One Great Dish: Dryhop Brewers' Beef Pastrami Sandwich

By Chuck Sudo in Food on Sep 12, 2013 7:45PM

Chuck Sudo/Chicagoist

The brewpubs that set themselves up for long term success focus as much on the food as they do beer. Goose Island, Three Floyds and Revolution all have solid kitchen programs backing all the hops, barley and water they’re fermenting on a daily basis. Now we can add Dryhop Brewers to that number.

Since opening in June the Lakeview brewpub has had the good problem of packed houses most of the time for lunch and dinner service. I dropped by Wednesday night to sample some of Dryhop’s beers including Smoking Nanners, their new smoked hefeweizen collaboration with Flossmoor Station. Dryhop’s food menu is smaller than the offerings at other brewpubs, but they turn it out wonderfully.

Case in point: their beef pastrami, served on griddled multi-grain bread, Wisconsin Swiss cheese, a fig-shallot conserve and Russian horseradish sauce. The pastrami is made in-house and finds a delicate balance between the sweetness of the beef and the salt/spice interplay found in the best pastramis. There’s no shortage to the conserve and horseradish and they go great smeared on the sandwich with each bite. Chef Pete Repak, a Charlie Trotter's alum, continues the tradition of chefs who have staged at Trotter's kitchen to go on to find their own success elsewhere—a long list, indeed.

We only wished we visited Dryhop earlier; brewer Brant Dubovick told Chicagoist Repak was making lamb pastrami a few weeks ago. Still, as far as beef goes, this pastrami makes a great sandwich.

Dryhop Brewers is located at 3155 N. Broadway Ave.