Guinness Open Gate Brewery - Chicago
Guinness Open Gate Brewery is where River
North, West Loop and River West come together, and it's becoming the place where people from these uber-hip neighborhoods and all over Chicagoland come together to hoist a beverage and have a bite. In a renovated train depot from 1907, this new addition to the local dining and drinking scene offers an opportunity to sample some freshly brewed sips from Chicago...as well as Ireland and Baltimore.
As you might very well expect, traditional Irish food is featured prominently on the menu at Guinness Open Gate Brewery. With your beautiful pint of Guinness or one of the other outstanding brews on the menu, you will find many foods you recognize as well as a few surprises. Among the recognizable selections are oysters (a traditional pairing with a Guinness stout) and a full Irish breakfast (bacon, sausage, baked beans. over easy eggs, mushrooms, blistered tomatoes and smash potatoes -- it is nothing if not hearty). Among the somewhat surprising menu options are the shakshuka pot pie (poached eggs, spicy tomato sauce, and goat cheese in a sourdough crust), Shokupan French toast (Aya Pastry Japanese milk bread, beer custard, seasonal fruit jam pickled raisin and powdered sugar), and chicken suya skewers (Nigerian spiced chicken with dill yogurt). The food menu is surprisingly deep and varied, but what is going to bring many people to the Guinness Open Gate Brewery is the beer, and there's a lot to choose from. Brewed in Chicago, Dublin and Baltimore, these beers and ales on the drinks menu show the same diversity and unexpected offerings as the food on the dinner menu. Corn Maize Cream Ale and Mango Chile are two unexpected and delicious drink options, brewed in Chicago, and there are also some beer cocktails (available in non-alcoholic versions). From Dublin, there's the Guinness draft stout -- the classic! -- as well as some speciality suds like the Guinness Extra Stout and Guinness Foreign Extra Stout. From Baltimore's brewery comes a Japanese style rice lager and a Breakfast Tea Amber Ale. The Guinness Open Gate Brewery is a good time.