The Publican

cratez

Ontario (Canada)

4.78/5  rDev +5.8%
vibe: 4 | quality: 5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 5 | food: 5 | $$

Visited with my girlfriend for our 4th anniversary dinner in July 2011.

VIBE: pristine and modern decor with beautiful lighting and a comfortable, medium-sized bar. An L-shaped communal table occupies the middle of the restaurant with two-seater "horse stall" booths off to the left and assorted tables adjacent to the patio. Crowd is upscale yuppy and all of the staff wear uniforms. We enjoyed marveling at the breathtaking ambience of this high-end American eatery while eating our meal.

SERVICE: we received impeccable treatment from a young and knowledgeable waiter. He briefly described every single dish on the menu, including portion sizes, and was quite helpful with his recommendations. At one point he brought a plate to the table that we didn't ask for (he thought we did), but he quickly assured us that we wouldn't be charged for it and he apologized for the mistake. I left a 25% tip because we were so thoroughly impressed with the service.

SELECTION: the draught lineup was chock-full of rarities such as Aecht Schlenkerla Fastenbier, Porterhouse Wrasslers XXXX Stout, and The Bruery Trade Winds Tripel. Throughout our four course dinner, I had a Three Floyds Apocalypse Cow DIPA, Lagunitas Zephyr, and Mikkeller Draft Bear on tap and a Great Lakes Lake Erie Monster DIPA out of the bottle. These beers were among the best that I sampled on our trip to Chicago, and they nicely complimented the hearty food. Much to my relief, the lady loved the wine that she ordered.

FOOD: unbelievable cuisine for surprisingly good prices. We split the Three Hams plate, Market Salad, a delicious fish entree, and a chocolate meringue pie for dessert. All four dishes tasted phenomenal with immaculate presentation. Truly superb fare.

OVERALL: I'm glad we chose this spot for our special occasion. We had a lovely time here and will definitely return in the future. The Publican is an exemplary model of sophisticated dining matched with fine beer, and I highly recommend it to beer geeks and foodies alike.

09-11-2011 21:58:55 | More by cratez

Fluffheady

Illinois

4.61/5  rDev +2%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 5 | selection: 4.25 | food: 5 | $$$

This place is a really awesome restaurant that also has a great beer list. It's definitely a destination restaurant, and with food and drinks you're looking about $80 a head. I f***ing LOVE their house made pork rinds. They also have a house blended lambic. Crazy. You could definitely take your lady here and not even mention the beer to her (if she's not into beer and is a bit sick of you only taking her to beer places), but you could sample some great stuff. She might notice, though, if someone orders a boot and the entire communal table chants him on to finish (which happened while we were there). This might be a restaurant, but they really care about their beer. I jokingly pointed a mistake out to the server where the menu said that Jolly Pumpkin was from Michigan, not Vermont. Instead of waving me off, she got wide eyed ,exclaimed "you're right!", and ran off to tell the beer director. This place is seriously awesome.

03-27-2013 23:30:30 | More by Fluffheady

shadytony

Illinois

4.2/5  rDev -7.1%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 5 | service: 3 | selection: 4 | food: 5 | $$$$

The atmosphere of this place is awesome. Very "beer hall" and the chefs employ a "head to tail" philosophy (cooking and serving every part of the animals on the menu - usually pig). You will be hard pressed to find a better selection of food at any craft beer establishment in Chicago (especially if you are a pork lover). The beer selection is typically solid but service can be spotty, especially if you are standing at one of the community tables by the bar. I gave selection a solid "4". I would recommend having a reservation and getting a table if you plan on being there for a while. The selection is usually awesome (e.g. I visited for a tapping of K.B.S. which lasted until long after I left). This place may not be for everyone as it leans very much toward a 'high end' dinner spot (this is not a casual bar) and can be very crowded on evenings and weekends.

07-06-2012 15:06:17 | More by shadytony

Higy

Indiana

4.63/5  rDev +2.4%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 5 | selection: 4.5 | food: 4.5 | $$$

I have been here twice once for brunch and then for New Year's Eve. Both times were excellent. For New Year's we took some friends and they were very impressed. They have communal seating and booths with doors (like feed stalls for hogs, very unique.) All together a very nice setting.

The servers are very personable and knowledgable on their beer selections. They are also very good a recommending pairing for their delicious foods and beer.

A little pricey but you get what you pay for and more!

02-12-2012 18:35:41 | More by Higy

4DAloveofSTOUT

Illinois

4.68/5  rDev +3.5%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 5 | selection: 4.5 | food: 5 | $$$

Stopped out here for dinner after attending FOBAB on saturday the 12th. It was within walking distance from the Plumbers Union Hall building tha hosts FOBAB. A group of 4.

Atmosphere: Clean and inviting establishment. Its has a rustic dinning area with a modern looking kitchen. Pretty fancy bathrooms too. Booths with "barn doors" that close guests in for a private meal. Also several large wooden community dinning tables. Unbelevable glassware for all types of alcohol.

Quality: Looks to be a high end dinning experience.

Service: Top Notch! The hostess was polite and seated us immediatly. Dealt with several servers during the meal, they all did well. Our main server was polite, very knowledgeable of the menu(both food and alcohol) and down to earth; this made the group feel as welcome as an honorary guest.

Selection: Really good menu. Really sampled alot of food for dinner. The menu offers multiple items from different regions of the USA and outside of the USA where the food is consider the premium. 4 types of premium hams, 6 different oysters, a $120 seafood platter that requires a 48 hour RSVP! Great beer menu and other alcoholic beverages. All waitstaff have been trained to answer and questions you may have about the booze. The beer pours are correctly done and impressive.

Food: We ate the pork rinds as appetizer, potted rillettes, charcuterie plate, bouchot mussels, farm chicken, and bread pudding for dessert. All the food was fresh, and amazingly delicous. The Charcuterie plate was not something I would normally eat and quite frankly out of my comfort level; it was awesome! We honestly ate way more food than we needed and all plates went back to the kitchen empty. We left the restaurant uncomfortably full, but very happy we were.

Value: It ended up caost each person approximately 35 buck a person wth tip included. Decent cost for a meal in downtown Chicago, especially when you factor in how good the food was and the excellant service! You must try this place out!

11-14-2011 03:04:26 | More by 4DAloveofSTOUT

DCon

Missouri

4.59/5  rDev +1.5%
vibe: 5 | quality: 5 | service: 4 | selection: 4.5 | $$$

Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore... On the flip side, this place seems like your nowhere CLOSE to anywhere that is in the United States. Resembles a Prague beer hall with its tall chairs, long tables, closed off booths, and an awesome community sink (like many of the festivals have in Germany/CZ) that is outside of the restrooms. Cool! Now here goes a review of the place.

Outlined with huge portraits of pigs, these guys are lovers of this animal. There was medium traffic in the restaurant when I was here but there were still more employees working then customers. Since I wasn't eating, they sat us at a stand up wooden table and decided this at the door when they ask for your seating choice (can only sit at the beer hall tables if you are dining).

Very clean, woody, and proper glassware and beer practicing here with presentation. Can't get ANY better!

After talking (or trying to have communication) with 2 of the servers, it was very tough! Not sure if they were having talking issues because of what crazy beers that we were about to order or they were just nervous... Strange! One of the Bar Managers did come around and ask about our experience and this was great! Its always awesome to be able to get a few words in with one of the dudes running the place.

I would definitely look at the prices on any brew here before ordering! Have said this, most of them were anywhere from $22-24 on average all the way up to $65. This was were the place was a bit pricey... Also the food list didn't look very appealing for the prices but who knows. Maybe next time I will have a different outlook on the place as far as price vs. experience.

Check out their hours before taking a taxi here. We decided to come on a Sunday @ 3pm and they didn't open until 5. Not a problem since there were plenty of other places around here until they opened but a bit of a hassle w/ Chicago's unfriendly rain and wind this particular day.

10-31-2011 17:35:17 | More by DCon

JoeySchlitz

California

4.5/5  rDev -0.4%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4.5 | food: 4.5 | $$$

Stopped by here while in Chicago on a business trip. Had no reservations but was by myself and was able to get a spot at the communal table - it was a pretty busy Thursday evening.

Cool place with a modern beer garden decor twist - lots of wood. The beer menu is good with a nice selection of current and quality beers from across the US - mostly focused on the midwest. There was a Brooklyn event earlier in the week so there were a few of their one-off beers on tap. The food is also quite good and I image that most are drawn to this place for that. I was not but found the dishes to be good but not as good as I expected given the pedigree of the chef/owners.

Overall a cool spot for dinner and good beverages. Would definitely come back next time I'm in Chicago.

10-24-2011 04:50:56 | More by JoeySchlitz

beerwolf77

Wisconsin

3.35/5  rDev -25.9%
vibe: 1 | quality: 4 | service: 4 | selection: 3 | $$$

One of our many stops while hanging in chi-city.

First off everyone in our group hated the atmosphere in this place. The long communal tables and the booths with doors on them. WTF? We joked it looked like some sort of brothel where people could get hand jobs while they eat. So weird. The high back chairs were obnoxiously high. The biggest kicker was having to stand and drink. Seriously? No option to sit unless we were eating. Seemed rather douchey.

The beer list was decent an well put together. We ended up ordering the house made gueuze and lambics. Both were pretty good considering the source.

We weren't there to eat but the menu looked like they had some great options.

Honestly I would only go back here to eat. Not as a beer destination. I'm sure this is where the high marks come from. Otherwise I just don't get it.

10-16-2011 19:27:10 | More by beerwolf77

SurlyDuff

Oregon

4.75/5  rDev +5.1%
vibe: 5 | quality: 5 | service: 5 | selection: 4 | food: 5 | $$$

The Publican is one of those world-class establishments that does everything just right. Whether it be the taplist, the food, the atmosphere or the service, they seem to have their shit together.
The beer is supurb, bit I almost want to praise the food to a higher honor. This place is a foodie's delight, especially the carnivorous types. They specialize in small farm and artisanal food, and don't shy from the organs, brains, and other amazing tastes.
Showed up without a reservation on a busy Thusday night, but we found a standing table for the wait. Enjoyed some beers and french fries smothered in fried egg. Got our booth (we called it our pen, as it had a door) and were greeted by a knoweledgable server who, on our bidding, delivered the most delicious vittles, plate after plate. Amazing food and beer, great service, and a very cool vibe with their long common tables and cool booths. Prices were high, but not outrageous, luckily my work paid for the food part ;)
Check this place out if you're anywhere within 2 hours of it, okay?

09-01-2011 14:59:49 | More by SurlyDuff

stercomm

Ohio

4.45/5  rDev -1.5%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4.5 | food: 4.5 | $$$

Took my son and daughter-in-law to dinner here, we had a most enjoyable time. The atmosphere was very nice, with the long tables you end up sitting next to folks and get to have some very nice conversations with those around you.

The beer selection is very nice, had a couple of Three Floyds offerings which is always good. The wait staff was very knowledgeable on the beers as well as being very friendly. While our waiter was very busy he did take the time to chat a bit

The food was outstanding albeit a bit pricey. The pork belly was out of this world. This is a family style menu, you order a bunch of stuff and everyone shares and the selections come out when they are ready.

Will definitely go there again.

08-27-2011 19:58:37 | More by stercomm