Good places to go in Chicago for beer/food

Hey all, I asked for advice before on a trip with my wife to DC, now were going to Chicago for a short trip (2 days)...I have never been out that far West driving, so I want to know the best places to drink and the best bottle shops...I dont have a lot of time while Im there so I am hoping to hit one of the best spots, or maybe even something out of the way/funky/small, too...

Also any advice where a good place to stay is, what area? Is public transportation good? Any decent brewpubs or brewery tours worth hitting up?

Check out the two goose island pubs in wrigglyville or claybourne, or three floyds in munster, in isn't too far but can be oveercrowded.

Hit up Three Floyds on the way in. Just south of 80/94 on the IL/IN border.

If you get out to the burbs, TwoBrothers is great. They're in the middle of releasing a bunch of 15th anniversary brews, so, depending on when you come, you might get something special. They're ~30mi west of the city. Food is good, but skip the tour.

Downtown, try Goose Island Green Line. Only served on-tap, only in Chicago. One of my favorites.

Definitely stop off at half acre

http://halfacrebeer.com/verify.html?continue=/

If you are coming from the East and passing just south of MI take a detour and go to Saywer, MI and stop at Greenbush

http://greenbushbrewing.com/

Another new one is Pipeworks:
http://www.pipeworksbrewing.com/

Enjoy the trip!

Another vote for Goose Island - it's a block from Wrigley field, which is easy to reach from anywhere in the city via public transportation.

agroff383 said:

Hey all, I asked for advice before on a trip with my wife to DC, now were going to Chicago for a short trip (2 days)...I have never been out that far West driving, so I want to know the best places to drink and the best bottle shops...I dont have a lot of time while Im there so I am hoping to hit one of the best spots, or maybe even something out of the way/funky/small, too...

Also any advice where a good place to stay is, what area? Is public transportation good? Any decent brewpubs or brewery tours worth hitting up?

Click to expand...

Sorry, didn't read the rest of the post.............

If you stay in the downtown area (The Magnificent Mile) there are plenty of great hotels and either by cab, bus, the EL (train) you can go about anywhere easily!

Haymarket Brewery is downtown. Their beers are decent. Revolution Brewing has a nice taproom/restaurant. Halfacre is great but there's no real place to sit and drink their beer. Go up there and take the tour on Saturday then drink their beer at Fountainhead or Bad Apple (great burgers there too). Here is a non-comprehensive, North-side centric, list of bars that specialize in a great beer selections: Hopleaf, Map Room, Fountainhead, Bad Apple, Quenchers, Piece (brew their own there too) and Sheffields. Publican is a great upscale restaurant with an outstanding beer menu.

3 Floyds is like 45 minutes away in Indiana. You can hit it on the way in. I was seriously floored by how good their beers are...especially if you like hops. The door guy is kind of rude and the food is meh but the beer is phenomenal.

+1 on haymarket. They have a great selection of beers, and its a couple of blocks north of greektown. If you fancy a great Greek meal, I recommend the Greek islands which is just down the street. Jake melnicks tap house is great too...they don't make their own, but you'll find something you've never tried before. Down the street on the same block is the Rosebud Italian restaurant, which is a place I always hit whenever I'm in Chicago. Jakes is close enough that when I wait for my party at rosebud to be called with one of those pager things, I go there for a couple of beers. There's also a decent liquor store near the navy pier, but the name is escaping me at the moment. Something like untapped or uncorked.

Piece, revolution and haymarket for sure if your looking for breweries. All have great beer and good food too.

Sounds great. Thanks for all the suggestions. Thanks to your prior suggestions we went to churchkey in dc and had a blast! Excited for chi town!

Thanks for all the input. We went to Goose Island, Hopleaf, and The Map Room. All fantastic bars that blew us away, especially Goose Island, which I would have stayed at much longer if we weren't gonna walk 3 miles back to the hotel!

Got to tour Miller which was cool but pretty touristy, which was to be expected. Also took a detour to Bell's and had lunch. Soooo awesome. My wifes all about the road trips and stopping at breweries now so I think were going to head west next time :rockin: