Chicago Day 1: A Little Bit of Beer, A Lot of Rocco Pup
Chicago is one of those cities that is kind of close to us, but we don’t travel to often. In fact, we’ve only been there once together and that was just for one night at the end of our Route 66 road trip. Beard has been there for a bachelor party and Broad went there for a girl’s trip and we both had a list of spots we wanted to try. Some of our friends and family coincidentally were going to be in town the same weekend so we just had to go. We did so many fun activities in just one weekend that we thought it would be best to write two posts breaking down our days.
Where We Stayed
We stayed at an Airbnb in Lincoln Park. We weren’t a hundred percent familiar with the different neighborhoods but we wanted to be close to Beard’s cousin Caileigh who lives there and also close to everything we wanted to do. It turned out Lincoln Park was the best neighborhood for us. We booked a room in someone’s (spacious) apartment and it was our first time staying in someone’s home while they were also there. We had our own room and the place was great. Our host was really amazing! The best part of the apartment was his Bernese Mountain dog, Rocco. He was a giant 100 lb one year old puppy who just wanted to play and get some snuggles.
The neighborhood was fantastic. We could have spent an entire weekend just walking around Lincoln Park. It felt super safe, lively, family friendly and it literally had everything you could want in a neighborhood. There were so many restaurants and bars we wanted to try. When we visit again, we would definitely stay in this area.
FRIDAY
We had three things we absolutely had to do on this trip and one of them was visit Whiner Beer Company. Since they were located a little out of the way and south of where we were staying we drove there first on our way in Friday afternoon. Our friends Hailey and Casey were in from Nevada and our friend Addison was in from Michigan so they met us here. If you follow us on social media, you’ve seen us talk about how much we love this beer. They focus on producing (delicious) barrel aged beer and most of their can designs feature cats, yes CATS! It is literally Broad’s dream beer. Partners Brian Taylor and Ria Neri “aim to make beers for people with a wanderlust palate, a curiosity for the strange and unknown, and those who take their beer seriously, but never themselves.”
The brewery is located in The Plant, a net-zero energy business incubator located in Chicago’s Back of the Yards neighborhood. The Plant’s goal is to cultivate “circular economies”, which essentially means that “conventional waste streams from one process are repurposed as inputs for another, creating a circular, closed-loop model of material reuse.” This system actually helps Whiner to achieve their goal of environmentally responsible brewing. Whiner’s spent grain help’s fuel the digester, thus producing energy for the entire building.
After Whiner we discovered The Marz Community Taproom close by. Marz focuses on small artisanal batches of beer in a sustainable and socially responsible mater. The taproom overlooks the brewery down below and the place is covered in badass art. In addition to the brewery art, local artists design the beer labels. They even have a small gallery in the taproom. It’s a really cool place and the beers were super delicious.
After Marz we made the trek to our place. After getting settled in, we ordered Lou Malnati’s one of our favorite Chicago deep dish pizza and walked down the street to Beermiscuous, a European-inspired beer shop/beer cafe. They have an unbelievable draft and bottle selection. The environment is super cozy. You can work on your computer, have an intimate date night or unwind with some friends and board games. We ended up purchasing a bunch of beer to bring home and drank a ton of 4 oz samples. If this was in our neighborhood you can bet we’d be coming here frequently for after work drinks and to stock up our fridge. Broad’s favorite was a Cherry Rosé Sour ale from Penrose, we have regrets about not bringing some home.
After spending a decedent amount of time at Beermiscuous, we strolled home to strategize our plan for the next day. Stay tuned for our very beer-filled Chicago Day 2 post!
I love Chicago and I love your dog! Sounds like such a great trip!
Thanks! It was our Airbnb host’s dog. First time staying at a place while the host and dog were there. It was definitely a plus 🙂
Chicago is so fun! That Whiner sounds really cool and I’m super jealous you had Rocco as a roomie for the weekend!
What a fun trip! It’s been way too long since I visited Chicago.
I have to admit that I’m generally anti-Chicago because I don’t appreciate its reputation as, like, The Only City in the Midwest Worth Going To, but you’re kiiiiinda changin’ my mind here.
Rocco is a little cutie. I’m writing these places down to check out!
Looks like fun! Have never tried an AirBNB but love that it included a complementary snuggle dog!
Chicago is one of my favorite cities – there’s always so much to do there!