illinois

In January my wife and I were determined to visit our friends in Cleveland for a birthday party. That’s a significant drive, so we decided to make a pit stop in Chicago to visit my old friend and roommate Adrian. I slipped out of work around lunch, swung home to pick up Samantha, and texted my friend our estimated time of arrival. He was well prepared for our visit and had planned our night accordingly. The first stop was for food and beer at the Two Brothers Brewing Roundhouse.

I generally do my research when I’m visiting breweries outside of Minnesota, but this time I left it completely up to my friend. He’d been living in Colorado for many years and I was banking on his experience to drive a recommendation. Something about Two Brothers rung a bell when he mentioned it but I didn’t put two and two together until I saw their logo. I’ve seen their beer in stores and, while I’ve never tried it myself, I’ve always been curious to give them a taste. There’s just too much local beer to support that it’s hard to branch out sometimes. My friend explained that the brewpub was inside an old roundhouse. It turns (no pun intended) out that trains began with only the ability to move forwards! This creates a bit of a challenge when you want to turn a locomotive around. Even after reverse was added it still made more sense to spin around in a less conventional way. That’s why the roundhouse was invented, and now it provides a stunning location for a brewpub with a truly unique beer garden.