This Might Be The Best Deal For Lunchtime Boozing In Town
By Anthony Todd in Food on Sep 1, 2015 8:20PM
Whiskey bottles at The Franklin Room.
The recent advent of legal Happy Hour has meant a plethora of restaurants announcing "deals" (sometimes great, sometimes dubious) all over town. We covered a bunch of them back when the change in the law was announced. But this new deal is so good, we did a double take (and asked some tough questions) when we heard about it.
The bar in question is The Franklin Room, a River North spot with a ridiculous whiskey list, a good menu and a great $1 oyster special. They've launched a lunchtime drink special that turned our heads. It's got two parts.
First, anytime from 11:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. on a weekday, beers are $1. Before you say "Yeah, right. They mean Corona," it turns out they don't. The list includes craft brews from Goose Island, Great Lakes, Capital Brewing, Lagunitas and more.
The part that really made us skeptical was the what they call the "3 Martini Lunch." For $3, you can get a gin or vodka martini, or a bourbon manhattan. We, frankly, didn't believe it. Either they were using total bottom shelf rotgut, or the martinis were the size of thimbles. So we, callers-out of silliness that we are, asked the hard questions.
A rep from the Franklin Room confirmed that the vodka was Sobieski, the gin was Brokers and the bourbon was Evan Williams. Top shelf? No, but not windex either. They're also full size drinks.
We know where we will be every weekday from now on. The limit is two beers or three martinis per person, and there's a $12 minimum food purchase. Check out the whole beer list below.