City Beer Store
Built on the premise of a wine bar, the City Beer Store offers a number of taps from which to sample craft beer, but also offers retail like many San…
- story: Leslie Pariseau
Skylark
The sister bar to Wicker Park’s Rainbo Club, Skylark is by far the coolest bar in Pilsen. It’s a timeless Chicago haunt: long wooden bar, cracked vinyl booths, faded linoleum,…
- story: punch_intern2
The Burlington
Founded as a tribute to its owner’s boyhood summers in Burlington, Wisconsin, this rock 'n' roll bar is dark, loud and low-key. Vintage church pews line the walls, a cluster…
- story: punch_intern2
Bangers & Lace
This sausage (the bangers) and beer (the lace—a term for the doily of suds left after drinking down a beer) place comes with its own cicerone, who curates the rotating…
- story: punch_intern2
Big Star
A little slice of Austin in Wicker Park, Big Star is about as country as Chicago gets—which is to say, not very. Vintage neon and a vinyl soundtrack are the…
- story: punch_intern2
Sheffield’s Beer & Wine Garden
Down the road from Wrigley Field, Sheffield’s may boast more points of entry than any bar in town: skilled and attentive bartenders, barbecue smoked in house daily, a cottonwood-shaded beer…
- story: punch_intern2
Maria’s Packaged Goods & Community Bar
This heroic slashie (half liquor store, half bar) sells a decent number of bottled brews in the smart liquor store up front, and offers more than 475 artisanal beers in…
- story: punch_intern2
Map Room
Some bars offer 36 beers, and we call them serious. The beers at the Map Room—a modest cash-only corner tavern full of old National Geographic issues—represent 36 different styles, ranging…
- story: punch_intern2
Local Option
One hundred-plus bottles and 30 taps—many locally produced specifically for this rowdy bar—liven up an otherwise quiet neighborhood stretch. The skull-centric heavy metal details and bearded craft beer geeks make…
- story: punch_intern2
Hopleaf
Michael Roper’s legendary Andersonville bar has looked to Belgium for inspiration since 1992, and continues to find it with lambics, trappist ales and abbey-style ales. Nonstop crowds pack the claustrophobic…
- story: punch_intern2
