Three Floyds Brewing Co. & Brewpub

tgbljb

Pennsylvania

4.5/5  rDev +3.7%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4.5 | food: 4.5 | $$

Stopped at the brewpub on the way to visit friends in Chicago the day before Dark Lord Day 2008.
We arrived shortly after noon on a Friday and were promptly seated. Even though much of the staff seeemed to getting for the next day, service was excellent and the beer selection selction was good. The food items were a bit limited (or at least the waiter told me this) but there was still a great selection. The food and beer were presented nicely, The food portions were perfect, and it was a very positive experience.
I would recommend stopping if you are in the area.

05-03-2008 00:35:35 | More by tgbljb

TMoney2591

Illinois

4.4/5  rDev +1.4%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4.5 | food: 4 | $$

Finally got to visit the brewpub after getting shut out during Dark Lord Day last year. We (VDubb86, taiyed, TheStretch, and myself) sat ourselves down in the "dining area" and soaked in the semi-punkish feel of the decor. The staff was rather friendly and knowledgeable about the brews, and our waiter was pretty prompt as well. The beers, unsurprisingly, were pretty damn good (we were especially pleased to find that the Barrel-Aged Behemoth was still on-tap). The food was very tasty: I had the chicken sandwich and the others shared a sausage pizza. The menu appeared to be the machinations of a restless French-inspired chef. I'm not gonna argue. After our meal and another round o' beers, we took an impromptu (to us, anyway) tour of the brewery (good times) and then headed back inside to get some suds for future imbibing. The pricing was actually not too bad at all, if I do say so myself. Overall, a great time was had by all, and I feel safe in saying we look forward to visiting again in the near future.

02-06-2011 02:13:22 | More by TMoney2591

mynie

Indiana

4.78/5  rDev +10.1%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 5 | food: 4.5 | $$

The drive from the city was awful. Rush hour. I'm not used to that kind of stuff, and in the rain, too, with both rearwindows fogging up every two minutes and lane changes made on good faith. Indiana smells funny, like sulfer and dandruff. The 3 Floyds pub is found behind a large Speedway/White Castle, in the middle of several small factories. It looks like a small factory.

Inside it was busy, the day before New Years Eve. White people of every variety, all very friendly. A movie was for some reason projected silently against the far wall and Interpol was playing at a reasonable volume. All the beers were listed on a chalkboard and a comprehensive beer list.

Quality? I'm not exactly a seasoned Brewpub veteran, but the four beers I sampled while at the 3 Floyds Brewing Company were far and away the very best brewpub beers I have ever had. Nothing comes close. Nothing.

The waitress was friendly despite being obviously overwhelmed. An old man who claimed to be one of the original investors in 3F sat next to my friend and I, told us all sorts of neat stories and said this was the busiest he'd ever seen the place. Strange, because it didn't have the horrible feel of an overly-crowded bar. It wasn't too smoky, there was no ominous raising of voices, crying women, or horrible country/top 40/classic rock blasting.

Another thing about the waitress was that she *knew* about the beer and she respected us enough not to say "Uhh, this is our porter, that's basically like a Guinness" in the style of most other brewpubs, where the waitstaff's ignorance is covered with a patina of five or six memorized sentences.

The selection was massive. Over a dozen 3F beers and guest taps from Stone and a few Belgian brewers (I honestly wasn't very interested, with all the great Three Floyds beers, but if you're a regular it would have been awesome).

The food was great, even for the area. It's hard to find a really good thin crust pizza near Chicago (thick crust is easy, of course), and 3F's delivered. Not that I'm a gourmet or anything, but as far as pub fare goes it was excellent, and quite reasonably priced.

Excellent place, I hope to come back a couple of times a year.

01-01-2006 20:20:00 | More by mynie

BEERchitect

Kentucky

3.85/5  rDev -11.3%
vibe: 3.5 | quality: 4 | service: 4 | selection: 4 | food: 3 | $$$

If weird is what you want, weird is what you get at the Three Floyds brewpub and brewery. And the sense of oddity begins as the GPS drags me through a well-beaten segment of the Chicago suburb and into an mismatched industrial park before placing me in front of an "anywhere USA" metal building that only denotes the arrival with a faded sign above the door that says "FFF". ...and there's the grain silos and loading docks that garner a bit more interest.

With plenty of parking outside, this particularly calm post-Dark Lord Tuesday is seemingly relaxed. But inside the door, nearly every table was occupied with one person each (found this particularly odd). Walking to the left, past about 9 diner-style tables, around the bar, and nestling onto a couple high top table stools, we get a close look at the cluttered bar and the package section of the store that sells bombers, cases, glassware, and shirts.

We were eventually greeted by our waitress- although she was adequate at her job, she was a walking billboard of tattoos with piercings, and a rainbow of hair colors. And it seems that these antics are the prerequisites for employment at the brewery and brewpub. It's something similar to the circus-meets-harley demeanor. A simple request to split tickets at our table was met with, "We don't usually do that, but I'll see what I can do for you." Gee, thanks.

Then there's a peruse of the beer menu and it's chocked full of poupular favorites and exciting new brewpub exclusives: Dreadnaught, Zombie Dust, Thick White Freaks, Shark Pants, Rye Da Lightening, and about a dozen more offerings that seem to showcase their new found fascination with Belgian-style ales. If the beer menu is what you came for, then all is delivered as promised!

The food menu span snacks, small plates, and large plates. A try of the fish and chips and pizza were fine, but I didn't find the praise of their highly regarded food as many others do- perhaps I failed to take advantage of the more adventurous dishes.

With bellies full and a pint to take the edge off of the road trip behind me, a scan of the bar shows an "L" shaped arrangement that seats about 15 is packed with glassware, macabe toyish figurines, and a hearty helping of general dust and clutter. Oil paintings and prints that adorn the walls are somewhat mystic and perverted with bare chested women riding all sorts of things.

The oddly compelling attitude of the place is further exaggerated by the sound of speed metal in rapid succession blaring over the loud speakers and cartoons of Woody Woodpecker playing on the big screen. In general, if there were a tattoo parlor in one corner and a drug deal in the other, it would have seemed about right.

After paying our semi-hefty bill, we thanked our waitress for going completely above and beyond her scope of work and made our way to the to-go counter for a bomber and glass. This was a perfect stop-over to surpass the rush-hour traffic through Chi-town. The brash artwork and fickle nature of distribution of their beers convey the same egos and attitudes in their restaurant. There's something to be said about their inconsistent consistency.

05-27-2012 17:44:28 | More by BEERchitect

DarkerTheBetter

Pennsylvania

4.33/5  rDev -0.2%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4 | selection: 4.5 | food: 4.5 | $$

I made my way to FFF driving home from MN last January. We pulled up and quickly discovered that Munster isn’t on eastern time, so we were an hour early. Curses!!! I’d have to make my way back. And I did. In style.

I came back for the DL release party. When the doors were thrown open, everyone lined up to get their greedy little mitts on their allotment of ‘06 DL. I then reflected on the ticket I had in my pocket and thought, “This reserves a sixer for me. What’s the rush?” So I headed inside with Enlil and his big brother. There were hundreds of blood thirsty beer fanatics outside and surprisingly no one at the bar. The three of us grabbed some counter and ordered up a round of Oaked DL. <insert nostalgic sigh here> We were some of the first, so we got the smooth little low balls instead of the plastic they were handing out later. Oh! Maybe next year, they can sell little DL low balls!!!

Any way, I then went and got BlitheringIdiot and WoodyChandler to come get some lunch and forget about the DL for now. They then got their glass of ODL and we ordered some lunch. It was a barbecue themed day, so we all got different plates of various meats. BI’s order never showed! That was crappy, but it was a pretty busy day. We kept waiting for the last order, but it never came. The waitress was always running by, but we never bothered her. Turns out she forgot.

Looking around, there’s the bar cutting across the left side of the building with a few tall tables across from it and a movie screen playing Star Wars. The right half is all tables, and not too many at that. There’s a bunch of large FFF bottle logos up on the walls along with some of the merchandise up for sale. Outside, I could see the stagnant line of beer zealots NOT drinking ODL. I laughed. I really like the quaint size of this pub and the number of un-cluttered windows. It gave it a really nice, small feel.

The bar wasn’t that big, but they had what looked like the entire FFF family on tap, or at least a fair representation of them. They also had a good selection of bottles and a tall boy of PBR, just in case. I was impressed. It’s been my experience that a brewery will only have so many of its brews up at once, but FFF really went out of the way to get a selection out.

I’d really like to come back to FFF on a normal day to enjoy a pint and see what the feel is. I liked it a lot, but the hype and anxiety of the day may have skewed my interpretations. I guess I’ll just have to come back.

-Update-

I stopped back in Dec. of '06 to meet a few BAs and grab some dinner on my way home to MN. There I discovered that their sandwiches kick some serious ass. I got The Chancelor, which is a piece of pork schnitzle on a pretzle roll with red cabbage. Amazing. The ladyfriend got something equaly as tasty. The food's great and the service was right on too. I got brough the wrong drink so it was on the house. Very nice. This will bump up a few of my ratings.

05-02-2006 21:35:04 | More by DarkerTheBetter

t0rin0

California

4.2/5  rDev -3.2%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4.5 | service: 3.5 | selection: 4.5 | food: 4.5 | $$$

Visited 7/27/2010
8-10 house taps

Middle of nowhere IN, small parking lot, can't believe that they have Dark Lord Day in that parking lot. The loud metal playing was entertaining but I could see it being a turn off for some people. Not me though.

Good food, nice staff but unattentive, surprisngly good beer on tap compared to that mess that is Dark Lord (last couple years anyway). Would definitely go back.

Visited again 10/12/2010

This time there were more like 15-20 house taps. The service was much more attentive and more knowledgeable/accurate than the descriptions on the beer menu. Ended up ordering and splitting half a dozen half pints because they don't offer samples. Oh well. They also had a funny/crappy sci-fi movie being projected on the wall.

I really enjoyed some of the non bottled offerings but was bummed that I still havent been able to try Arctic Panzerwolf. Oh well, some day. Food was good again.

11-08-2010 19:40:08 | More by t0rin0

spointon

Illinois

4.33/5  rDev -0.2%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4 | selection: 4.5 | food: 4 | $$$

Visited on 10/5/2008.

FFF brewpub is located in a light-industrial park and from the outside it looks like it could be just another small manufacturing plant. A couple outside touches let you know this is the real deal: The metal art sculpture of the "Alpha King / Alpha Queen" out front and the beautiful gardens in front set off an otherwise non-descript metal sided building.

Once inside you can go to the right and find the dining area or turn left and visit the bar room. Everything is kitschy and cool where it counts and non-descript where it doesn't. For example, the floors are simple painted concrete and the ceiling is what you would expect in a metal industrial building, but the walls are covered in cool brewerania, FFF artwork, and wierdo TV and movie references (for example, the framed picture of Sam Elliott cracks me up). There are a few TVs scattered around that show old movies or sports games but these are not the focus of the place. The most important thing to note is that this pub is small. There are only about 10 tables in the dining room and fewer than that in the bar area.

Now for the good stuff. The beer selection was excellent, with around 8 FFF beers on tap and at least 8-10 guest taps. Between all of these taps, there was a huge range of styles and types represented. Most of these beers are $5 per imperial pint, and with several of the beers at 8+ abv, that is a deal! The guest taps are a nice mix of American and imported craft brews, but along with the extensive bottle list they were sort of expensive.

Service was reasonably good, with most of our needs being met fairly quickly. The food was very good. I have heard people bag on the food here but it has always been good or better on my visits.

In short, a relaxed unassuming place with excellent beers for mostly reasonable prices (though some are unexplicably too costly). Definitely worth a visit!

10-06-2008 04:31:21 | More by spointon

cratez

Ontario (Canada)

3.49/5  rDev -19.6%
vibe: 3 | quality: 4.5 | service: 1 | selection: 5 | $$$

Second of two breweries that my girl and I visited on a trip to Chicago in July 2011. Our final stop on the way back to Ontario.

VIBE: the restaurant section of the brewpub is very cramped and uncomfortable. The chalkboard list of all the retail offerings is located in the dining area so you have to walk over and peruse the menu (disrupting patrons who are eating) or squint from the bar while you waste the server’s time. An awkward, inconvenient set-up.

SERVICE: although the host and one of the locals were nice enough, the bartender was a complete douche bag. I was buying beer to go and tried to order as quickly as possible, but because the menu was tough to see, it took me a couple minutes to decide which bombers I wanted. The barkeep made his frustration known by asking me to "hurry up." Since the beer is world class, and in light of the fact that I came here to grab my haul rather than West Lakeview Liquors (by this point far behind us), I tolerated his childish behaviour. But it was disappointing to receive such abysmal service.

SELECTION: every 3Floyds beer that I’ve heard of along with guest taps from Stone and Left Hand. I bought two bombers each of the Dreadnaught, Admiral Lord Nelson, Gorch Fock, and Arctic Panzer Wolf, two 6-packs of Alpha King, and one sixer each of the Gumballhead and Pride & Joy. These 32 beers came to $115, which is okay value given the outstanding quality of the brews.

OVERALL: if I were to return to Three Floyds in the future, I would snag some food and drinks in the restaurant section before purchasing any beer-to-go. Seems like this place is more focused on the brewpub front than the retail element, and my guess is that we would’ve received better service had we sat down and ate. I’m glad that I scored a bunch of brews from one of the best micros around; however, the bartender should be much friendlier to eager patrons who are willing to spend their hard-earned money here.

09-13-2011 18:03:37 | More by cratez

botham

Illinois

4.05/5  rDev -6.7%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4.5 | service: 3.5 | selection: 4.5 | food: 3 | $$

Three Floyd's is in the middle of nowhere, but is a special place to grab a brew. There is something wonderful about drinking beer at the brewery, which is more fresh than anywhere else one will experience it.

atmosphere is a furnished warehouse type space, with a nice mix of low lounge furniture and tables and chairs. if smoking were allowed in this space, the decor suggests that you would only be able to see a few feet in front of you. very headshop-esque with lots of color and artwork from the brewery and their beer.

quality is good. a standard brewpub in glassware and cleanliness. no complaints.

service can be good or bad. servers tend to take a bit longer than one would hope with orders and checks.

selection is great. aside from the Three Floyd's offerings, there is a healthy guest tap and bottle list that provides something for everyone. the only complaint here was upon a mid-November visit, there were no dark offerings from the brewery. the darkest beer available from FFF was a scotch ale. normally winter = black beers.

food is standard bar food. the fries were chewy, which did not spawn too much interest in the rest of the menu.

overall, the unique and amiable atmosphere at the brewpub works well with enjoying a pint, and the brews are pretty good as well. cheers!

11-16-2008 16:46:46 | More by botham

goodbyeohio

Oregon

4.55/5  rDev +4.8%
vibe: 4 | quality: 5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4.5 | food: 4 | $

first stop on the chicago festival of debauchery 2006 trip. flew into midway and immediately got in the chevy malibu rental en route to munster. a true traffic nightmare!

arrived at the pub on friday around 2:30, there was only one table occupied (seemed to be fellow beer enthusiasts as they were fervently sampling), so i grabbed a seat at the bar. had been here before, but only when mobbed. i really had the opportunity to take in the college dorm-style decor. brashly painted walls, random posters and signage about, lots of beer memorabilia. three floyds' bottle collection of bombers past lines the shelf over the bar. a front window nook has two fabric-covered couches that also belong in said dorm room. there is a nifty little chalkboard and various printed menus around displaying current tap beers.. and what a selection!

enjoyed the company of the employees who were very helpful and knowledgeable. the bartender was able to provide excellent descriptions of the brews, and the waitress wrote down detailed directions for me to liquor stop. the marketing/website guy was happy to run down their new plan for monthly seasonals, which sounds excellent. also a plus that the brewers are hanging out in the pub between mashing and hopping or whatever it is they do.

foodwise, i really sought out recommendations before i went (avoid buffalo calamari, try the burger..) but relied on the suggestions of the bartender, who was passionate about what he did and didn't like. first up was the scotch egg, which was excellent. thin, crispy layer of battered sausage on a quartered egg.. excellent spicy dipping sauce to go with that. not greasy and very flavorful. when i heard that the chili of the day was cocoa venison, i knew that was a must-try. more of a stew, but bursting with spice and flavor. chef even made a point to come out and ask me how it was since i was the first person to try it that day.

and the beer.. what can i say? let's start with $5 dreadnaughts. that's all i'd need in life to be happy, and a bar that carried that and PBR only would probably earn a 4 for selection. when i was there, they had: dreadnaught, alpha king, robert the bruce, pride and joy, red tendon porter, calumet queen, chubby brown, alpha kong, gumballhead, munsterfest, and fifteen or so quality guest taps which included hercules dipa, reissdorf kolsch, saison dupont and gouden carolus. one stop shopping for an excellent tasting experience. only frown was lack of cask.. but i understand they occassionally hook one up or throw a firkin on the bar. had a calumet queen, a dreadnaught, and a chubby brown.. all were served in proper glassware and at good temps. all, also, were as fresh as you can get. DN on tap is even better than the bottle, if you can imagine.

also noted should be the music, which was an eclectic mix of punk, rock, and 90's alternative-type stuff. not for everyone, but i really dug the vibe. alot of brewpubs are switching focus to big screen tv's and sports vibe.. this place is a true bar without a central high-definition football crack pipe to smoke from. good beer, good tunes.

really glad i had a chance to get here on a day OTHER than dark lord day. a welcome respite for those rural indianaites.. with this place and flossmoor station within 10 miles of each other, there is a great scene blowing up in this little area south of chicago.

11-07-2006 18:05:39 | More by goodbyeohio