“Great Place, Great Beer, Great Food”
Chicago Bar Project “Quick Shot”
The most recent offering from the owners of Cy’s and King Crab Tavern is an intriguing bar & grill. Their claim to fame: 58 beers on tap—the most beers on tap of any bars in Chicago, even more than runners up Hopleaf, Jak’s Tap and Clark Street Ale House—and 55 more in bottles. Chicago Ale House also offers 4.5 ounce samplers of 3-6 of their draft beers. My new favorites encountered at the bar: Mad Hatter IPA, Great Lakes Eliot Ness Amber Lager and Köstritzer Schwarzbier. Our only complaint: none of our local breweries are represented, such as Half Acre, Metropolitan, Two Brothers, and Three Floyds. You can spot all Chicago Ale House’s different tap handles impressively lined up on both sides of the island bar in the middle of this long room with restaurant tables and booths on one side and a pool table, big screen and restrooms on the other. The menu is a bit of a surprise, consisting of burgers and typical pub grub incongruously mixed in with Thai selections (one of the co-owners is Thai) and other somewhat random “Ale House Favorites” that includes the largest mussels I have ever seen—good but too many (20) and served on a plate instead of in a crock pot that you can dip your bread into. While there are many flatpanel screens around the perimeter of the room, the place feels more like a restaurant than a sports bar, even with the somewhat strange 70s-like baseball murals along the western wall, so you’ll want to come here to eat.
