Last night Charles and I went to yet another Chicago street fest – The Chicago Craft Beer Festival. This is a newer street fest, and perhaps one of the best. Weekend tickets are just $39 for two people via Groupon, and they include more than enough tickets to taste craft beers from 50 different microbreweries. Last night we went to the VIP limited release tasting and had a blast. Unlike other street fests, the Craft Beer Fest is all business: beer stations, a handful of food vendors, and a stage for music. There is nothing for kids to do – so there aren’t a million kids running around.
When you enter the festival you are given a tasting glass and a stack of tickets. I can’t imagine anyone needing more tickets than they give you. We had 6 tickets leftover. The tasting glass has a 3 ounce mark on it, but every single brewery filled the 6 ounce glass up all the way. The breweries are mostly from the Midwest. The people running the brewery stations were really nice and they were happy to see you come back for another taste of a beer that you liked.
We needed to eat dinner at the festival and the food offerings went perfectly with beer. Polish food is a Chicago street fest staple, so I had pierogi and Charles had chicken skewers and polish cabbage. The pierogi were a nice treat, I hadn’t had them in a long time. The other food options included sausage and freshly made potato chips served in a giant heap and topped with cheese and bacon; this was called the heart attack.
I want to be clear and let you know that if you do not like beer, you shouldn’t go to this festival. There are no other alcohol options at this fest. There is only one minor exception to this. Cupcake Wines’ truck was at the event giving samples of wine, and free cupcakes. Obviously, if you are a wine lover a small sample won’t cut it. Their truck was really fun, and it turns out that they get their cupcakes from Maine. I did ask them if they could permanently park their truck at my home (they said no). A cupcake and wine truck is one of the greatest things on earth.
We hadn’t planned to stay for the band at the festival, but we were very pleasantly surprised by singer/songwriter Tyrone Wells. He was great live and we even ended up buying two CDs, and we might see him play at the House of Blues this fall.
If you don’t have plans this weekend you should head over to the Craft Beer Fest. What could be better than drinking beer in the sun? Plus, proceeds from the event go towards the historic St. Michael’s cathedral.
And a note about my outfit. My shirt was purchased from Necessary Clothing after I saw Julia from Lemon Stripes wearing it on her blog. She has great style and her blog is one of my favorites. My shoes are Tory Burch, and they are on sale right now.