Taking the train back to the great white north with a couple hours to kill in Chi. Been a few years since I've been in town. What's close by? Looking for taprooms and off sale. Any feed back would be great! Thanks!
Google Map (On Halstead and Randolph) the Haymarket pub & brewery--solid beers, excellent guest taps and beer list, and great food. You can easily walk from the station in under 10 minutes.
Hay Market is a great suggestion (I’m going there tonight before the Blackhawks game). You can also walk to Monks on Lake Street or even the Gage on Michigan Avenue. You could also walk a few blocks over to the Ogilvy train station and go the French Market. They have some good beers to go and the Belgian Frittes place has a really nice beer selection at (for downtown) & great prices.
That has to be a place the wife and stopped. I had to go so we went into the station. Wandered around the food court, and damn if they didn't have some nice Belgian style beers, and we had to try the Frites, which were excellent. Thanks for reminding me!
Monk's but the Manager is a friend so I'm biased. "Off Sale", is that "bottles to go"? If so then go to Haymarket and look at the Jewel, Mariano's & Walgreen's all near one another on Halsted just South of Haymarket. Jewel had a ton of Bourbon County two years back - during the seasons of course. Mariano's has a well rounded selection, especially for a grocery store. Walgreen's lands some seriously rare beers I wouldn't expect them to get. Saw a dude buy a Bourbon County Coffee bomber there two years ago and drop it out front. Felt bad for the guy when I realized them shits cost $20+.
Ogilvie is directly across the street from Union Stations Madison street entrance/exit.... Haymarket is worth going to....and in that same area is good eating and some other decent taps (au cheval). I've walked to GI Clybourn from Ogilvie more than once...
On at least one night when I was heading to Cinema Wasteland in Cleveland, OH. on the overnight bus on Megabus, I wound up beforehand at Dylan's Tavern & Grill on Clinton St., one block west. It was nothing spectacular or significant, but it has a few craft beers, and it was a nice place to kill a couple of hours before the bus (or in your case, the train) departs without making you sweat wondering if you can get back to Union Station in time.
IMO, Haymarket is indeed your best option, and Lone Wolf is right across the street if you want a good selection of FFF stuff. And as noted above, the Walgreens by there has an unreasonably decent beer selection. South Loop Market on Van Buren (the other direction from the train station as Haymarket) also has a very good selection.
That Walgreen's beer selection has really taken a dive since (Paul?) the beer manager, famous for getting the shelf Fou Foune, left last November. Check out the last time beermenus.com was updated there, It used to be updated regularly. Still worth stopping in if you are there though.
