Wicker Park Bar Named Best Beer Bar In Illinois
By Anthony Todd in Food on Mar 2, 2017 9:19PM
photo via Links
CraftBeer.com just came out with its rankings for best beer bars in all 50 states. While the whole thing is worth bookmarking for any traveller (I now know, for example, that the best beer bar in Alaska is Cafe Amsterdam in Anchorage), one bar particularly caught my eye: Links Taproom was named the Best Beer Bar in Illinois.
Links, located in Wicker Park, is known for a well-curated, rather than insanely large beer selection (they've got a respectable 90 varieties). They've also got a fairly unique IT infrastructure, with digital menus that also display how much of any given keg is available; a neat trick if you like limited-edition beers. That information is also available on the web and through social media, so if you want to play the most boring party game ever, you can track how fast people are drinking beer at a bar you aren't at (it's actually oddly fascinating).
Also, the name refers to sausages, not golf, and they have a huge menu of encased meats.
According to CraftBeer.com, more than 7000 people voted. Bars were nominated by fans (not by experts), and nominators were required to write a short summary of why they thought their bar was so great. So is this a definitive, scientific survey of American bars? Nah, but hey, one more exciting place in Chicago to celebrate.