Yard House Glenview and Ted's Montana Grill

Not a real consideration for dinner, but the Yard House does have a selection of some 100 or so beers on tap. If only it had a fuller selection of micros it might be worth more than a visit every half year or so. More on this issue below.

We started with a nice dinner @ Ted's Montana Grill nearby. Excellent beef and buffalo offerings dominate the menu, I and a friend enjoyed variations on the buffalo burger, quite meaty, juicy, and hearty. My wife enjoyed the special, buffalo short ribs and quite enjoyed it. My other friend a buffalo fillet, quite tasty. Very limited beer selections, so it was a draft Sam Adams for me. Overall a B+ and well worth another trip.

Yard House has a long list, they have a unique tower than serves all the tap beers at the same temperature (not optimal), as an addition to the forlorn suburbs looking for a selection beyond Bud and Miller it's great, but could be so much better. Outside a decent micro list of Goose Island, Dogfish Head, Summit, Great Lakes, a few belgians there is nothing special. They do several mixes like Black and Tan, Black and Blue, and most interestingly a Belgian lambic with raspberries mixed with Young's Double Chocolate Stout. Overall, a B-, not bad but could be so much more.

OK, OK, Ok, Lagers aren't that Bad

I'm usually caught ranting about how lagers ruined the beer industry in America. Well it turns out it was really big business as usual. As Richard Nalley describes in the excellent Forbes article, many superb lagers exist, but surely not the ones from AB, Miller, etc. He even has a list of suggestions, and I might add the dudes at Three Floyds make some nice lagers.

Lost Abbey coming here!

A St. Louis blog I follow tipped me off to some great news for Chicago loving beer folks, beer may now becoming here from Lost Abbey, one of the great makers of ales in the US. I'm a very happy guy :). As their blog writer says, "That won't suck." No it won't.