Breakroom Brewery

I had a really good experience at the recently opened Breakroom Brewery. The space is gorgeous. I guess that makes sense as it is owned by a custom bar building company whose shop is connected to the restaurant. I tried a couple beers and thought they were pretty good out of the gate. I give new breweries a pass on their first couple beers as I know that brewing on a new system takes some batches to dial it in. That said, the Berliner Weiss was perfectly tart. They APA I had was really hop forward without a ton of bitterness. They had a couple other pales ales, a porter and a kolsch on tap.

Onto the food. Dirk Flanigan, previously from the Gage, is the chef. That's a plus in my book as I always had a good food experience there. The menu has upscale pub food, similar to the Gage. It is a little less extensive though. I had the lamb scrumpets and a burger with liver mousse. Friend ordered the pork rinds and chicken sandwich. The scrumpets, think fried moz sticks but instead filled with lamb, were pretty good. They were just a little gamey and served with a pretty great gochujang ketchup. I liked them, but am not really sure I'd order again as the scrumpet itself was just a little bland. My burger was cooked as ordered, medium rare. The liver mousse topping on a burger was a first for me. But damn, I need more mousse topped burgers in my life. It definitely needed something acidic with it to cut the richness of the beef and mousse. Fries were fine and not too greasy, but a bit blonde for my taste. Pork rinds were fresh out of the fryer with vinegar powder. I love pork rinds, so really dug these. I didn't try the chicken, but it looked like a nice upscale sandwich with grapes and brie. My friend said it was really good.

Overall, I'll be back. It's walkable for me in an area that needed something like this. I definitely want to try some of the other dishes as the menu looked good (I need to know what the House Sausage Pot is).


Breakroom Brewery
2925 W. Montrose
breakroombrewery.com

Don't hate Aaron Heineman just because he's the owner of BreakRoom Brewery. Hate him because, if possible, his day job is even cooler. So cool that it's the focus of a new Discovery Channel series, "Epic Bar Builds," which debuts Sunday.

http://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20150410 ... ing-sunday

Had a good burger there last night. Fries were good, too. Service was very very slow, though, and for a brewery the beer choice was limited. I don't like IPAs or wheat beers so there was not much to go with. It's a little pricey, too.

I think it will be around for a long time because it fills a niche in an affluent neighborhood but I would not travel to get to it.

Albany Park's BreakRoom Brewery Closing On Sunday

http://chicago.eater.com/2016/5/5/11602 ... lbany-park

Apparently Finch's Brewery will be moving into that space. Anyone have any intel on Finch's beer?

thaiobsessed wrote:Apparently Finch's Brewery will be moving into that space. Anyone have any intel on Finch's beer?

Unfortunately Finch's is one of the worst, if not worst, brewery in Chicago. They've gone through a ton of head brewers as no one has wanted to stay there long. They have an interesting marketing/sales concept. Since few consumers will buy their beers in Chicago, they've decided to push a ton of beer out of state. My only guess is that this is to make out of state customers think that they've done so well here that they had to expand. I'd take a beer from Rev, Half Acre, Spiteful, Temperance, Pipeworks, or Mikerphone before I'd spend my money on a Finch's beer. To temper this a bit, Finch's Secret Stache is decent.

thaiobsessed wrote:Apparently Finch's Brewery will be moving into that space. Anyone have any intel on Finch's beer?

Unfortunately Finch's is one of the worst, if not worst, brewery in Chicago. They've gone through a ton of head brewers as no one has wanted to stay there long. They have an interesting marketing/sales concept. Since few consumers will buy their beers in Chicago, they've decided to push a ton of beer out of state. My only guess is that this is to make out of state customers think that they've done so well here that they had to expand. I'd take a beer from Rev, Half Acre, Spiteful, Temperance, Pipeworks, or Mikerphone before I'd spend my money on a Finch's beer. To temper this a bit, Finch's Secret Stache is decent.

Interesting. I give Finch's credit for having enough business savvy to stay in the game and evolve. Their early beers were not good, and locally I think they are still recovering from that negative first impression. Some of their newer stuff is actually decent including Secret Stache and their Chimera IPA.

Finch's, Matthias Merges take over BreakRoom Brewing space in Crain's Chicago Business. They hope to open by mid-June as Finch Kitchen.

The chef is planning a menu inspired by a classic beer hall with international flair—think encased meats from around the world and charcuterie—along with nontraditional snacks like fried pigs' ears.

Merges, who's also involved in the forthcoming Old Irving Brewery, a project begun by the late chef Homaro Cantu, hasn't yet settled on a chef for the spot but said he plans to pluck talent from his four other restaurants to assemble an opening team.

Chicago-based Finch's, an early comer to the local craft beer industry, began selling its beer in 2011 and is now distributed in 17 states in 16-oz. cans. It plans to keep most production and packaging of its five year-round beers at its existing brewery at 4565 N. Elston Ave. and use its new Finch's Kitchen space for smaller batches and one-offs.

The brewer, which abandoned plans last year for a sprawling brewing complex adjacent to the Chicago River, is no longer controlled by the Finch family, which sold the majority of the business to other investors earlier this year.

Founder Ben Finch is no longer involved in the brewery's day-to-day operations, but remains on its board. His brother, Mike Finch, who was a co-owner and national sales manager, also exited the company earlier this year.

The new ownership group, which was not immediately available for comment, brought in a new brewing team that is “really upping the game on quality,” Merges said. “What's being brewed now is pretty damn tasty.”

Maybe the third time is the charm for the Albany Park space that has housed BreakRoom Brewery and The Finch Kitchen. Perhaps taking inspiration from suburban Highland Park’s famed outdoor concert venue, Ravinia Brewing Co. is poised to take over the space at 2925 W. Montrose Ave.

https://chicago.eater.com/2017/5/3/1553 ... lbany-park