so hopefully we'll get lucky at a whole foods (is any day better than others to check for new stuff?)

I've got a rough idea of places I want to hit but am not sure what to try while in the south side for the Sox game. Anything worth seeking out while down there? As it stands now it looks like we'll be spending the majority of the time in the central/north half of the city.

So far on my radar is:
Half Acre Brewpub
Goose Island Clybourn
Local Option
timothy o'tooles (pending taplist)
Off Color (pending bottles? do they have stuff off the online list occasionally?)
Hop Leaf
Beermiscuous

Also open to pizza recommendations. I lived in Wheaton from age 4-7... so aside from the famous spots like Gino's or Giradano's my family remembers I am relying on tripadvisor/yelp.


*Also up for IP trades (I have a pretty killer CA cellar) if anyone is interested.

Cheers

 

When you mention hoping to get lucky at a Whole Foods...what are you hoping to get lucky with? Just wondered if there is a particular beer(s) you are looking for. WF has good selection, but if you're going to GI Clybourn, make sure you stop in at Binny's right across the street.

For pizza, you'll get a ton of different opinions. I find Lou's to be the best traditional Chicago style, but also love the New Haven style at Piece (plus they brew their own beer). I'd definitely recommend hitting up Piece for something different.

I'll leave someone else to comment on stuff near Sox games and your question about Off Color.

 

Go to Maria's Packaged Goods (5 min drive from US Cellular) before the game. Grab bottles there to tailgate with for the game. http://community-bar.com/

 

Killer, thanks for the heads up. Forgot about tailgating lol... stupid CA has pretty much outlawed it all over so I usually "tailgate" by sitting in a pub near by till game time. Any open container rules I need to worry about?

 

Keep it in the parking lot, you will be fine.

 

Nope they allow tailgating, just don't do anything too ridiculous and you'll be fine. Parking lots open 2 hours before game time, I believe.

 

Your best bet is to use beermenus.com to find specific beers you are seeking.

 

If I'm not mistaken, Lone Wolf is typically good for having ZD on tap. Kuma's is a nice way to double up a hot foodie destination with beer as they always have 3F's going. The aforementioned HopLeaf is a great choice for a varied tap list.

 

As an out of towner who visited Chicago last summer i would second Timothy O Tooles as a place with a great tap list.

For more of an old world pub feel, Monks Pub was awesome. If I recall the taps weren't as great as ToT but I really dug the atmosphere and they had lots of great bottle and can options.

I know 3 Floyds is out of the way but it was my favorite stop on the trip. We had the brisket tacos and a pizza with pickled red onions(!) and both were FANTASTIC! We also visited Revolution. My understanding is 3F can be busy, we stopped in on a Wednesday night around 7 and had to wait about half an hour as a party of two.

 

I absolutely second the Piece and Maria's recommendations. I was at Maria's 2 weekends ago and they had ZD on tap too.

Piece is probably my favorite place in the city, for the combination of beer and pizza. Another fantastic option is Roots. They make quad cities style pizza and they just opened a new location up by Half Acre. They have a massive (100+) selection of Midwest beers (in fact, that's all they serve). If you're going to do Lou Malnati's, there's a location in the gold coast that has a decent local beer selection.

The Revolution brewpub has some solid food and all of Revolution's brews.

I think Beermiscuous is overrated, and honestly, isn't near anything else you'll really want to hit. I'd skip it and hit some places in Wicker Park (Bangers and Lace, Links Taproom, Jerry's). They're a quick Uber from the Revolution brewpub as well.

If you're staying on the magnificent mile, you could take walk or take a bus down to Warehouse Liquors or Printer's Row Wine Shop. Both have an excellent selection of bottles, both local and what gets distributed here.

Cheers!

 

I was in Whole Foods Streeterville not an hour and half ago and saw they had Zombie Dust in stock. Guaranteed one of the places listed above will have it.

 

Glad to hear you had a great time. And being able to get a BCBS (vintage, at that) while shopping at Binny's really is an amazing thing.

 

Think of it this way--As shitty as the weather was, you can really say you experienced Chicago weather.

And yeah, isn't Binny's awesome? It's kind of a strange feeling walking around with a glass of beer while shopping.