Category Archives: Food

A Day in Bridgeport

This past Saturday (the final Saturday before Football Season) Julie and I decided to spend the day in the Bridgeport neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago. We jumped on the Halsted bus and headed South for the better part of an hour. If you’ve spent some time on the CTA buses during non-rush hour times they’re relatively convenient. Our plan was to have breakfast, stop at a root beer factory and then hit up one of the better beer bars in the city while eating meat pies.

Mission accomplished.

Nana

Our first stop in Bridgeport was at Nana for breakfast. I can’t recall where I read about this place but it seemed good from the website. The food was great. I could probably just live off of their empanadas. We weren’t sure if there’d be a long wait or not, but we were seated right away. Julie and I definitely plan to check out their dinner some time.

Filbert’s Root Beer

After breakfast we grabbed the 35th Street bus and headed over to Filbert’s Old Time Draft Root Beer on Ashland Avenue. Filbert’s is a locally owned soda production facility that caters to a lot of restaurants and local food markets throughout the city. One of the managers gave us an impromptu tour and a couple of free bottles for the road. I had actually had some of their root beer on draft earlier in the year at Paulina Meat Market’s tent during Sausage Fest.

Maria’s Packaged Goods
One hell of a day at @Marias_Bar in Bridgeport w/ @julierubes -
Maria’s Packaged Good was pretty much the anchor of this little trip. When we started we were just looking for places within walking distance or a short bus ride from Maria’s. When we arrived they were just opening up and were preparing for some kind of Charter School fundraiser.

For a little background on Maria’s, the place is a liquor store in the front and a bar in the back. I think this used to be a somewhat common occurrence in Chicago. The liquor store in the front has a great selection of six packs and an entire wall of 22oz bombers including a lot of 3 Floyds bottles. The bar in the back has an equally good selection of drafts.

Combining the beer selection with the food options next door makes this one of the best bars in the city.

Pleasant House Bakery

Please House Bakery is located directly next door to Maria’s and I believe is BYOB. You can also order food there and they will deliver it to you at the bar in Maria’s which is what we did. Julie and I shared the Steak & Ale Pie and it was unreal. I can’t image going to Maria’s and not eating a meat pie from Pleasant House ever again.

Skylark

Skylark is probably a mile north of Bridgeport but it definitely was on the way home so it warranted a stop. Huge beer selection, by far the largest dive bar I’ve ever been in. From the outside the place looks much shadier than it is. We actually walked past the entrance at first thinking there’s no way that the place was open.

Greekfest

On our way back home we stopped at Greekfest for a bite to eat. As Street Festivals go, Greekfest was one of the best. No ‘Suggested Donation’/shakedown. A lot of vendors actually had something to do with Greek food instead of just random fair stuff.

Sidenotes:

* Good Luck Auto Repair. I would like to help out with Good Luck Auto Repair’s marketing plan but according to Yelp they’re doing just fine.

** While at Maria’s a couple in drag stopped by to take a photograph in front of the bar. I think they own a costume shop or something. It all seemed perfectly normal at the time.

Lakeside, Michigan

This past week Julie and I rented a house with four other friends in Lakeside, Michigan. This was our first experience using Airbnb and it worked out really well. The house was walking distance to a private beach on Lake Michigan which is all we were really looking for. We spent the majority of our time at the beach and cooking at the house.

Bells Brewery

Before checking in to the house we headed up to Kalamazoo to checkout Bells Brewery for lunch. I was really impressed with their huge selection of beers on tap. Julie and I each did a tasting and then I had a couple more before we hit the road. By far my favorite was the Quinannan Falls Lager. Lunch was really good as well, mostly BBQ sandwiches. I was really disappointed with their ‘No Growler’ policy. I had planned on filling three growlers for the week. We did stop at their general store but the beer selection was less than what I see at my corner store in Wrigleyville.

Three Oaks
Before dinner on our last night in town we headed over to the town of Three Oaks to check out the Journeyman Distillery and a couple of bars before dinner at Soe Cafe.

Journeymen Distillery

Journeyman Distillery was setup much like FEW Distillery with the addition of its own bar and event space. The tour included three tastes which I believe is some kind of Federal regulation. Like other small craft distilleries, Journeyman distills Gin, White Whiskey and Rye Whiskey.

Pleasant House

Our tour guide at Journeyman suggested we stop by the nearby Pleasant House Brewing Company which recently opened a small brewery/bar. Pleasant House is the sister location of Pleasant House Bakery in Chicago which is a small restaurant that specializes in meat pies. This location has the same food setup, basically British comfort food, with the addition of the bar and three of their own beers. I had the Dry Stout and tried the ESB, both were great.

Side Notes:

* Beach reading: The Generals: American Military Command from World War II to Today.

** Every grocery store we stopped in during the entire trip had a ‘Smores Section’.
*** Last year’s visit to Lakeside.

New York 2013

This past week Julie and I headed out to New York to catch up with some friends and see some baseball.

SingleCut Beersmiths

One of our stops in Astoria was SingleCut Beersmiths which I believe opened earlier this year. SingleCut has a small tap room at their brewery with a loft area for a band. The brewery is located in a somewhat industrial/shopping area in Astoria. We stopped by in the early evening and caught the Hawks – Kings game on our phone as there are no TVs. They do have a solid vinyl collection which plays most of the time until the band comes on. I managed to make my way around their beer selection and I liked their Queens Lagrrr and the Neil Ol’ Blackie IPA best. The barrels in the photographs above are actually filled with fermenting beer, notice the air locks on each barrel.

Citi Field: Mets – Marlins

While in town we managed to see the Mets – Marlins game. The Mets lost and not in the normally allotted time.

An Hour or so in Brooklyn

On Tuesday morning we made our way to the Brooklyn Bridge via Manhattan. We walked the bridge, which about 40% of the bridge was under tarps, and headed over to Grimaldi’s Pizzeria at the base on the other side. Grimaldi’s is located basically under the bridge on the Brooklyn side. Much like Lombardi’s, Grimaldi’s is a coal-fired pizza. According to the convoluted history the founder, Patsy Grimaldi, wanted to open in Manhattan but by that time coal-fired ovens were illegal so he opened up shop in Brooklyn.

Down the street and still in the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge is the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory. All of the ice cream is freshly made in small batches. The selection is limited but worth checking out. Also, the building is at the base of the Fulton Ferry Landing so you have a great view of the Manhattan skyline.

The Clipper City

We used some coupon site to get a 50% ticket on the Manhattan by Sail’s tall ship the City Clipper. We did the ‘Daytime Statue Sail’ which takes off from South Street Seaport and heads out to the Statue of Liberty and back. We were on the boat for about 90 minutes. I guess there is also a Lobster & Beer tour they do and I have no idea how we missed it. The ship can hold up to 150 passengers (we probably had 40 or so) which is the most of any passenger sailboat in the United States. It wasn’t really a tour boat as much as a leisure ship with a fully stocked bar.

In summary there were great views, a full bar and there was no guy with a bullhorn pointing out landmarks.

Alewife

For dinner one night we ended up at Alewife in Long Island City which was within walking distance to our hotel. Alewife is a ‘craft beer’ bar with a massive selection of draft and bottles along with a solid menu. I’ve been to their sister bar, Lord Hobo, in Cambridge, MA. which is very similar. We had dinner and then pretty much called it a night, I would have liked to have spent more time there.

Side Notes:

* Julie and I killed the better part of a rainy afternoon at McSorley’s.

** This is how NYC does trash.

*** Plane photographs. We almost made it back to Chicago but were diverted to Louisville. Good times.

**** The view from our hotel in Long Island City.
***** We had dinner with Jim Wallis at Upstate Craft Beer & Oyster Bar and it was amazing once again. Last year when we were in town we stumbled upon it and I’m glad we were able to do it again. The place is small, even by New York standards, we hung out for a couple of minutes and the host was able to fit us in at the bar. The bartender, the food and the beer selection were all great.

Black Hand Productions

By Nik Bronder

Category Archives: Food

A Day in Bridgeport

Lakeside, Michigan

New York 2013