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.
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