Firkin

I give it a meh.
After moving out from the city I have had a hard time getting my husband to go out for anything but Chinese so when my daughter was in town we decided to try Firkin.
Told that the wait was 40 minutes on a Saturday night we were assured that it would be less - it was longer. It was an awkward area to hang out for that long, ducking the servers and watching the cold case.
We are not beer drinkers and the beer menu type was too teeny to see in the dark so went with the draft wine - meh.
I'm not sure why it labels itself as American - every special that night was a taco or enchilada or some form of Mexican. We did manage to find the German alternative on the menu - pretzel for app, which was the highlight - and chicken schnitzel which came under a salad with nothing else.
Service was better than most places that we've been to in the burbs but it was uber loud and the music more what I would expect in a Mexican place.

Ahh, this place is just about perfect. Great beer, great beer food, fabulous specials (especially in May for Cinco de Mayo), pretty lights, great staff. And the lentil spread! I usually get a container of it to go at the end of my meal. Absolute best part, though: it feels about three hundred miles away from the North Shore. You feel like you're downtown somewhere. Oh, and fried asparagus! Yes.

Ate here with an associate at the recommendation of a local. It was a recent Thursday night about 7pm, and the place was packed.

The beer menu is great - not overwhelming but a great cross section of styles, geography, etc. Always nice to see Oskar Blues on tap.

We started with some meat and cheese - everything very nicely presented and tasty. Great local cheese selection.

I had the Akaushi Waygu burger. Not worth it. It was good, but not nearly worth the rants and raves of previous reviews.

Service was excellent - not overwhelming but just attentive enough. We lingered for a while to finish a business conversation.

Solid choice, nice and busy for people watching. I'll be back to try the spare ribs