Goose Island Clybourn

Chicago is in the thick of the U.S. craft beer explosion, but Goose Island's been doing its thing for much longer and it shows. The best craft brewers in Chicago tend to either be distribution microbreweries only or in-house brew pubs/restaurants. Goose Island does both, at two locations no less, and it doesn't sacrifice quality to do so.

GI-Clybourn has it all. If you love drinking craft beer from the source, there's no better option, and the best part is that if you love trying tons of different beers, the beer menu changes virtually every week. If you haven't been in awhile and you come back, it's like a whole new experience. Only 15 percent of the beer menu is the stuff you can buy at a liquor store or find on tap somewhere. The rest are rotating taps in every beer style you can imagine. Even if you don't like beer that much, the staff here will find you something that you'll love.

The food is definitely not the highlight if your reason for dining is upscale pub food, but it's superior to your average bar and grill and they definitely get creative. More times than not, I'm satisfied. Pulled pork in Honker's Ale BBQ sauce, duck poutine ... My favorite appetizer is the sweet potato fries with curry ketchup. Don't come here if you don't love beer, but the food will definitely not ruin the experience and in my opinion should enhance it.

GI-Clybourn caters to every crowd. I've been for appetizers and a quick drink at the bar, dinner with a few friends, their awesome Beer Academy the last Wednesday of the month and even for a bachelor party. The place is huge, so unless you come on a Friday or Saturday night, you'll probably have no problem sitting down. Given their capacity, I can't speak to the service when it's insanely crowded, but the bartenders and servers are extremely nice and especially knowledgable.

No other craft brewer offers the full-service restaurant experience with as many beer options except Revolution Brewing, and it's always insanely crowded over there in Logan Square.

If you're visiting Chicago and love to check out the craft beer scene wherever you go, you just have to go to Goose Island, and if you can choose, this location is better than Wrigleyville just in terms of the variety of taps, but both are great.

I was invited to an event here tonight and really enjoyed myself.  Had to wait in the parking lot for a sopt but finally got one! As I walked in the place was worm and cozy.  I tried a few of their home brewed ales, Im not much of a beer nut but I liked them.  The event was awesome and I had a blast!  O the seasoned chips where amazing!

Had dinner and beers here during Restaurant Week.  

It was the middle of the week and a snowy evening.  It wasn't too crowded and even though we had reservations and were about a half hour late, it was fine.  We started off with beers.  We were not expecting too much from the Restaurant Week prix fixe menu food-wise, even though each course came with a beer paired with it.

The first course was an avocado (?) soup.  I say ? since I cannot remember except it was green and was surprisingly good.  The pork schnitzel for the main course was the size of a small pig.  Very good but unfortunately I lost steam and had to leave half of it on my plate.  

Sophie is my main go to beer for Goose Island, love it!  And served in the Sophie glasses!  We also had a taster where they bring out what they have on tap at the moment.

I would come back and try the regular menu, even though it really just looked like a step up from bar food.