Road Tips

Porkopolis - Indianapolis

On a recent trip out to Indianapolis, I was looking for restaurants not too far from my hotel on the north side of the city for a late lunch/early dinner since I have still been on my OMAD (One Meal a Day) diet to help me continue to lose weight.  (I'm down 60 pounds since I started my diet nearly a year ago.)  I was sort of hungry for barbecue, but the two places near my hotel I had already been to before.  I was looking for someplace new and I found a barbecue place that popped up as a suggestion on my GPS that was about a 10 minute drive away.  It was a place called Porkopolis and I wasn't familiar with it.  I thought I'd go and check the place out.  

Brady Bogen and Matt Hamilton are lifelong friends who grew up together in Columbus, OH.  Bogen went into radio broadcasting while Hamilton got his degree from Indiana University and got into the hospitality business.  Hamilton worked for a number of restaurant ventures around the United States before settling in Phoenix a number of years ago.  Bogen was already living in Phoenix and working as a morning rush disc jockey at a popular hard rock/heavy metal station.  Bogen had started to market a line of barbecue sauces that he categorized as "Midwestern sweetness with Southwestern flavors".  Brady's Sauce was already a favorite around the Phoenix area by the time Hamilton and Bogen reconnected.  

Bogen's direct family lineage dates back to the early 1800's as he is the direct decedent of George Bogen, one of the first meat packers to open in Cincinnati.  Hamilton and Bogen thought that maybe they needed to think beyond just sauces and open a barbecue joint in the Valley of the Sun.  They enlisted the help of Roger McConnell, a local butcher who moved from Iowa to the Mesa area in the early 90's to open a meat shop featuring corn-fed Midwestern beef and pork.  With McConnell supplying the top notch pork and beef for the new venture, the trio opened the first Porkopolis in the Phoenix suburb of Chandler in 2012.  The got the name from a nickname Bogen's great-great grandfather called Cincinnati in the mid-1800's.  In 2016, the group opened a second location in Scottsdale.  

Gavin Hart had gone to college with Matt Hamilton at Indiana and had gotten into the restaurant business, himself.  He and his wife had been franchisees of a number of restaurants including Dunkin Donuts, Dairy Queen and BurgerFi.  The Harts owned a Dairy Queen on N. Michigan just north of 465 near Zionsville, but they were sort of getting tired with that format and wanted to do something else.  

Hamilton and Hart stayed in touch over the years and Hart voiced his desire to do something else with his Dairy Queen location, possibly a barbecue place.  Hamilton suggested that Hart come down to Phoenix to take a look at their Porkopolis operation.  Once he was there, Hart immediately liked the concept, down to the sauces they served at the restaurant.  Hart immediately signed on board as a part-owner of Porkopolis.

In early 2018, the Hart's closed the Dairy Queen location and started to renovate it into a Porkopolis location.  About six months later, the transformation was complete and they opened the Indianapolis Porkopolis in the fall of 2018.   

I came across W. 86th Street as the late afternoon traffic on I-465 was bumper to bumper.  I turned north on N. Michigan and headed under the interstate and further up the road to the north.  On my left, I saw the Porkopolis location, but there was no way for me to take a left hand turn into the place.  I went up to the light on 106th Street, did a U-turn and headed back down Michigan toward Porkopolis.  (see map)

From the outside, I could still kind of see that the building was one of those pre-fab franchise-type restaurants that, I guessed, was possibly a Kentucky Fried Chicken at one point.  Only after I found out that it used to be a Dairy Queen did I realize that I was sort of track with my thinking.  The restaurant shared its parking lot with a convenience store/gas station next door. 

Walking into Porkopolis, I found a well-appointed and cozy space with a full bar on one end, an open kitchen off to the side and a smattering of tables and booths down the long narrow dining area.  An outdoor patio was in front of the building facing N. Michigan Ave.  Since it was late in the afternoon, I was the only one in there.  In fact, the whole time I was there, I was the only one in there.  

I was seated at a booth by Kareem, a soft-spoken young man who would also be my server.  Kareem seemed distracted during my visit constantly looking out the window looking at - or for - god knows what.  He gave me a menu and I asked what kind of craft beer they had.  He really didn't know what they had, so I made my way up to the bar to check out the selection on tap.  I spied a Bell's Two Hearted Ale and ordered up a pint of that.  

The menu had your normal barbecue specialties - baby back ribs, brisket, pulled pork, smoked chicken and smoked turkey.  They also had a number of barbecued meat sandwiches, as well as a burger, a rib-eye steak and southern fried chicken for people not looking for barbecue.  A number of interesting items such as jambalaya with smoked pork and chicken, pulled pork tacos, and an appetizer called fried gumbo - deep fried chunks of shrimp, catfish and okra mixed together and seasoned with a rub concocted by Brady Bogen.  

I really wanted to try some barbecue - I normally like to get the combo platter when I do barbecue - but something else grabbed my attention.  I ended up getting the smoked meatloaf.  It consisted of a mixture of pork and beef cooked in the smoker, then sliced and placed on the grill to finish it off.  It was served on a bed of mashed potatoes with green beans as a side.  A liberal amount of Brady's sweet and smoky sauce was placed on top of the meat loaf.  

The meat loaf was actually pretty good.  It had a nice smoked flavor and the char from the grill helped give it a nice finish on the taste buds.  The pork and beef mixture - how I like to make my meat loaf at home - was very flavorful.  And the sauce was a great complement to all the taste sensations.  I'm always dubious of meat loaf on the road, but Porkopolis' meat loaf more than satiated my appetite.

But I still wanted to try some of their barbecue, so along with the meat loaf I ordered the burnt ends appetizer.  It was a small bowl filled with tender brisket ends topped with the same sweet and smoky sauce that was on the meat loaf. It was sort of expensive for what I was served, but it was still very good.

They had four different types of sauces on the table - there was a regular sauce in a Porkopolis bottle, the sweet and smoky Brady's sauce, a hot and sweet Brady's sauce, and a very interesting Sriacha chile verde sauce.  I tried some of that on the mashed potatoes and I liked it immensely.  It was a little too salty for my liking, but the sauce really livened up the somewhat dull mashed potatoes.  In hindsight, I should have picked up a bottle of Sriacha green sauce when I was there.  

For my first visit to Porkopolis, I come away pretty impressed.  I was a little concerned about three things - I was the only one that was in there the whole time I was there (I left around 5:30 p.m.), the server was a little distracted (but he did an OK job of taking care of any request I had), and it is sort of a pain to get to if you're traveling north on N. Michigan.  But the smoked meat loaf was very good, as was the burnt end appetizer.  It was a nice and comfortable setting and there wasn't much of a hint that the place used to be a Dairy Queen up to a little over a year before.  I liked Porkopolis and if you're in the area you probably should give it a try. 

The Onion Roll - Oak Park, IL

Earlier this year, the Chicago Tribune ran a story where they named the top corned beef sandwiches in the Chicagoland region.  Many of the places they listed I had been to, but there was one place that I had passed a few times in the past out in Oak Park that they had listed - The Onion Roll.  It turned out that not long after the article came out, I was in the Oak Park area and had a chance to stop in for a late lunch to The Onion Roll.  

The Onion Roll is a Jewish deli that has been around for nearly 60 years, but five years ago the original owners were looking to retire.  Two chiropractors whose original practice was just down the block from The Onion Roll - Dr. Igor Russo and Dr. Ryan Rosenthal - didn't want the place to close up.  They ended up buying the deli in 2014 and set about freshening up the restaurant.  

Like any place that is owned by someone for over 50 years - home, building, business - there's always some things that get worn or neglected as time goes on.  The two chiropractors renovated the deli and kitchen area, as well as the dining room, giving everything a fresh new look without making it look "too new".  They reopened the revamped deli about four months after they took over. 

The Onion Roll is located on North Ave. in Oak Park, just east of Harlem Ave.  (see map) I pulled up to the brick facade building with a green awning in front around 1:30 that day.  Going inside the deli, there is a long deli counter just as you walk in.  Different types of meats, cheeses, salads and sides were on display in the refrigerated glass counter.  Not knowing the drill, I asked one of the guys behind the counter if I ordered at the counter or sat down to order.  He asked if I was getting it to go - I wasn't.  "To go orders up here," he explained.  "If you're eating here, grab a seat and we'll get you taken care of."  

The main dining room was a long and narrow space with a counter that sat 7 or 8 patrons with a number of tables along the wall and up front.  I took a table next to the wall and picked up a menu that was on the table.  I was kind of surprised to see that they had a full breakfast menu available featuring omelets, pancakes, breakfast sandwiches, and - of course - fresh smoked lox on a bagel.  The lunch portion of the menu featured a number of deli sandwiches, as well as burgers and a chicken sandwich.  Jewish specialties such as Nova Latkes, chopped liver and a smoked lox sandwich were also available.  The signature item on the menu appeared to be a variety of corned beef or pastrami sandwiches that are served on fresh onion rolls - naturally.  They came in two sizes - Earthling and Spaceman.  

I know they were cited for having one of the top corned beef sandwiches in the city, but I ended up getting The Onion Roll's hot pastrami with Swiss cheese on rye.  The pastrami was piled high with the Swiss cheese sort of balancing on top.  A large kosher dill pickle came on the side with a small tub of ground horseradish that I eagerly put on the sandwich along with some yellow mustard.  The waitress also brought out a small sample of their cole slaw for me to try after she tried to get me to order it as a side.  

The pastrami was cut thin and was very lean.  It had that wonderful pastrami taste and the horseradish gave it a zippy taste quality. The rye bread was dry, but still very edible.  This was a quality sandwich.

And I have to say that I messed up on not getting the cole slaw.  The sample that I tried had that wonderful sweet, sour and spicy taste sensation that I love in good cole slaw.  I was sorry when the couple three bites of the sample she brought out were gone.  But that was fine - the sandwich was more than enough for me for lunch that day.

I always love finding good little Jewish delicatessens and The Onion Roll more than lived up to my expectations once I read about the place in the Chicago Tribune.  The hot pastrami with Swiss on rye was a classic deli sandwich.  Having fresh horseradish to put on top of the pastrami helped give it a little zip in taste.  And the cole slaw sample I had made me wish I had ordered it in the first place.  Jewish delis are a dying breed, I'm sorry to say.  But with new owners, The Onion Roll will be serving up great sandwiches, breakfasts and Jewish specialties for years to come.  

The Continental - Des Moines

My sister's boyfriend had invited my wife and I to join them along with my two nieces and their husbands in Des Moines for the NCAA men's basketball tournament regional games earlier this March.  We wanted to meet up for lunch beforehand and someone had suggested that we go to Zombie Burger in Des Moines' East Village.  (Click here to see Road Tips visit to Zombie Burger.)  My wife and I were the first to arrive at Zombie Burger and we found that there would be a two-hour wait for a table for 8.  We had to spring into Plan B pretty quickly and we did some checking on restaurant apps on our phones for available restaurants in the area.  About a block and a half away from Zombie Burger there was a restaurant that sounded promising.  We walked down a block and turned left on E. Locust and walked up to the front of The Continental.  It was less than half full and they said they could push together a couple three high-top tables up front.  We sat down and it wasn't much more than five minutes when the rest of our group showed up.  My sister took a look around the place and said, "I've always wanted to try this place.  Sure!  This will do!"    

Kevin Dubay was a Des Moines native who was teaching art at the University of Missouri/Kansas City.  He and his wife, Jennifer, had longed to open their own restaurant and began to look for places to start one. In 2005, Kevin Dubay quit his teaching job in Kansas City and moved back to Des Moines to search for a site for his restaurant dream.  The East Village in Des Moines was beginning to become a shopping and entertainment destination with bars, restaurants, shops, and music venues popping up.  The DuBay's focused on a space on E. Locust Street and they recruited Dubay's brother Brian - a chef during the day and a local musician at night - to help get their restaurant going.  The Dubay's opened The Continental Lounge in the summer of 2006 offering craft beers, eclectic cocktails and an interesting food menu consisting primarily of small plate and tapas offerings.  The name was eventually shortened to just "The Continental" at some point.

The bar area at The Continental was up front and featured a long "L"-shaped bar with a back bar going the length of the front bar.  They had a couple three bartenders working - one appeared to be a mixologist doing nothing but mixing drinks from the somewhat extensive craft cocktail list that they had.  My wife immediately ordered up a drink that had gin, tequila and citrus juice in it.  She was sort of taken aback by the taste at first, but she quickly learned to like it.  

The restaurant featured a number of booths upfront with a number of paintings hanging on the exposed brick wall.  Many of the prints were by local artists and were for sale.  It got increasingly more dark as you went back into the restaurant.

The far back area of the long and narrow restaurant featured more artwork on the walls above tables.  Initially, after they offered to push the high-top tables together up front, we found this little area and thought it would be better to have a couple square tables pushed together back here.  But, it was sort of dark in the back area and my wife made the executive decision to sit up front in the natural light.  

Before the rest of our group had joined us, I'd ordered up a Bloody Mary with a Bell's Two Hearted Ale that they had on tap.  One of the bartenders - a very laid-back guy whose easy demeanor seemed to be stuck on idle the whole time he worked with us - told me that it takes some time for the Bloody Mary to be made.  He got me my beer while I waited, and then after everyone showed up he brought me the Bloody Mary.  Once they saw the Bloody Mary he brought me, other people in our group immediately signed up for one.  It was worth the wait.  

The food menu at The Continental features a number of shareable plates, a few salads and a handful of sandwiches.  (They also have large plate entree specials after 5 p.m.)  The sharable plates or tapas included truffled button mushrooms, pastrami egg rolls, spicy minced pork & beef meat balls, and chicken & chorizo brochettes.  There were so many interesting things on the menu that we just decided to start ordering stuff up and share it all around.  

When our laid-back server came back out from behind the bar to take our food order, I noticed that he wasn't carrying a pad to write things down.  Now, it absolutely drives my youngest niece crazy when servers don't write stuff down - it sort of unnerves me, as well, especially when it's a large group.  Like ours that day.  I've found that more often than not nothing good ever comes out of that.  But we decided to see if the guy could pull it off.  

And we were pleasantly surprised - he was very good.  When he brought the food out, he had everything correct with the exception of an order of cheese and olive-stuffed empanadillas that he didn't bring out from the kitchen.  I had to say that I was impressed.  But my niece wouldn't give him a pass on the empanadillas.  I told her that I've had servers who wrote stuff down who forgot food or gave me the wrong thing.  This guy almost nailed it.  

Here are some of the items that we had that day -

We ordered up two or three plates of The Continental's poutine.  It was classic Quebec-style poutine with crispy fries, cheese curds and a brown gravy poured over the top.  For a poutine - and I've had some good poutine in my visits to Montreal - this was very good.  

The braised beef sandwich was also a popular choice at the table.  It featured brisket slow roasted in a cranberry/tomato sauce and served on a kaiser roll.  My sister gave me a bite of hers and the combination of the tender beef with the tangy tomato sauce with just enough of a sweet fruity taste from the cranberries was an exceptional taste.  

Some of us ordered tacos.  They had pork tacos where the meat was marinated and roasted in a combination of citrus juice, achiote paste and Patron tequila.  They also had the braised beef tacos, similar to the braised beef sandwich some had.  The braised beef tacos came on deep-fried flour taco shells topped with chopped lettuce and tomatoes, and a chipotle cream sauce came on the side.  The braised beef tacos were yummy!  I almost ordered up some of the grilled tilapia tacos to go along with the pork and braised beef tacos, but we had more than enough food on the table.  

My wife wanted to try the crab/shrimp cakes and she definitely didn't get cheated on the portion.  The crab/shrimp cakes were encrusted in a panko bread crumb and parmesan mixture and served on a slick of remoulade sauce.  Big, thick, and rich in taste, my wife said she could have just had a couple of those and she would have been good for lunch.   She also helped share some of the chipotle hummus they had at The Continental.  The hummus was served small pita points and my wife liked the spicy flavor it had.  

While The Continental wasn't our first choice for lunch that day, I'm guessing we had a much better meal than if we had decided to wait it out at Zombie Burger.  I was more than impressed with the food, drink selection, craft beer list, and the service we received that day.  The decor was tasteful and the atmosphere was relaxed and folksy. It was a great re-purposing of a space in a building that probably had been built well over 100 years before.  The Continental was a great place to share food in a group and they were more than eager to take care of every little thing that we asked for.  

Big Lug Canteen - Indianapolis

Out in Indianapolis earlier this spring, I was looking for a place where I could get a burger and a craft beer.  I happened to encounter a place that was tucked back in a strip mall near the hotel I was staying at, a place called Big Lug Canteen.  The name sounded interesting enough that I had to check it out.  

Ed Sahm is well-known around Indianapolis for many of his eponymous named restaurants in the area.  He opened his first restaurant in north suburban Fishers in 1986 (click here to read the Road Tips entry on Sahm's Restaurant in Fishers) and branched out to other locations around the city from then on.  In 2009, he was joined in the business by his son, Eddie, who focused on developing new ventures for the family's business.  (Today, the Sahm's operate 15 various themed restaurants in the greater Indianapolis area.)   

The Snooty Fox was a longtime English-style pub on the north side of Indianapolis.  It had fallen on hard times and in 2010 the owners agreed to be part of a makeover by the reality television program Restaurant Impossible.  The menu and decor were changed to be more like an English pub, but it became apparent after the makeover that the restaurant wasn't going to make it.  The owners closed the Snooty Fox in October of 2011 after 29 years of business.  The Sahm's took over the building about three years later and announced they would be putting in a brew pub/pizza place in the space that Snooty Fox vacated.  The second location of Sahm's pizza venture - Rockstone Pizza - and the new brewpub Big Lug Canteen opened side-by-side in October of 2017.  

The brewpub became a popular destination, but things weren't working out too well for the pizza place.  People who came in were looking for more than just pizza out of that location.  In the summer of 2017, the Sahm's revamped the Rockstone Pizza side of the business into Sahm's Ale House, a somewhat upscale craft brewpub with a more eclectic menu of food to choose from.  It seems to be working as when I was heading into Big Lug Canteen, I took a peek inside the alehouse to see the place nearly full that particular evening.  

Big Lug Canteen is located along E. 86th Street on the north side of Indianapolis, just west of Westfield Boulevard.  (see map)  It is located right next to the popular Monon Trail bike and recreation path that runs just over 18 miles from downtown Indianapolis to the far northern suburb of Sheridan.  Behind both Big Lug Canteen and Sahm's Ale House, there is a large outdoor patio that caters to the riders and walkers who use the path in the warmer months

The outside of Big Lug Canteen was a little confusing to me - it's a building with a metal facade and bright red accents around the front door entry way.  It didn't really look like a functioning business, let alone a brewpub.  But upon entering the place, I found a small, but lively spot with two levels.  Most of the patrons that evening where one the main level, but there were a few people hanging out at the upstairs bar area when I roamed around the place after I finished my meal.  The upstairs had many more televisions hanging from the walls than the downstairs space.  

The upstairs bar was much larger than the one on the main level, but I was able to find room at the downstairs bar.  One of the bartenders that evening came over with a food menu for me and I also took a look at the beer list to see what they had to offer.  It was a short list with just three full-time "house" beers on tap with another 7 or 8 rotating brews they offered.  They also had some guest brews on tap and I got a Wooden Tooth IPA that they had that evening.  

The food offerings at Big Lug Canteen were pretty basic for a brewpub.  They had an assorted selection of hoagie-style sandwiches, a half-dozen poutine dishes, small dishes including tacos or wings, a large selection of salad plates, and handful of burgers and sandwiches - available either in full size or slider-sized options.  For the health conscious and vegans in the crowd, Big Lug Canteen also had Impossible Burgers available for a $4 up-charge.  

I really didn't know what I wanted to get.  I almost pulled the trigger on the pork poutine - traditional Quebec-style poutine with fries, cheese curds, gravy and some pork belly mixed in - but I just wasn't feeling it that evening.  Really, none of the hoagies appealed to me, nor was I wanting a salad with a choice of chicken (grilled or Nashville hot), salmon or tuna and egg salad.  I was really in a food funk that evening.

I ended up getting one of the burgers they had on the menu, the Kevin Kline.  (The venerable actor Kline, who is one of my all-time favorite film performers, went to school at Indiana University in Bloomington before going on to study at Julliard in New York.)  The burger consisted of a Fischer Farms ground beef patty (no Impossible Burger for me) topped with lettuce, tomato, onion, and American cheese finished with an herb mayo spread.  Sides were extra with the burger and I was sort of torn between two things - tater tots and a cup of their chili.  The bartender told me that their chili was outstanding, but the tater tots kept calling my name, as well.  In the end, I ended up getting both.  What the hell, huh?

The burger turned out to be pretty good.  The Fischer Farms beef was flavorful and really stood out amid all the toppings on the burger.  The lightly-toasted bun was soft, but not overly chewy, and held together very well.  It was a well-above average burger.  

The tater tots were fine - crispy on the outside and flaky inside.  The Cholula hot sauce that I poured on nearly every single tot helped kick up the taste.  And the bartender certainly didn't lie about the chili - it was excellent.  I got it loaded with corn chips, onions and sour cream, and I was somewhat sorry I didn't get TWO cups of the chili as I laid waste to the serving I had in a short amount of time.  

For the most part, I was happy with my visit to Big Lug Canteen.  Much of the food menu didn't appeal to me, and they seemed to have a somewhat short list of beers to choose from that evening, but that didn't really faze me all that much.  The burger I had was very good, the tater tots were also good, but the chili - I thought - was outstanding.  Big Lug Canteen is a nice little place, but if you're looking for a wider selection of both food and craft beers, you may want to try their sister restaurant - Sahm's Ale House - next door. 

Short Fuse Brewing Company - Schiller Park, IL

I was sort of in the mood for a brewpub one evening when I was in the near western suburbs of Chicago earlier this year and I did a quick search of ones that were in the area around O'Hare International Airport.  I found one that I wasn't familiar with that was down the road a bit from my hotel - Short Fuse Brewing Company.  I headed down the road to go try the place that night.

Nick Teague decided that he wanted to dip his toe into the already somewhat saturated brewpub scene in the greater Chicagoland area.  Along with his wife, Hillary, the two knew that they needed to do something that was a little different and be in an area where there wasn't another brewpub or nano-brewery around.  The two found a building that housed a former fork lift repair facility in Schiller Park, very near O'Hare International Airport.  The next thing was to find a brewmaster they could partner with to make their dream come true.  

The Teagues got in touch with Mark Duchow, an award winning brewmaster who had good runs at a number of places in the Midwest including The Grumpy Troll in Mt. Horeb, WI (click here to see the Road Tips entry on The Grumpy Troll), and at Sweet Mullets (now known as Brewfinity Brewing Company) in Oconomowoc, WI.  The Teagues made Duchow a partner in the venture and they immediately began to accumulate tanks and fermenters for the brewery.  Duchow knew someone in Wisconsin who was able to procure an old dairy tank for the brewery, and they also added a couple of foeders - giant oak vats that are usually used to age wine, but in this case they were going to be used for some wild berry and sour beers that Duchow was wanting to play around with.  With the buildout of the 20,000 square foot building - with a 7500 sq. ft. tap room - Short Fuse Brewing Company opened in June of 2017.  

Short Fuse Brewing Company is located on River Road in Schiller Park, just south of the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center and the row of large hotels and restaurants in Rosemont.  (see map)  It was a cool weeknight when I went there, but the parking lot was full of cars.  I was able to snag a spot on the south side of the building when someone was leaving and I headed inside to check the place out.  

The tap room at Short Fuse is long and somewhat narrow, but it's billed as the largest in the greater Chicago area.  Garage doors open to a patio next to a parking lot in warmer weather.  There was an area toward the back of tap room that was hosting a corporate party explaining the difficulty to find parking when I first got there.  

The bar went about 2/3rd's the length of the tap room.  Tall windows behind the bar allowed patrons to look into the brewery operations.  The tap room had a definite modern industrial look to the place.  

Up front toward the entrance is a lounge area that can be turned into a small stage area for live bands playing on the weekend.  The overstuffed couches and comfy chairs provided an alternative for those just wanting to unwind.  That evening, a young lady was setting up a P.A. system for trivia later that evening.  

I ended up seated at the bar and was met by Ryan who gave me a food menu along with a list of specials they had at the time.  The beer list was on a chalk board in front of me at one end of the bar.  They have 14 beers on tap year-round with a handful of seasonal beers at various times.  A couple of them caught my eye, but I was sort of intrigued with the Bear-ie White - a wheat pale ale that is made with gummy bears.  That's right - gummy bears.  I asked Ryan about the beer and he said it was had a very fruity taste to it.  I don't care for wheat beers and I don't like fruity beers.  I ended up ordering the Kolsch, but I was told they were out of that for the evening.  I ended up getting the IPA Bomb American-style Indian Pale Ale.  

The food menu featured a number of unique appetizers including ale-marinated chicken wings, Korean beer-bbq shrimp, and French fries topped with a beer cheese sauce, bacon bits, chives, sour cream and a house-made beer glaze.  They also had something called "Beerchos" which were blue corn tortilla chips topped with shredded cheddar, the beer cheese sauce, refried beans, chopped tomatoes, pickled jalapeños, sour cream and finished with fresh cilantro.  

Main entrees included Short Fuse's interpretation of chicken and waffles, a coffee-encrusted skirt steak, and a poutine mac & cheese that was a mix of crushed tater tots, pasta noodles, white cheddar cheese curds, a mini burger patty all topped with the beer cheese sauce, scallions, and a brown demi-glaze gravy.  My stomach was doing jumping jacks on that.  

Burgers and sandwiches were on the menu including a monster 1/2 pound burger topped with beer-braised pulled pork, cheddar cheese, smoked bacon and crispy pork rinds.  The BBBB and Some L&T was a classic BLT with copious amounts of applewood smoked bacon, lettuce, tomato, smoked gouda cheese and finished with a spicy mayo.  (I almost ordered that.)  They also featured wood-fired gourmet pizzas and a handful of salads on the menu.

A couple of the specials they had that evening sounded pretty interesting to me.  The Beef Wellington bites caught my eye - mini stuffed beef Wellington pillows with chopped vegetables and topped with a beer stout demi-glaze gravy.  The corned beef sandwich sounded interesting - the corned beef was cooked in a beer broth - but I'd had a corned beef sandwich a day or two before.  But in the end, I ordered something else off the specials menu that evening.

I got the poutine burger - an open faced burger patty topped with the brown demi-glaze placed on a bed of fries that was topped with their beer cheese sauce with some greens on the side.   The burger was a tad overcooked and, quite frankly, it was all sort of bland in taste.  The fries had that great crispy outer shell with a flaky inner core.  It wasn't that I didn't like what I got, it was just all right in my book.  But I was sort of disappointed I didn't go with something else.  

The bar was very busy that evening and there were only a couple guys behind the bar running up and down taking care of the patrons at the bar while pouring beers for waitresses who were coming up with their orders.  Ryan forgot about me a couple of times, but that was fine.  I wasn't in a big hurry and I gave him a mulligan as they were pretty busy.  

My first impression of Short Fuse Brewing Company was more favorable than not.  The American IPA was a good beer, the space was open and allowed people to spread out a bit - but it wasn't loud in there for as many people that were in there - but the food I had was average, at best.  The bartenders were busy and they forgot about me a couple of times, but that was fine.  Short Fuse is very near where I like to stay when I'm in Chicago and I'm sure that I'll venture back a time or two in the future to try something else from their beer and food menus.