Where to drink in Chicago

[jmp138]

I'm heading up to Chicago for St. Patricks day, oh and to see my girlfriends mom. But like I said I'm heading up to Chicago for St. Patricks day and was wondering where to drink. I always like to see if theres anything really great and local I need to search out. Obviously I'll be drinking a large quantity of Guiness on the 17th, but other than that, any great micro breweries or pubs.

Thanks for the knowledge.

 

[cellardoor]

The Map Room and Hop Leaf are the most notable in the downtownish area. Both are great bars with great selections. If you are traveling a bit west to the Lisle area I much prefer Bavarian Lodge.

My local hangout is Palmer's Place. 5 minutes from my house, great beer and even better burgers.

I'm sure other locals will have other suggestions as well but those four are the ones I've frequented that I enjoy. There are plenty of brewpubs around but I'm not that familiar with them besides the Goose Island one which is decent. Some one else can chime in about brew pubs.

 

[eschatz]

+1 on the Map Room!

 

[Sir Humpsalot]

granted, I've not been to Goose Island for about 2 years, but I was once a local there. Unless things have changed, the great thing about the Goose is that there's a dozen plus craftbrews... and they do pretty well with hitting their styles, as well as experimenting quite a bit... And there samplers are ones that YOU pick. I'm not sure they will give you the strong strong stuff in a sampler (given that it's probably a third of a snifter), but you can avoid their 312 Wheat, and the stout, and all the other beers that are easy to find in the store.

I've actually never been to the map room. sacrilege, I know!

My local hangout in the city is also a fantastic place to get good German food. Laschett's Inn. They have about 8 German beers on tap, plus a number of things in bottles. The food is astounding. Be sure to try the Hackepeter (Steak tartare... raw steak, raw egg, with capers and onions on rye bread). It's amazing. The liver dumpling soup (usually that's a special once a week) is insanely good... and this coming from someone who would never ever order liver.

 

[homebrewer_99]

Definitely stay away from the green river...

 

[cshep]

I am a big fan of the clark street ale house
Clark Street Ale House - River North - Chicago, IL 60610 | Metromix Chicago

good selection all across the board and imho decently priced for the city

but then again where are you staying in the city, or the burbs?????

 

[alex_wilkosz]

if your going to see your gf's mom...maybe to ask her for permission for something...maybe drinking a lot this weekend should be the least of your worries or concerns


if not....heed the advice of all those posters above

 

[exmoonshiner]

HOUSE OF BLUES!!!

 

[Irish1225]

+1 palmer's place.

cellardoor - we're nextdoor neighbors

goose island is a good choice, too. i happen to like their 312 very much.

 

[Aguirre]

Map Room & Hop Leaf are both great choices, but neither is downtown.

 

[PatMac]

+1 to Goose Island. I think they only offer brewery tours on Sundays though? Otherwise they have brewpubs in Clybourn and Wrigleyville. Both of those neighborhoods have lot's of other bars too (I have family up there). If you're in Wrigleyville you can also check out the famous Cubby Bear across from Wrigley field.

None the less, if you're in a city with a nice brewery, you might as well check it out if you can. For Chicago it's Goose Island.

 

[StoutFan]

World Famous Billy Goat Tavern & Grill - Enter At Your Own Risk
My buddy went to Chicago for the bike show a couple weeks ago(lucky f@#$er), and raved about the Billy Goat Light and Dark. Made in the basement at the tavern by the Arena. There is my 2¢.

 

[Chris300s]

Lunar Brewing Company and Flossmoor Station.

 

[StunnedMonkey]

If you do get to Goose Island at the Clyburn location, Sam's Warehouse Liquors is right there as well. Sam's usually has a pretty impressive selection of micros and is a great spot to grab something you'd not normally see. Of course this assumes that you have the means to haul beer around.

 

[Crayfish]

In addition to the Hop Leaf and Maproom as mentioned above, Smallbar is really good too.

Small Bar

Have fun.

 

[jmp138]

I'm just happy to see that you can get Beamish in Chicago, which in my opinion is quite a bit better than guiness or murphys. For some reason they took it off the market in NC a couple of years ago.