Farmhouse Chicago, 228 W Chicago Ave, 312-228-4960
The River North neighborhood of Chicago has long been a favorite neighborhood of mine. Whether its the art galleries, the Rick Bayless restaurants, the cultural tours or the technology program that changed the way many local businesses recruit talent…this section of town is a special place for me. When some good friends of mine who work in the area told me that Bar Louie was closed and that a new Craft Tavern had opened in the space next door, we had to look up the tap list and make our way over to it.
Farmhouse Grand Opening on 9/2
Farmhouse Chicago is a farm to tavern concept w a local seasonal focus on craft beer food and liquor. The decor is made up 85% recycled goods from famous bars all across town, the night we visited it was a packed house at this 2 level bar just steps from the brown line Chicago Ave stop. A very cool feature is that the menu gives you the exact mileage of the farm or brewery from which it came. The food at Farmhouse is a work in progress, you get the feeling speaking with staff and ownership that they welcome constructive feedback to fine tune their offerings. A component that needed no help at all was the wicked tap list of craft beers at Farmhouse.
The Hinterland IPA and the mighty Dreadnaught from 3 Floyds are always nice to see on tap. I got things started with Dampf Loc, a beer produced by The Local Option- a bar near DePaul voted 1 of the 100 best bars in the country. This all barley ale is a ” modern interpretation of a medieval peasant beer from southeast Bavaria” From there my business partner on the @drexTLC project and fellow beverage enthusiast @joekutta insisted I try a beer he discovered a few days earlier… one of the best beers I’ve never heard of, the Contessa Italian Pale Ale by Birra Amiata from Arcidosso, Italy. Made with Chinook, Cascade and Amarillo hops this IPA (Italian Pale Ale) was soft and full of character. Much to our surprise the brewer of this fine beverage was upstairs dining.
Farmhouse bar manager Chris arranged for us to meet brewer Claudio Cerrula as well as the distributor of the beer Vandberg & DeWulf. Don and Wendy shared stories about the health benefits of Lambics, how they were once owners of Ommegang Brewery in Cooperstown, NY and how they absolutely had to bring the Contessa IPA to the U.S. Market
basement keg cooler system
The drinks flowed, we shared laughs, gave a toast to Steve Jobs and even took a tour of the facility with Chris where he showed us his state-of-the-art Kegs cooler. This place and its staff were very cool and very informative. They even offered us a bottle of Canadian Breakfast Stout that wasn’t on the menu. I don’t even need to begin to tell you about how fun that beer is.. CBG Jessica did a great job with her feature story. Our excitement over the score of CBS even inspired our new Italian friends to order a bottle of their own. This evening was a great introduction to the Farmhouse, We tapped the the only barrel of Contessa in the city and were blown away by the honey mead made right here in Chi City that we sampled. Im not even big on mead as a style, but the Sweet Desire changed my view if only for one night. Brought to you by the good folks over at the Wild Blossom Meadery in Beverly, Chicago, aged in Kentucky Bourbon Barrels it was a cool way to end the evening. The notes of bourbon flavor cut through the mead in a way that made it very enjoyable for me. Be on the lookout for this crew as they just recently got their brewery license, im excited about what they have planned based on the Sweet Desire. Chris from Farmhouse raved about their Jalapeno Mead and says the Wild Blossom Mulberry Mead features Mulberries from trees they shook themselves near the Kankakee River.
Good Times on the near north side, the Farmhouse has 26 taps and rumor has it they will be dedicating 7 of those to Half Acre, the brewery wants to showcase many of their rare and hard to find releases at Farmhouse in the near future.
–Nkosi
For more scenes from a wonderful evening at Farmhouse Chicago be sure to visit our facebook page (dont forget to hit the like button)
the @icstarschicago crew, @joekutta, Hector O, Tony Taylor, @TipTheCosmic and @nkosio
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