Hopleaf Bar

5148 N Clark St
Chicago, IL 60640
(773) 334-9851

Knowing how packed Hopleaf is now, I am psyched that I discovered this place pre-Check, Please! (it loses something if you can't hear the lilt of "Check") because crowds make me crazy and crazy makes me cut folks and that's no fun - for the victim. Anywhoo - this place is truth!

Each time I come here is an exercise in gluttony. I suppose I shouldn't revel such tawdry details, but they are true. I came upon Hopleaf in a rather auspicious way. Some of my college friends were in town and they told me about a fabled Belgian beer garden in Andersonville. Really? In Andersonville? I'll check it out. The cab dropped us off a few blocks away and I looked to the left and right. On one side of the street was a garage/laundry/sweatshop/mob cover of some kind. On the other side was a leather bar. Immediately, I thought that my friends had played a cruel joke on me but our fearless leader implored us to move onward.

We walked a few blocks and arrived at our destination. Since this was a pre-Check, Please! event, we didn't have to wait long. But our wait wasn't that bad because we went upstairs and started drinking. And then we came downstairs and started drinking. And the we ordered food and started drinking. And then we unbuckled our belts, leaned back and started drinking. My friends stuck to the tried and true European goodies. I like variety, so I wandered from old school European to classic Belgian to fruity cherry to smoky chocolate to lagers to porters to ales to stouts. It was exciting and intoxicating (*rimshot*) to experience such great beers. Then we got in a cab, went to Lincoln Park and hit on college coeds. Yeah. Not one of my finer moments.

Another not-so-fine-moment of pure gluttony at Hopleaf: the mussels. I went there (again, pre-Check, Please!) with three other guys. We ordered the mussels for two. The waitress erroneously thought we needed two buckets. No. We needed four. And sausage. And cheese. And lots of beer. Just when I thought the evening couldn't get any more disgusting, two of my party DRANK the mussel bucket juice. I was shocked and sickened into sobriety. Surprisingly, one of them threw up.

Hopleaf: great food, amazing beer, poor choices.