LTH Cocktail Hour: Rock Bottom Brewery, Thursday, March 15

As threatened elsewhere, all and sundry are invited to an LTH Cocktail Hour at the Rock Bottom Brewery next Thursday, March 15th, at around 5:30 pm. We'll go for as long as we're having fun...

I hadn't been to RBB for a while, but Kiplog inspired me to "audible" for this location, especially because I feel like just after I started thinking about having it at McCormick & Schmick, I could only find not-very-positive commentary on it.

In any case, I hope that this is the first of many events, so there will be lots of chances to try other places.

Rock Bottom is conveniently located directly upstairs from the Red Line "Grand and State" stop.

While RSVPs are not required, folks who plan on coming are encouraged to reply to this thread so I can get some kind of handle on who to look for, how we'll find each other, whether we need to find special space accommodations, etc...

Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery
1 W Grand Ave, Chicago, IL
(312) 755-9339

Ah, can't make it this time, but I'm looking forward to the next one.

I'll be there.

The Hophaus is technically between RB and my office, so I might do a quick stop during their opening to see what they put on tap, but I'll be over on time.

I look something like this.

I'm going to do my best to be there for a beer or four. I have dinner plans that night with another LTHer so maybe I can convince him to join us too.

Best,
Michael

Well everyone needs to do a first LTH event, this might as well be mine.

SSDD

As we are going to see Harry Connick Jr at the Chicago Theatre that night, we should be able to stop in for at least a beer or two. Sounds like fun! See ya there...I love this idea and would like to come for many more although am coming from the Western burbs so 6 pm is more like my earliest arrival time. Definitely want to try different places!

Alas, it looks like the forecast has the weather turning by Thursday, or I'd hope that we might be able to meet on RB's nice rooftop patio. (They probably won't have opened it for the season yet anyway...)

I think we can just sort of find each other on Thursday -- I'm the guy in the green t-shirt in the first picture in this post. When in doubt, use the LTH hand signal.

I will probably arrive a little before 5:30, and I was planning on heading to the bar area (to the right of the main entrance).

Looking forward to seeing all who can come, and rest assured, we'll do more of these...

My pic is linked in my above post.

A useful technique for this sort of thing is to print a biz-card sized sign, and keep it on the bar or table. The LTH logo with the diamonds (available here) is unmistakable at a distance but still unobtrusive and doesn't make us look too much like geeks.

Besides, you can tell it's us because we'll be the ones sticking lens into our beers.

I'd like to join you, but won't know until later.

I'll bring LTH table tents.

kiplog wrote:The Hophaus is technically between RB and my office, so I might do a quick stop during their opening to see what they put on tap, but I'll be over on time.

The höpful opening date recalibrated to 3/23 so don't worry too much about seeing what they have going on.

(BTW, saw in Dish last week that Hophäus is in fact still a Leona's concept, which explains a lot of things. )

Great idea on the tents; I was going to whip some up but it looks like Tom has it covered. In short, if you're coming and don't recognize anyone, look for the LTH diamonds (or, of course the hand signal. Gotta use the hand signal one of these days...

Looking forward to seeing y'all tonight...

Hi,

If I worked downtown, then this would be an easy way to transition my way home. Unfortunately I work at home about 30 miles north. So perhaps another time.

Regards,

Cathy2 wrote:If I worked downtown, then this would be an easy way to transition my way home. Unfortunately I work at home about 30 miles north. So perhaps another time.

In the original thread, there was a suggestion for a location in Glenview...

Thanks to everyone who came out for this event last night. As always, it was fun to share a few drinks with convivial LTHers.

For the record, I had mixed results ordering beers at Rock Bottom. Fortunately, the trend was to the positive, and not just because beer tastes better the more you have

I started with the Fire Chief Ale, which was highly recommended by the waitress but not really very distinctive to me. Then I had a Belgian something or other which was pretty good. My favorite by a healthy margin was a bourbon barrel stout, a bit pricy at $7 but very interesting flavors.

Part of my original vision for these cocktail hours was to land at a place that had good bar food, but the menu was not very promising. We saw table after table ordering "Titan's Toothpicks" which were like giant taquitos -- almost but not quite as big as a dosai from Udupi. One menu item, "blazin' barbacoa empanadas," seemed to wear the warning badge in its name. Perhaps I'm too cynical, but it all had a very Bennigan's/Friday's appearance. I know I've eaten acceptable food at RBB in the past, but it seemed like we might be able to do better, so we just ordered some fries and chewy calamari to buffer the beer while we hashed over possible dinner options.

By the time we settled up, we had a bunch of people heading north, so we ended up at the Celtic Knot in Evanston, which despite my long history in an orbit around the neighborhood, I had never visited. I'm no fish 'n chips expert, but I enjoyed the order I had, and it seemed like a friendly place where everybody knows your name, at least if it's Paul or Mike. It might be another good candidate for a more northerly LTH cocktail hour in the future.

In short, a grand time (no pun intended) and a clear indication that we could and should be doing this more often...

I agree - good times, and I had RBB's Imperial Stout - okay, and the #666 Santa's Ale, surprisingly good and complex. And I liked the fact that they offered an extra glass to make up a full serving, when they'd run out of full-sized glasses.

The pasty at Celtic Knot was better than I expected, too.

germuska wrote:In any case, I hope that this is the first of many events, so there will be lots of chances to try other places.

Joe,

Ellen and I had an enjoyable evening with our fellow LTH Cocktail Hour participants. Rock Bottom Brewery, while bustling, proved a pleasant place for a chat and beer. Service was efficient, beer selection interesting, company and conversation grand, food ~shug~, suffice to say our calamari is not going to place in anyone's year end LTHForum Top Ten list. We may have missed the Killer App though, Titan Toothpicks, foot-long taquitos filled with smoked chicken, jack cheese, peppers and onions seemed to be heading to every second table.

Both Joe and nr706 brought LTH table tents, very cool idea.


After tossing around a number of ideas for dinner we headed, minus Michael M (EatChicago) who had a previous engagement, to the Celtic Knot for a Saint Paddy's Day warm up, where we ran into Octarine, who works there. I had been to Celtic Knot once before, a nicely convivial place, friendly, comfortable with an interesting and well executed menu. As Germuska mentions, a good candidate for an LTH Cocktail Hour.

Ellen enjoyed her mussels, Joe and Tom seemed to enjoy their fish and chips and Guinness beef pasty. My smoked salmon plate with red onion and capers was quite good layered on warm brown bread, especially when accented with Irish butter. There was, oddly, a big clump of cream cheese on the plate, note to Celtic Knot, cream cheese with bagel, butter with hearty brown bread.

Mussels


I quite enjoyed the Guinness laced chocolate cupcake, though would have preferred a non cream cheese based frosting.



Very enjoyable evening, thanks to Germuska for setting things up.

(L-R) nr706/Tom, Germuska/Joe, Kiplog/Paul, MsWiv/Ellen, Octarine/Mike


Enjoy,
Gary

germuska wrote:My favorite by a healthy margin was a bourbon barrel stout, a bit pricy at $7 but very interesting flavors.

I've enjoyed this beer quite a bit, too. I recently went to the Rock Bottom in DC (actually Arlington, VA), and had an order of buffalo fajitas that were really surprisingly good. Don't know how consistent the menu (or execution) is across locations.

Nice to see everyone last night and special thanks to germuska for getting the LTHForum Happy Hour off the ground.

I was 0-for-2 in my Rock Bottom Beers last night, not really enjoying either of them. I didn't have a chance to try the bourbon barrel stout, which sounds much more to my taste. Next time.

Best,
Michael

I had an enjoyable time as well, and it was a pleasure meeting you guys in person.

I arrived late at the table, since I met somebody I knew at the bar, otherwise I would have pushed you guys towards the bigger beers. I was sad to see they had run out of the Sir Hopsalot Double IPA, which was replaced by the fairly unimpressive Fire Chief Red. I love the Blitzen Belgian and Santas Revenge (batch #666) but that bourbon barrel stout is impressive.


The 'angels' on Santa's Revenge.


The Bourbon Barrel Stout.


The Calamari, for purely documentation's sake.



I'm glad you guys all enjoyed The Celtic Knot (and it was nice to get the ride back to Evanston).


The Dark and Tan Cupcake.

As I redundantly disclaimed throughout the night, I'm not only friends of the owners and staff at the Knot, I built their website and do their print advertising.

germuska wrote:

Cathy2 wrote:If I worked downtown, then this would be an easy way to transition my way home. Unfortunately I work at home about 30 miles north. So perhaps another time.

In the original thread, there was a suggestion for a location in Glenview...

I mentioned The Yard House in Glenview. I work in the Southwest Suburbs and really try to stay away from the downtown Chicago area if I can, so sorry I couldn't make it on Thursday. The Glen is a pretty easy ride for me up 294.

Looks like we missed a good one. Sorry, took us longer to get downtown than I would have hoped. Definitely up for the next one!!