Armitage Alehouse Review Lincoln Park Chicago

Table Of Content

• Oregon’s Sports Bra, a pub for women’s sports fans, plans national expansion as interest booms
• Chicago’s Old Town Ale House
• ‘You always wish you had more time with Anthony’
• Welcome To The Old Town Ale House
• Makenzie Helem, Top 30 USBG Bartender, Joins 2024 Bartender Spirits Awards Judging Panel
• The history of Old Town Ale House
• Plush daytime spaces and sleek lobby bars make hanging onsite all day and night so easy.

Although mostly portraits of bar regulars, Elliott’s work has recently delved into the political. The compositions, like Bruce himself, are thoughtful, honest, and occasionally vulgar. He’s a man who freely shares his point of view, created and sharpened by living, working and drinking in Chicago. Stationed across the street from the famed Second City Theater, the bar has been home to a host of comedians, artists and celebrities for decades.

Oregon’s Sports Bra, a pub for women’s sports fans, plans national expansion as interest booms

The Old Town Ale House boasts an array of beers, ranging from craft brews by breweries like Revolution Brewing and Half Acre Brewing Company, to our favorite cult brands like Guinness, Stella Artois, Corona, PBR Tallboys, and more. The pub is also known for bartender Tim’s cocktails, including the classic Michelada. If you’re looking for something off-the-menu, then feel free to ask Tim for one of his ‘signature secret creations’.

Chicago’s Old Town Ale House

Bruce’s paintings of boxers and filmmakers are hung alongside those of drug users and nude dancers. There are depictions of colorful regulars like the late Ruben Four Toes, pictured as a child smoking a cigarette and drinking a martini. Tim Barrett, who bartends at the Old Town Ale House, is up on the back wall too.

‘You always wish you had more time with Anthony’

I thought we agreed to an email interview, but then he or someone from his organization mostly ignored my questions. Instead, they gave rote answers to questions I never asked. The food menu at The Old Town Ale House consists of small plates and bar food like nachos, tamales, carnitas, and even poke bowls. Now, the bar is in the hands of Bruce Elliot and his wife Tobin and is like a second home to many locals. Not long after the new owners took over, the Ale House caught on fire. Taking with them about forty drinking pals, they carried what was left of the original Ale House and moved it into the middle of North Avenue, through the doors of what once used to be Pete’s Butcher Shop.

The Old Ale Town House was established in 1958 by entrepreneur E.J. Vangelder’s idea for the pub came from his visits to San Francisco, where he often visited the Vesuvios saloon on North Beach. Vangelder was good at building bars and hiring bartenders but wasn’t one for customer relations - due to which he sold the pub to Joe Diaz. Diaz’s ownership immediately ran the bar into the ground, and he sold it in 1970 to Art Klug and his group of Rush Street eccentrics. Once you’ve made it inside, you’re basically in a Peaky Blinders episode.

Review: Armitage Alehouse is a dreamy escape that deserves better food - Chicago Tribune

Review: Armitage Alehouse is a dreamy escape that deserves better food.

Posted: Mon, 28 Feb 2022 08:00:00 GMT [source]

Hogsalt Hospitality Plans to Open Armitage Ale House in Lincoln Park - Eater Chicago

Hogsalt Hospitality Plans to Open Armitage Ale House in Lincoln Park.

Posted: Wed, 20 Jan 2021 08:00:00 GMT [source]

Sticking to the traditional English dishes provides firmer footing, even though I wish the crust on the pike fish and chips ($27) wasn’t so heavy. The bar is nothing compared with the dining room, where elegantly framed portraits line the walls. Dim lamps and ornate chandeliers cast a golden glow around the room like you’ve slipped into a Hollywood period drama.

Makenzie Helem, Top 30 USBG Bartender, Joins 2024 Bartender Spirits Awards Judging Panel

The oddball menu also lists a chopped wedge salad ($19), glazed black cod with a sweet miso glaze ($43) and matzo ball soup ($13). If Winston Churchill, who was chancellor of the exchequer in 1926, made a surprise visit from beyond the grave, he’d have a lot of questions. After taking over the bar, Tobin started sprucing the bar up and decided to extend the famous Ale House wall mural which was painted in 1971 by Maureen Munson. The mural contains the portraits of fifty or sixty old-time customers. With the help of Elliot’s talents, soon enough, every corner of the bar was covered in pictures of a present or former regular.

Walk through the front door, and you’re no longer on a sleepy corner of Lincoln Park, but a bustling London corridor. The decor looks like it’s been around for nearly a hundred years, but meticulously maintained. Polished antiques sit in every nook and cranny, including a towering metal coffee maker that bounces light across the room. Though packed with guests and servers rushing around, the room maintains an intimate, hushed vibe, with the music just loud enough to hear, yet never overbearing. But this is no bawdy tavern full of pint-chugging lads. Instead, it feels like where gentlemen from the House of Lords might retire after a long day of doing … whatever they do in the House of Lords.

He got the idea for the bar from a San Francisco saloon called Vesuvios which was located in North Beach. Vangelder was good at building bars and hiring bartenders. He was bad at customer relations and eventually sold the bar to a poor slob name Joe Diaz.

Over the years, the Ale House saw many partners come in and go, but Art Klug always remained. Eventually, Art’s ex-wife Beatrice bought the remaining shares and the two took over. After the death of Art and Beatrice in 2005, Tobin Mitchell, Bruce’s wife, took over the bar, on one condition iterated by Beatrice - no blender, no credit cards.

During Bruce’s lifetime, the Old Town neighborhood that wraps around the bar has changed dramatically. He described Old Town in the ’60s as a small Greenwich Village, filled with artists, writers, and actors. The biggest shift happened in the ’70s when the city widened the street outside the bar. Bruce said this seemingly small move altered the social fabric of the block and forced local businesses to close. In the years since, Old Town has seen massive gentrification and is now one of Chicago’s wealthiest neighborhoods.