Red Lion Pub in Lincoln Square

Not seeing a dedicated thread for Red Lion Pub, I thought I'd start one. Red Lion, as reported elsewhere, is in the middle of a soft opening in a new location in Lincoln Square. They anticipate a liquor license in about 60 days. Mr. Lemoneater and I popped over for a Boxing Day dinner. The space is pleasant, filled with wooden tables and pubby artifacts. With a few more bodies, it could be downright rollicking. The service was chatty and helpful, and the owners were out and about.

I ordered the fish & chips, my usual pub dinner. The fish was flaky, moist and well-fried. Chips were overall good but could have been a little crisper, to my taste. Mr. L ordered the vegetable pasty with mushroom gravy (suitable for vegetarians). There's a beef version on offer, as well. Mr. L reported that the made-from-scratch mushroom gravy was delicious.

Prices for entrees are between $8 and $10.25. For the moment, cash only and BYOB.

Red Lion Pub
4749 North Rockwell Street
Chicago, IL 60625-2934

Thanks so much for posting this. I was so excited to see this place pop up in my neighborhood and can't wait to try it!

Well I'll be...that is great....this is what Joe (the owner) had told me a few months ago (which I posted here)....very pleased this is true!

is there a website? The only one I found was for The Red Lion Pub on Lincoln Ave. Furthermore, does anyone know if the two are affiliated?

ahhh... with a little more research, answered my own question here http://chicago.grubstreet.com/2010/12/r ... _squa.html

So, it's like a "cousin" to the original, I suppose. Glad to see it none the less.

From what I've heard, Joe was getting tired of Colin dragging his feet on ever actually re-opening the Lincoln Park location, so he decided to strike out on his own and open this new location. The Lincoln Park location has been "re-opening soon" since before they were shooting Public Enemies quite some time ago. I don't believe any construction has ever taken place there.

We had a late lunch at the Red Lion this afternoon. I had the fish and chips while my wife had the shepherd's pie. We did some sharing, eating fish first and then shepherd's pie.

The fish and chips used two good sized chunks of cod with a nice crispy breading. I agree with lemoneater on the chips, which are thick with the variability in size that comes with hand cutting. Little cups of a fairly acid cole slaw and a pretty good tartar sauce accompany. I did not use much of the tartar sauce as I prefer the malt vinegar.

The shepherd's pie comes in a small crock. The filling is ground beef with mushrooms, onions and peas in a rich brown gravy. This is topped with mashed potatoes that are then browned in oven or broiler. A small salad of mostly mesclun is on the side of the plate.

The food is not fancy but is well-executed pub food suited for the surroundings and the neighborhood. No dish on the short menu is over $11. The menu should expand once everything is together. This is shaping up as a great option for those of us who live nearby and is a contrast to the pseudo English and Irish pubs with dubious food infesting the North Side.

They are taking things slowly because some equipment is not in yet including communications (no telephone or connection for charge cards) and an additional cooler as well as to allow for staff training. Snow on the roof plus holiday scheduling have complicated things.

For this weekend they are open 12 to 5 both Saturday and Sunday. Posted hours are 4 to 10 Tuesday through Friday. They plan to be closed on Mondays although may go to seven days if business warrants.

The room is quite comfortable. Wood benches are on the wall side of many tables. I was quite comfortable on the bench, which is slanted back at a nice angle. The chairs are well upholstered with arms and fully met with my wife's approval for comfort. These are a very welcome contrast to the chairs that eventually led us to stop going to Tagine when it was in the same space.

Hi,

Red Lion Pub's owner Joe Heinen is a historian as well. He wrote a book with his wife on Lost German Chicago, which is also an exhibit at DANKhaus. Next Saturday, he will be giving a lecture and tour of this exhibit. Joe and his wife curated this exhibit that has a section on lost German restaurants and the German restaurant workers union. I arranged this tour asking specifically for a curator, because a docent likely would be stumped.

There is more information here: viewtopic.php?p=353491#p353491. All proceeds of this tour will go back to DANKhaus.

I will be there with Katie Saltenberger's crocheted pillow, her cheesecake recipe prepared and how her cheesecake ended up on a restaurant menu. Where I hit the wall: I don't which restaurant featured her cheesecake.

Regards,

Red Lion finally received its liquor license last summer. Timing never quite worked out for us, so our dinner this evening was our first since they got their license. The menu is basically the same as earlier supplemented by specials.

They have five brews on tap: three from UK, BBK from Germany and Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald for the domestic. There is a moderate list of bottled beers and ciders including one pear cider. Wine list by the glass is short. I did not recognize any of the names, but my wife found the zinfandel good enough to have a second glass rather than try one of the other reds. With two Edmund Fitzgeralds not fully metabolized my memory is a little fuzzy.

In the evening the restaurant is dimly lit with fairly quiet music in the background. Photographs would require flash and would be quite intrusive. There was enough business to keep the lone waiter reasonably occupied but not overwhelmed. Most of the customers seemed to be from the neighborhood and recognized, a description that also fits us.

We had two dishes that we had not previously eaten there. I had the bangers and mash. Nicely flavored sausages over mashed potatoes and cabbage that had not been cooked to death. I had several bites of my wife's richly flavored Beef Guiness, which has beef and onion slices baked in a Guiness stout gravy with mashed potatoes on the side. Both dishes come with a side of green peas that were starchier than I prefer but probably more typical of the peas in parts of the UK.

We've become semi-regulars at the Red Lion (especially since they got their liquor license) and can quickly add 2 things to this thread:

1) Their bread pudding with whisky caramel sauce is so good it nearly brought my wife to tears.

2) They generally have a beer on cask in addition to the regular taps. Last time we were there we had a hand-pulled Hobgoblin that was quite nice.