Ewww, gross. 

But seriously, these are a couple of places i've ventured to recently... two off the beaten path neighborhood places in Chicago, one a farm-to-table corner pub in Lincoln Park, the other a revamped bar & decades-old pizzeria in Albany Park. While both very different, the common thread they share are their unique beer options. 

Monkey's Paw is a fairly new bar in the DePaul area of Lincoln Park, just north of Fullerton on Southport. Pretty close to Beer Bistro North (formerly SmallBar Fullerton). 

Situated on a nondescript corner just north of Fullerton & Southport, the Monkey's Paw looks a little mysterious from the outside, with it's windowless heavy wooden door. Inside it's very laid back and intimate in feel, small enough to be cozy, yet large enough for a good sized crowd. The walls were lined with small shelves with assorted curios and books, seemingly eclectic but part of a cohesive whole. There were dim stone/raw crystal candleholders on the tables, casting a warm glow. The angled bar along the left side had rounded corners, with a finished surface that had an interesting surface pattern.

Tap selection was all craft and had a few local gems, including an exclusive tap from One Trick Pony in Lansing, IL, Horse Collar Imperial Rye IPA. This is literally the only bar in Chicago with this beer outside the brewery. They seem to heavily support local brewers here, many bottles (and occasionally a draft) from Pipeworks, Solemn Oath, Revolution, and more. A few obscure imports i've never seen of heard of, such as Sant Erwann and Bourganel Biere de Nougat. Not a huge selection, but a thoughtfully handpicked one.

Paul the bartender chatted beer the whole time I was there. mentioning they are hosting a beer dinner with Pipeworks in about a month or so. Overall this is a bar i'd certainly return to for the rotating beer selection and cozy, eclectic vibes. The menu looked pretty nice too, featuring farm to table fare.

Moving on to a much newer spot (sort of)... Golden Crust has been a pizzeria for 35 years, but apparently the bar is only a month old. They remodeled the old space, added an enclosed patio and brand new interior. 

Not too shabby for a place that used to look like this:

Heard they had 40 taps at this newly remodeled pizzeria right off the Kedzie brown line, next door to the (somewhat disreputable and gougey) Foremost Liquors.

Nondescript corner location, vestibule door and enclosed side patio rolldown doors, brick façade with a cool old pizzeria sign hanging over the sidewalk. Glad they kept that particular piece of the place. Inside the place is all new, dark wood floors that extend up and panel the wall, with hanging exposed bulbs along the south wall. Fairly small place with a dozen seats at the bar and another dozen tables. Three flatscreens above the bar and a neon ipad shaped jukebox. I could see sitting out on the patio here away from the glare of the tv's in warmer weather.

Selection here was surprising for a random corner pizzeria. 40 taps were just under 2/3 craft, with some new local gems like 18th St./Pipeworks Brotherhood, Lake Effect Fresh Coast, Revolution Anti-Hero & Eugene, Metropolitan Krankshaft, and Finch's. Plus quality regional taps like Greenbush Anger, Bells 2 Hearted, Vivant Farm Hand. Other US craft taps round it out, SN Celebration, Deschutes Chain Breaker, NH Dragons Milk, Hinterland, Grand Teton Sweetgrass, Lakefront Fixed Gear, and 2 Left Hand nitro taps. List is broken out by style and they do offer free samples of the drafts. Pints were $4.50. I asked about Rev beers and they pulled out the new A Little Crazy cans.

Out of 100+ beers, there's alot of filler here, but a decent amount of gems. Hope they hone their selection more to the seasonal/rotating craft spectrum, meanwhile there's lots of potential here. Beermenus list: http://www.beermenus.com/places/7793-golden-crust-pizza-and-tap

Service at the bar was friendly and chatty, they said the neighborhood has been pretty receptive to the beer selection. Pizza came out in ten or so minutes after it was ordered.

There aren't a whole lot of beer spots in Albany Park, let alone places with 40 drafts. Hope they can keep up the rotation and freshness on that many tap lines, time will tell. The pizza is pretty good, standard tavern style, thin crust is a bit thicker than usual but still crispy.

These are the kind of underrated hidden places that are fun to discover, and good local places to grab a beer :banned:

Labor Day weekend usually finds me deep in the rural backwaters of central Illinois. This time it just so happened the remnants of tropical storm Isaac were blowing over during the trip. This meant intermittent blasts of zero visibility on I-55, sunshine on one side of the road, grey/black thunderheads on the other side. Welp, I wasn't going to let that put a dent into my plans...

Sunday afternoon I embarked on points south of Springfield, intending to make a growler stop at the new brewpub downtown, Obed & Isaac's, after checking out the historic Ariston Cafe in Litchfield, IL (about 45 min. south). There was a hairy storm or two along the way, but pretty short-lived for the most part.

About 15 minutes before the Litchfield exit, I noticed an electric blue convertible on Route 66, which parallels I-55 to St. Louis. Later as I was leaving the Ariston, I noticed the same car in the parking lot, apparently the group inside were from New Zealand on some sort of Route 66 cross-country road trip tour. 

The Ariston Cafe is the oldest operating cafe on the entire Route 66 route, and has been in business since 1924. 

It was a cool old building with vintage neon signs and the interior was a fun time warp. Think roadside diner with a little dash of Twin Peaks thrown in. There was a mounted marlin on the wall, a salad bar, lunch counter, and a small table up front showcasing the beer selection, around 20 bottles including Chimay, Goose IPA, Honkers, and Red's Rye.

Service was prompt and friendly, I had a fresh Weihenstephaner served with the proper glass. 

Only tried an appetizer but it was pretty interesting, roasted tomato jam, feta, olives and pita. Lots of hearty dishes on the menu, and an old school dessert tray with a dozen pies. The Ariston is a fun pit stop if you appreciate roadside Americana and hearty food. There just so happened to be a decent beer selection too, which was just icing on the cake.

On the way back, the storms broke long enough to get back downtown to Obed & Isaac's. They actually put a historic house on a flatbed and set it up adjacent to their brewery. If you're ever passing through Springfield, it's a pretty fun little place to check out.

Got a growler of their Long 9 Black IPA (8.2%) which was very roasty and pine laden, incredibly light and smooth for the abv.

Returned just in time for a fish fry, and had some Schlafly American IPA & Pumpkin Ale to wind down with that night...

So today I came across a post about finding good beer in unlikely places, which inspired me to recall this recent beerhunting episode. 

Technically not Forest Glen (in Jefferson Park), but right near the Metra stop there sits this unassuming place:

(credit: chicagogeek, flickr)

Stumbled across it on beermenus, lo and behold they listed Galactic Double Daisy on tap (and maybe still do). What the hell, it's off Elston, i'll bike on over there. 

Well they did have it, and at the advertised price of $5. Pretty sweet. It's been sold out since day one virtually everywhere else, which was during craft beer week a couple months ago (at the TBS Blind Robin pre-Goose cornhole). Oddly enough Rabbit's had a pretty great beer selection for being a very divey dive practically on the edge of civilization. Four Revolution taps, and a Grand Teton on special for $2 (!?!). "Who drinks all these?" I thought as I watched the middle aged after work crowd mostly swilling Miller Lite. One guy swiftly drank an Alpha King from the bottle and was on his way. There was a crew of nearly a dozen regulars that mostly seemed to be blue collar neighborhood residents... old guys with white hair, grimy jeans, and leathery tans from decades of construction. A few Irish and Polish accents in the crowd. Nary a beer nerd in sight, and regular bar prices... maybe this is heaven.

The bar had two rooms, the main bar room and a side room for bands and table seating. Behind the backward-L shaped bar was a tiny grill that looked like it hadn't changed since the 50's. Taped up on one wood paneled wall was a printout of their beermenus list, and an FFF poster that simply said "We're watching you" with a big brother-style graphic. The bartenders were friendly, and everyone seemed to be on a first-name basis. Asked a guy if an empty bar seat was taken, and he grunted "Yeah" and that was it. Definitely an outsider, oh well. I'll drink a delicious DIPA to drown my sorrows. Make that two... Watched a little WGN news and was on my merry way. 

So the vibe was a little odd, but alright... and the beer selection was pretty nice. Rabbit's is a very unlikely oasis for the area, and if you're passing by, stop in and you might be surprised by what you find. 

And away we go... 

...inspired by ender's "blog challenge", it's about time I got with it.

Watch this space for travelogues, photos, reviews, and the occasional random drunken rant. :furley:

If there's anything you'd like to see here, fire away...