33 E. Riverwalk We were not going to be satisficed with just dinner and a couple of drinks when we had the whole night to ourselves in the City without kids.
We kicked off our long weekend in Chicago with dinner at Crushed By Giants Brewing Company but we wanted to do more. Our first idea was just a short walk from our hotel. We really wanted to hit the Sugar Factory at some point on our trip but as we found out, they’re only doing reservations and getting a reservation same day….or even a day out, was not going to happen. We popped in about 9:30 to see if we could get lucky but their last seating was 9:15 so we missed out.
J wanted to walk to the Riverwalk after that. She was in Chicago a few years ago for a conference and they found a great place to relax and have a few drinks along the Chicago River. Unfortunately, she couldn’t remember the name of the place.
The first place was stopped at had stopped seating for the night but they told us to “try next door.” We did just that and found the place J was looking for.
Chicago Brewhouse is on the south side of the Chicago River on the Riverwalk near the Wabash Avenue Bridge. The draw to this place is the outdoor space. They have an indoor area but it’s really small and most of it was closed off to just the servers. The patio space has the Riverwalk running right through it and we lucked out. They had a couple of “tables” for two.
I put table in quotations marks in the previous paragraph because we were seated at what really isn’t a table. It’s the concrete wall separating the main part of the patio from the walkway. They put a couple of metal chairs next to the wall and put down a large wooden board and call that a table. It’s actually kind of great though. There’s great people watching both on the river and on the walkway and the view of downtown Chicago is fantastic.
We had just eaten dinner so we were mostly in the market for drinks….despite the fact I really wanted to order tacos.
I picked a beer….(duh). Chicago Brewhouse isn’t a brewery. It’s a celebration of all things Chicago. Food, beer, etc. They had a number of Chicago brews but the one I picked was Le Jus from Alarmist Brewing Company in the North Park Neighborhood. The menu calls this beer an “England-style Juice Bomb” and the server said it was his favorite so I was pretty excited. Lucky for me, it was everything I had hyped it up to be in my head. It’s a juicy IPA that really hits with the juicy. Unfortunately, we hit last call so I only got to enjoy one of these…..also, my belly was full.
J really wanted to find this place again because last time she was in Chicago, she hit the Froze’s pretty hard and was really looking forward to another one. The Froze is frozen rose wine, vodka, strawberry, and peach. The drink was everything she remembered it to be.
We had already had dinner but we hadn’t had dessert yet. J put in an order for churros to go with our drinks. The churros come plain or filled with Bavarian cream (we chose the cream) and come with choice of chocolate or raspberry dipping sauce (we chose chocolate). The order comes with two churros but we got several pieces of churro….it actually looked like we got more than two. As I mentioned, my belly was already pretty full so I let J eat most them.
Our bill for two drinks and churros was right around $25.
Chicago Brewhouse is a really cool spot. I never would have thought to walk to the Riverwalk on my own so I’m glad J knew about it. It’s a great spot to relax on the river and just kind of take in the sites and sounds of the city.