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Now that I've had a good night's sleep and the sun is out for the first time all year, I have the energy to start reading the news again. On January 2nd, most of the stories are about things that have changed since Wednesday: Chicago had 416 murders in 2025, the lowest number recorded since 1965 when the city had 620,000 (23%) more people. In 2025, the hottest temperature recorded at Inner Drive Technology WHQ was 34.3°C (93.7°F) on June 23rd; the coldest was -20°C (-4°F) January 21st. Officially at...

Welcome to stop #136 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Polyanna Brewing, 245 E. Main St., RoselleTrain line: Milwaukee District West, Roselle (Zone 4) Time from Chicago: 49 minutesDistance from station: 800 m She may not look like much, kid, but she's got it where it counts. After 135 Brews & Choos stops in the Chicago area and another 13 in the rest of the world, I finally missed a train. The Milwaukee District West line runs hourly on weekdays. I planned to stay only half an hour at Polyanna...

Welcome to stop #134 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Suncatcher Brewing, 2849 W. Chicago Ave., ChicgaoTrain line: Milwaukee District West, Milwaukee District North, and North Central Service; Western Ave (Zone 1) Time from Chicago: 9 minutesDistance from station: 1.2 km Suncatcher opened just 13 months ago on land and in an unused supply shed rented from a garden supply store. This means they have an amazing outdoor space that I will take Cassie to visit at some point when the sun is out and...

My morning commute today had mild temperatures, clear skies, and a nearly-empty platform: My office is nearly empty, too. And I'm leaving early-ish, though my laptop will stay here until Monday. And I have no meetings, so I can fix a lingering bug without anyone interrupting me. So far, today doesn't suck. I shall endeavor to enjoy it.

The Brews & Choos Project will celebrate its 6th anniversary on February 7th. When I started in 2020, I thought I would get most of it done that year. I managed to visit 25 breweries by March 7th (Lunar Brewing in Villa Park was 25th), before pausing in the pandemic panic until breweries with outdoor seating opened up again. It turns out, I only have 9 places to visit within the Chicago city limits, and another 13 in the Metra zone outside Chicago. Short of another pandemic or massive economic...

The temperature tried and tried but couldn't get above -6.1°C over here. It should keep going up slowly for the next day. And we might even see the sun tomorrow. Meanwhile, in the rest of the world: Nick Reiner, the 32-year-old son of director Rob Reiner and his wife Michele Singer Reiner, has been arrested following the stabbing death of his parents. In response to the Reiners' deaths, the OAFPOTUS posted some truly deranged crap on social media, further demonstrating how he's completely lost it. Brian...

After dragging my tired ass to Peet's just as they opened at 6 am (8 am back home), I got the same tired ass to the BART station just down the street and discovered that the Red Line operates as a shuttle between Millbrae and SFO sometimes. This knowledge came to me after I took an unplanned round-trip to the airport, learning this bit of BART lore at the cost of 25 minutes of my life. I did make it to Powell and Market before 8:30 am, which allowed me plenty of time to take the oldest form of public...

So many things passed through my inbox in the last day and a half: The Minnesota Star Tribune reported that an assistant to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was observed over the weekend discussing plans over Signal with an aide to Reichsminister Stephen Miller to send the 82nd Airborne to Portland. Paul Krugman breaks from his usual economics beat to lambast the OAFPOTUS and his Reichskabinett der Nationalen Rettung for the horrifying ICE raid* on a Chicago apartment building last week: "What do we learn...

Welcome to stop #133 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Pilot Project Brewing, 3473 N Clark, ChicagoTrain line: CTA Red Line, Addison Time from Chicago: 18 minutesDistance from station: 450 m Even though Pilot Project doesn't actually brew beer at their new Wrigleyville location, thus technically not being eligible for the Brews & Choos list, I liked the place enough and found it a little oasis in the maelstrom surrounding Wrigley Field, so I'm overruling my own rules. It helped that my Brews...

Welcome to stop #132 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Guinness Open Gate Brewery, 901 W Kinzie, ChicagoTrain line: CTA Green Line, Morgan Time from Chicago: 6 minutesDistance from station: 300 m Somehow, I pictured the second US-based Guinness experimental brewery differently, having seen their original brewery in Dublin, Ireland. The building Guinness renovated just north of the Fulton Market District has existed for a century or more, though from as far back as I can remember until last year...

The forecast today looks perfect: 21°C under sunny skies. Perfect for a Brews and Choos trip! And while one of the stops will be to a brewery that could under no circumstances be called "craft," the other stop will take us to a brewery incubator suspiciously close to Wrigley Field. Fitting, then, that Crain's reports today about how craft breweries have had to evolve to stay in business: After a decade of unbridled growth, the industry hit a rough patch in the years following the pandemic. Ten percent...

With my PTO cap continuing to force me into Friday afternoons off this summer (the horror!), and the sunny but (smoky 23°C) weather, Cassie and I will head to the Horner Park DFA just as soon as I release a new version of Weather Now in just a few minutes. When Cassie and I come back, I'll spend some time reading all these nuggets of existential dread: The Bureau of Labor Statistics revised last 3 months of US jobs data down to basically nil (which Krugman blames on tariffs), prompting the OAFPOTUS to...

Leading off the news this afternoon, Black Sabbath lead singer Ozzy Osbourne died today at age 76. I am surprised he lasted this long, as he didn't exactly take care of himself over the years. In other news: House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has stopped the legislative process of the United States rather than vote on releasing details of convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein's relationship with the OAFPOTUS. Adam Kinzinger details the quiet cruelty of the OAFPOTUS's droogs. Tom Nichols points out that the...

Welcome to stop #131 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: GoodTimes Brewery, 3827 N Broadway, ChicagoTrain line: CTA Red Line, Sheridan Time from Chicago: 20 minutesDistance from station: 500 m Metropolitan Brewing closed in November 2023, just a few months after brewmaster Raybird Gonzalez decided to found his own brewery. The Smylie Brothers flame-out freed up a turnkey brewing facility right at the north end of Boystown, which he grabbed. The new owners didn't change the interior dramatically...

Welcome to stop #130 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Goose Island Beer Co. at the Salt Shed, 1221 W. Blackhawk St., ChicagoTrain line: Union Pacific North and Northwest, Clybourn (Zone 1) Time from Chicago: 9 minutesDistance from station: 1.5 km The Salt Shed is a new entertainment complex built inside the former Morton Salt storage facility in the Clybourn Corridor industrial area of Chicago. Goose Island Beer Co. moved there in 2024 after closing its original brewing facility 800 meters...

I'm done with work for the week, owing to my previously-mentioned PTO cap, so later this afternoon I'm teaming up with my Brews & Choos Buddy to visit two breweries on the North Side. Later this weekend (probably Sunday), I'm going to share an unexpected result of a long-overdue project to excise a lot of old crap from my storage locker: articles from the proto-Daily Parker that ran out of my employer's office a full year before braverman.org became its own domain. Before I do any of that, however, I'm...

I'm done with work for the week, owing to my previously-mentioned PTO cap, so later this afternoon I'm teaming up with my Brews & Choos Buddy to visit two breweries on the North Side. Later this weekend (probably Sunday), I'm going to share an unexpected result of a long-overdue project to excise a lot of old crap from my storage locker: articles from the proto-Daily Parker that ran out of my employer's office a full year before braverman.org became its own domain. Before I do any of that, however, I'm...

Welcome to stop #129 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: McHenry Brewing, 3425 Pearl St., McHenryTrain line: Union Pacific Northwest, McHenry (Zone 4) Time from Chicago: 88 minutesDistance from station: 1.3 km It finally happened: I cheated. I couldn't figure any reasonable way to visit McHenry Brewing without taking an expensive and rare Lyft part of the way home, because the UP-NW line only has three daily trains to McHenry in the afternoon with three return trains in the morning. So, not wanting...

Welcome to stop #128 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Black Lung Brewing, 115 Nippersink Rd., Fox LakeTrain line: Milwaukee District North, Fox Lake (Zone 4) Time from Chicago: 105 minutesDistance from station: 750 m Fox Lake isn't the farthest station from downtown Chicago on the Metra system. At 110 km, that honor goes to Harvard; Fox Lake is only 80 km out. And yet, as I discovered yesterday, it can take almost 3 hours to get back to Union Station if the aging-but-repainted SD70MACH...

Because I'm about to hit my PTO cap at work, I'm taking the next few Friday afternoons off. Today I've planned a Brews & Choos trip out to the wilds of Lake County. Check back tomorrow for the result! Meanwhile, I have more meetings...

We've had a run of dreary, unseasonably cold weather that more closely resembles the end of March than the middle of May. I've been looking at this gloom all day: We may have some sun tomorrow afternoon through the weekend, but the forecast calls for continuous north winds and highs around 16°C—the normal high for April 23rd, not May 23rd. Summer officially starts in 10 days. It sure doesn't feel like it. Speaking of the gloomy and the retrograde: Former US judge and George HW Bush appointee J. Michael...

Welcome to stop #127 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Explorium Brewpub Third Ward, 143 W. St. Paul Ave., Milwaukee 2 (of 5) stars Train line: Amtrak, Milwaukee Intermodal Station Time from Chicago: 89 minutesDistance from station: 150 m The best thing about Explorium is its proximity to the Milwaukee Intermodal Station, as it took me less than 5 minutes to get to my train home despite taking a couple of photos along the way. Otherwise it's a loud, TV-covered entertainment zone that could be...

Welcome to stop #126 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Wizard Works Brewing, 231 E. Buffalo St., Milwaukee 4½ (of 5) stars Train line: Amtrak, Milwaukee Intermodal Station Time from Chicago: 89 minutesDistance from station: 900 m Once you find the door to the 19th-century office building housing this quirky magic-themed brewery, head down the stairs and grab a seat. My Brews Buddy and I enjoyed the place thoroughly, though we would prefer it had fewer TV screens. We shared a flight and went back...

Before I go through the stories from the last day about how we live in the stupidest timeline, here's a photo of the Milwaukee Intermodal Station I snapped heading to my return train on Friday: Elsewhere in the stupidest timeline, where maximizing corruption is the defining goal of the Republican Party: James Fallows takes us through Harvard's big "fuck you" to the OAFPOTUS's demands that the university install minders in its HR and academic departments, as does Josh Marshall. Jennifer Rubin reminds...

Welcome to stop #125 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: The Copper Turtle, 330 E. Menomonee St., Milwaukee 4 (of 5) stars Train line: Amtrak, Milwaukee Intermodal Station Time from Chicago: 89 minutesDistance from station: 1.3 km The Copper Turtle started as a microbrewery, and wants to continue making their three micro beers. That said, they want to be known more as a cocktail bar than as a brewery. Still, they brew on site, and their beers are pretty good. My Brews Buddy had the Lottie Dottie...

Welcome to stop #124 on the Brews and Choos project. Distillery: Central Standard Crafthouse, 230 E. Clybourn St., Milwaukee 4½ (of 5) stars Train line: Amtrak, Milwaukee Intermodal Station Time from Chicago: 89 minutesDistance from station: 1 km Welcome to Milwaukee, Chicago's stepchild to the north. A relatively inexpensive trip from Chicago Union Station to Milwaukee Intermodal takes a bit under an hour and a half and drops you a short walk from 11 breweries and distilleries. My Brews Buddy signed up...

I'm absolutely bushed, so no Brews & Choos reviews from Milwaukee yet. If I get enough sleep tonight, and if I'm supremely effective in the morning, I'll start posting them tomorrow. There are four, after all, and only one of them is "eh."

With the bare minimum of planning and no time between all my meetings and the train leaving, I am happy to report that my Brews Buddy and I are on the Borealis heading north. For more on our destination, I recommend this lecture from Prof Cooper. Tomorrow I have an all-day Euchre tournament, so reviews from Milwaukee will start Sunday.

I may have dodged a virus this week, though I'm not 100% sure yet. I have a lot more confidence in my health than the world has in the OAFPOTUS, however. And the news today doesn't change that at all: Radley Balko, tongue firmly in cheek, satirizes the Republican Party in a way I will not spoil for you. (His takedown of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, made me guffaw.) Yascha Mounk warns that the OAFPOTUS's irrational and malignantly stupid attack on the very things that made America great in...

Welcome to a special stop on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Tennessee Brew Works, 809 Ewing Ave., Nashville, Tenn.4 starsTrain line: Wego Train, Riverfront Nashville Time from Chicago: 2 hoursDistance from station: 1.7 km Neither Tennessee Brew Works nor New Heights Brewing is a particularly pleasant walk from the WeGo station, but I would visit both of them again. TBW decided to give us two drink tokens each instead of worrying about pouring and distributing 40 flights. I chose two of their...

I completed two surveys related to my work conference this week. The first one included the question, "To confirm that you are still reading this, please select 'Disagree.'" The second one assigned point values to the multiple-choice questions, so that the three items I answered "Somewhat OK" instead of "Excellent" brought my grade down to a B-minus. These are the kinds of things that make one wonder how valuable the survey data really is. Meanwhile, I've got a ton of things to do today, including...

Having the morning free, and having a lot of cool air and sun, I took a quick stroll around Nashville. I'll have more later, but for now, here's the Tennessee State Capitol, apparently under construction: Of course, since the Tennessee General Assembly has a well-Gerrymandered 75-24 Republican majority, I would expect they're actually deconstructing the Capitol. But whatever. I also passed by Riverfront Station, the downtown terminus of Nashville's adorable little 6-times-a-day toy commuter train: It...

Welcome to stop #123 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Duneyrr Fermenta, 2237 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago 3 (of 5) stars Train line: CTA Green Line, Cermak-McCormick Place Time from Chicago: 10 minutesDistance from station: 600 m After five hours, four kilometers of walking, three pints of beer, two Lyfts, and an invitation to my Brews & Choos buddy's husband to meet us three blocks from his office, we made it to Duneyrr Fermenta in Chicago's historic Motor Row. If only we hadn't had a mound of...

The temperature at Inner Drive Technology WHQ just hit 17.5°C, which it hasn't hit since 5:54pm on November 5th. That's almost 125 days, quite a while to go without wearing a jacket outside. Unfortunately, spring weather isn't the only thing in the news today: Philip Bump asks, how low can the OAFPOTUS's approval rating actually go? Paul Krugman decries our current "government by QAnon." Radley Balko lays out three things Democrats can do right now. Ezra Klein uses the example of California's high-speed...

Welcome to stop #121 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Marz Community Brewing, 3630 S. Iron St., Chicago 4 (of 5) stars Train line: CTA Orange Line, Ashland Time from Chicago: 11 minutesDistance from station: 1.7 km Continuing Friday's epic Brews & Choos adventure, my buddy and I decided to Lyft the 2.7 kilometers from Alulu, because (a) McKinley Park and the Lower West Side on either side of the Sanitary and Ship Canal aren't very pretty, and (b) it hadn't completely stopped raining. Even though...

Welcome to stop #119 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Monochrome Brewing, 2101 S. Carpenter St., Chicago 4 (of 5) stars Train line: CTA Orange Line, Halsted Time from Chicago: 10 minutesDistance from station: 900 m I'm sorry I never got to Lo Rez Brewing, which closed just a year ago. But I am glad my Brews & Choos buddy and I got to the space yesterday. Despite its industrial-belt location in the Lower West Side a long walk from the Pilsen Historic District, it felt comfortable and inviting...

Yesterday was the 5th anniversary of the Brews & Choos Project's high-water mark before the pandemic. On 7 March 2020, I went farther than I'd ever gone before in search of breweries to add to the list, visiting Penrose and Stockholm's in Geneva, then More and Lunar in Villa Park on the way back. A few days later the world stopped for a while. It would be almost three months before I visited another brewery. Yesterday, I took a half-day of PTO, braved some crappy early-spring weather, and met up with my...

I want to start with a speech on the floor of the French Senate three days ago, in which Claude Malhuret (LIRT-Allier) had this to say about the OAFPOTUS: Washington has become the court of Nero, an incendiary emperor, submissive courtiers, and a jester high on ketamine in charge of purging the civil service. This is a tragedy for the free world, but it is first and foremost a tragedy for the United States. Trump’s message is that there is no point in being his ally since he will not defend you, he will...

Time got away from me this afternoon. I might read all this tomorrow morning: Nicholas Kristof says the Musk/OAFPOTUS administration prostrating to Russia will make the world more dangerous. So does Alex Shepard. Jennifer Rubin says that the Musk/OAFPOTUS administration will break the government, and therefore own it. Anne Applebaum decries Vice President JD Vance's speech to the Munich Security Conference. Former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) announced his retirement, now that he got...

The US meeting with Russia and not Ukraine to discuss the fate of Ukraine seems unmistakably similar to the Molotov-Ribbentrop discussions in August 1939 that divvied up Poland between the Nazis and Stalin's Russia. The meeting in Riyadh between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov seems more focused on a colonial-style mineral extraction concession for the US than on Ukrainian sovereignty. This comes just days after Vice President JD Vance channeled UK Prime...

I'm just noting a few things and moving on with my day: Pilot Project Brewing has announced plans for a second brewery/taproom in Wrigleyville, just 500 meters from the Addison Red Line station. Google Maps turned 20 four days ago, and The Guardian has a history of how it began. Microsoft will be retiring the (11-year-old) database APIs that this build of The Daily Parker uses, so watch this space for news about a brand new Daily Parker experience this fall! I'm planning to wrap up a new release of...

As we end the work-week, we can start our weekend with these little nuggets of horror and amusement: The UK Home Office has demanded that Apple create a back door into its cloud storage system to allow the UK government to snoop on everyone's content worldwide, which, if I correctly understand Apple's ADP architecture, is technically impossible. ProPublica has compiled a list of the people Elon Musk has enlisted to capture the government of the United States. Paul Krugman calls Musk's efforts an...

We've gotten about 4 cm of snow so far today, with more coming down until this evening. Cassie loves it; I have mixed feelings. At least the temperature has gone up a bit, getting up to -0.6°C for the first time since around this time on Monday. Elsewhere: Federal Judge Aileen Cannon (R-SDFL) got overruled again, this time after her corrupt effort to block Special Counsel Jack Smith from releasing his report on January 6th. George Will bemoans Congress ceding so much of its authority to the office of...

I had planned to go to Milwaukee for a quick day trip yesterday to further the Brews & Choos Project. Two friends were going to meet me at the Public Market, then go to two breweries and a distillery in the five hours between trains. Alas, after everyone had boarded the 1:05 Hiawatha, Amtrak got all of us off the train and cancelled it because of—no kidding—a flat wheel. We could have gone on the (now-overcrowded) 3:05, but we just decided to forget it and meet one of the friends up in Highwood. So I'll...

The Chicago Department of Planning and Development has proposed changing the zoning rules along a stretch of Broadway between Montrose and Devon to increase its density while simultaneously reducing its car-oriented ugliness: The move could jumpstart housing construction, support local businesses and create a streamlined and consistent process for development in a part of town that has seen increased developer attention, city officials have said. A driving factor in the rezoning is the CTA’s Red Line...

We have warm (10°C) windy (24 knot gusts) weather in Chicago right now, and even have some sun peeking out from the clouds, making it feel a lot more like late March than mid-December. Winds are blowing elsewhere in the world, too: The German government collapsed today after Chancellor Olaf Scholz lost a confidence vote in the Bundestag. People think the OAFPOTUS transition team are doing a great job for the simple reason that most people don't follow this kind of thing. Josh Marshall points out that it...

The temperature dropped below freezing Tuesday evening and stayed there until about half an hour ago. The forecast predicts it'll stay there until Wednesday night. And since we've got until about 3pm before the rain starts, it looks like Cassie will get a trip to the dog park at lunchtime. Once it starts raining, I'll spend some time reading these: Andrew Sullivan shakes his head at "the dumb luck" of the OAFPOTUS. On David Roberts' podcast, Dan Savage muses on "blue America in the age" of the OAFPOTUS....

I was just there this past weekend, and I really think they could have mentioned something: Ravinia Brewing Company — now Steep Ravine Brewing Company — will host a farewell party Dec. 14 at its Logan Square taproom, 2601 W. Diversey Ave., though it will still use the space to brew beer, according to a press release. Steep Ravine Brewing Company will retain the brewery’s signature “Tree Guy” mascot and award-winning beer portfolio, the company said in the release. The Logan Square taproom closing party...

Welcome to stop #117 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Pilot Project Brewing, 2140 N Milwaukee Ave., ChicagoTrain line: CTA Blue Line, California Time from Chicago: 14 minutesDistance from station: 500 m Pilot Project has an unusual business model. They partner with fledgling breweries, work with them on their beer recipes and styles, help them with marketing and distribution, then gently fling them from the nest once they're established and can fly on their own. And they're pretty good at it....

My Brews & Choos buddy and I trudged 15 kilometers yesterday to visit two previously-unreviewed breweries and two old favorites. Correction: I visited two old favorites and two new ones, she visited one old favorite and three she hadn't visited before. My Garmin device doesn't have a resume-later feature, but hers does, so she captured the entire route (in miles): We had bog-normal November weather for Chicago: cloudy and 5°C. We also had a slice of Jimmy's Pizza and a modest amount of good beer....

The weather doesn't seem that great for a planned 15-kilometer walk through Logan Square and Avondale to visit a couple of stragglers on the Brews & Choos Project. We've got 4°C under a low overcast, but only light winds and no precipitation forecast until Monday night. My Brews & Choos buddy drew up a route starting from the east end of the 606 Trail and winding up (possibly) at Jimmy's Pizza Cafe. Also, I've joined BlueSky, because it's like Xitter without the xit. The Times explains how you, too, can...

The Brews & Choos Project had a net shift of zero in the last two weeks. I am pretty bummed about the loss, but intrigued by the gain. The loss: Long-time Evanston microbrewery Temperance closed up shop on October 27th. I am sad: Evanston didn’t have a brewery before Temperance Beer Co. arrived at the end of 2013. The suburb’s first brewery was a historic moment, and the taproom quickly became one of the city’s finest with hits like Might Meets Right and Gatecrasher IPA. Temperance represented the...

I haven't yet got my head around a couple of thoughts I had concerning last Tuesday's debacle. I've come to a few conclusions, but I'm still mulling the implications, and also the structure of the Daily Parker post that I promised over the weekend. It might take a few more days to write. Meanwhile: The OAFPOTUS has picked South Dakota governor Kristi Noem (R) as his Homeland Security secretary and Mike Huckabee to represent the US in Israel, which have me straining not to tell the left wing of my party...

Welcome to an extra stop on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Off the Rails Brewing, 111 S. Murphy Ave., Sunnyvale, Calif.Train line: Caltrain, Sunnyvale Time from SF Terminal: 62 minutesTime from Chicago: about 4½ hours by airDistance from station: 300 m Sunnyvale, Calif., has blocked off the north end of Murphy Ave. to traffic, turning the entire block into a pedestrian zone lined with restaurants and a good-enough-for-the-suburbs brewery where you can have good-enough beers. Despite the amazing...

Welcome to an extra stop on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Southern Pacific Brewing, 620 Treat Ave., San FranciscoTrain line: BART, 16th St/MissionTime from Embarcadero: 7 minutesTime from Chicago: about 4½ hours by airDistance from station: 1 km This small brewery with a huge taproom is hidden in an industrial section of the Mission District. It's a quick walk from the BART through the Pilsen of San Francisco down a side street and an alley. Talking with some of the people there, it gets busy...

This morning, Winnemac Park, Chicago: I'm still getting through everything I ignored for the past three days. Stay tuned for a couple of Brews & Choos reviews from San Francisco, and on Tuesday, some thoughts on the election.

I'm visiting family in the Bay Area today, staying in California for about 38 hours. I leave tomorrow morning early, so I'm back at the charming Dylan Hotel in Millbrae, right by the BART and CalTrain. If you held a gun to my head (or put $10 million in my bank account) and forced me to move to Silicon Valley, I might choose here. It's 40 minutes to my family in San Jose and 25 minutes to downtown San Francisco, for starters. And the Brews & Choos Project works just as well around the Bay as it does in...

"It is difficult to get a man to understand a thing when his salary depends on his not understanding it."—Upton Sinclair. We lead our news roundup today with the biggest Chicago transit story of the year, with the major players acting just as Sinclair would predict: Chicago's three transit-agency chiefs don't see their complete lack of coordination on top of impressive administrative bloat as any reason to consolidate into one metropolitan agency. (So why doesn't Chicago have a Clipper Card yet, then?)...

I can scarcely believe I took these 10 days ago, on Friday the 20th. I already posted about my walk from Borough Market back to King's X; this is where I started: You can get a lovely snack there for just a few quid. In my case, a container of fresh olives, some bread, and some cheese set me back about £6. Next time, I'll try something from Mei Mei. Later, I scored one of the rare pork baps at Southampton Arms. Someone else really wanted a bite, too: Sorry, little guy, I can't give you any of this—oh...

Welcome to a special stop on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Two Tribes Brewing, Tileyard Road, London N7Train line: Piccadilly Line, Caledonan Road Time from Chicago: 8 hoursDistance from station: 900 m (about 1.5 km from King's Cross) I don't know why I haven't made an official B&C stop in London before now. The UK has just gotten going with its own microbrewing industry, as evidenced by the continued success of pubs like the Southampton Arms. I've had lots of English micros, some from London....

It took me a little bit this morning to get back into things, but once I figured out what my notes meant I managed to finish two whole features today. And I still had time to check these out: Marine biologists think they've figured out why octopus punch fish in the face. Amtrak will start Chicago to Miami service on November 10th, in part to reduce congestion on the Northeast Corridor during a construction project. The Campaign for Real Ale (Camra) is for some reason opposed to changing the standard...

Welcome to stop #116 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Crust Brewing, 5500 Park Pl., RosemontTrain line: CTA Blue Line, Rosemont Time from Chicago: 45 minutesDistance from station: 1.4 km (shuttle bus from El station—don't even try to walk it) Have you ever heard Monty Python's Contractual Obligation Album? It's exactly what it says on the tin. And it's not their best work. (I mean, it's got a few laughs, especially on the first cut, but the boys made it clear they were flipping two fingers to...

I love actually experiencing the 21st Century. Right now I'm hurtling through the suburbs of Lyon at 265 km/h (down from 300 km/h earlier) on my way to Provence. The Eurostar from London started with an insane scrum at St Pancras—they really mean it when they advise you to arrive 75 minutes before departure—but it arrived at Paris Gare du Nord a minute early. The only impediment to getting onto this train came in the form of several consecutive people who couldn't figure out how to get RER tickets from...

I went out to Suburbistan to have dinner with an old family friend, and he surprised me with an unusual and very cool heirloom that his own father, Bill, left him: That's an HO-scale model that Bill built out from kits probably back in the 1970s. Must have taken him weeks, with the detailing and the weathering. I thought putting it in front of a 1970 edition Britannica fit pretty well. But since I went out to Suburbistan, Cassie had to wait bloody hours for dinner. She didn't seem to mind getting a...

Our lead story today concerns empty suit and Chicago Transit Authority president Dorval Carter, who just can't seem to bother himself with the actual CTA: From the end of May 2023 to spring 2024, as CTA riders had to cope with frequent delays and filthy conditions, Carter spent nearly 100 days out of town at conferences, some overseas, his schedule shows. Most of Carter’s trips between June 2023 and May 2024 were for events related to the American Public Transportation Association, a nonprofit advocacy...

Welcome to an extra stop on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Big Time Brewery & Alehouse, 4133 University Way NE, SeattleTrain line: Sound Transit, U DistrictTime from Chicago: about 4 hours by airDistance from station: 300 m Let me start by saying Seattle had beautiful weather last week...until just before I arrived on Thursday. That didn't stop my friend and me from visiting Seattle's oldest brew-pub, just off the University of Washington campus. As you can see, though, we opted to sit inside...

Last weekend, California governor Gavin Newsom (D) announced that the San Francisco-San Jose heavy commuter rail line had entered the late 19th century (in a good way): On Thursday, the California High-Speed Rail Authority named its new CEO, Ian Choudri – and today, Choudri joined Governor Gavin Newsom in San Francisco to help celebrate the debut of Caltrain’s new electrified train fleet that will transform rail service in the Bay Area and play a key role in California’s high-speed rail system. The...

I have painters painting and I'm coding code today, so I'm just noting a couple of interesting stories for later: The New York Times explains how the warming climate could send seven systems over the tipping point into unrecoverable damage. Bloomberg CityLab climbs through the $80 million effort to make Chicago's Merchandise Mart last another 90 years. National governments trying to protect their own railroads have derailed private cross-EU night-train service, hurting passengers. The City of Chicago...

Yesterday, Cassie and I walked 16.4 km (just over 10 miles), including a 10 km walk that I'd planned only to be a bit less than 7 km. I wanted to stop by Ravinia Brewing's Logan Square taproom, but alas, when we got there, the patio was closed. So we went to Burning Bush instead. In all, we spent most of the day outside in the perfect weather. We'll do more of the same today, just not quite as much walking. Another brewery that didn't make the cut for the Brews & Choos Project—it's too far from the...

Welcome to a second visit to stop #77 on the Brews and Choos project, previously reviewed in August 2022. Brewery: Banging Gavel Brews, 6811 Hickory St., Tinley ParkTrain line: Rock Island District, Tinley ParkTime from Chicago: 35 minutes (Zone 3)Distance from station: 100 m I'm re-reviewing Banging Gavel Brews after only two years because they didn't have an indoor space until December. And just look at that beautiful building! (Yes, I say while blowing on my fingernails, that is in fact my photo from...

Welcome to stop #115 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Arrowhead Ales, 2101 Calistoga Dr., New LenoxTrain line: Southwest Service, Laraway Road Time from Chicago: 62 minutes, Zone 4Distance from station: 400 m For all you urbanists reading the Brews & Choos Project posts because you want to get fresh beer without driving...you won't like Arrowhead Ales. But I did promise to go to every brewery I could reach, so for the sense of completeness, and to celebrate the fact that I've now been on every...

My plan this evening will take me to Arrowhead Ales in New Lenox, the only Brews & Choos brewery on Metra's Southwest Service. Because the SWS has such an inconvenient schedule, getting home requires me to get to the Rock Island District station 4.3 km away. Now, I could simply take a Lyft, but given that I'll have almost 2 hours between arriving at Laraway Road and the train departing New Lenox (with another train an hour later), and also given the weather forecast, I plan to walk there. The only...

As you may have seen below, yesterday I went out to Kankakee on a $15 round-trip Amtrak ticket to visit Knack Brewing for the Brews & Choos Project. Not only did the brewery surprise me—I mean, just look at it on Google Street View—but the city had a lot more going on than I anticipated. I've been through Kankakee a bunch of times, and maybe even pulled off I-57 on some trip to Champaign or St Louis. I've even landed at IKK once, in March 2002, getting checked out in a Piper Warrior. But until...

Welcome to stop #114 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Knack Brewing, 789 S. McMullen Dr., Kankakee, IllTrain line: Amtrak Illini, Kankakee Time from Chicago: 70 minutesDistance from station: 900 m I have to say, both Kankakee and Knack Brewing surprised me. I'll have more about the city in a subsequent post. For now, I'll say that this little 2-year-old mom-and-pop brewery in a rural city 100 km from my house was worth the trip—especially with the $15 round-trip fare I got from Amtrak. The...

The XPOTUS's handlers cut short his appearance this afternoon at the National Association of Black Journalists convention just 2 km from where I'm sitting. The XPOTUS began by insulting the hosts and the panelists. Then, when one of the panelists had just brought up Project 2025 (the Republican Party's blueprint for rolling the country back to the 1850s), the moderator suddenly interrupted and said the campaign had told her to wrap it up. The 37 minutes of Harris Campaign footage the XPOTUS had already...

Welcome to stop #113 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Is/Was Brewing, 5121 N. Ravenswood Ave., ChicagoTrain line: Union Pacific North, Ravenswood (Also CTA Brown Line, Damen) Time from Chicago: 16 minutes (Zone 2)Distance from station: 600 m (1.6 km from CTA) If this façade seems familiar, it's because this storefront has a long history of making adult beverages. Until September 2022, Urban Brew Labs lived here; before they moved in, Koval Spirits called it home. And last week, Is/Was opened...

Welcome to stop #111 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Zorn Brew Works, 605 E. 9th St., Michigan City, Ind.Train line: South Shore Line, 11th St/Michigan City Time from Chicago: 84 minutesDistance from station: 800 m Zorn Brew Works provided a nice contrast to Shoreline Brewery, as tourists seemed to make up 90% of Shoreline's clientele and about 25% of Zorn's. It makes sense, as Zorn is in a more residential/transitional area, and Shoreline is about ten steps from the beach. It does help that...

Note: Tonality closed permanently in April 2025. Welcome to stop #108 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Tonality Brewing, 169 N. Seymore Ave., MundeleinTrain line: North-Central Service, Mundelein Time from Chicago: 68 minutesDistance from station: 400 m One of Chicagoland's newest breweries, Tonality opened in November in the shadow of Mundelein's water tower, ensuring they will always have enough of their principal ingredient to keep making great beers. They also have really good food, which...

Welcome to stop #106 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Industry Ales, 230 S. Wabash Ave., ChicagoTrain line: All of them Time from Chicago: not applicableDistance from station: 100 m from Adams/Wabash, 1.6 km from Ogilvie Transportation Center Chicago's newest brewery opened in April in what used to be Kramer's Health Foods next to the 125-year-old Central Camera store in the Loop. I am impressed. My Brews & Choos buddy and I went there Wednesday directly after visiting Chicago's oldest...

Welcome to stop #105 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Adams Street Brewery, 17 W. Adams St., ChicagoTrain line: All of them Time from Chicago: not applicableDistance from station: 100 m from Adams/Wabash, 1.3 km from Ogilvie Transportation Center The Adams Street Brewery traces its history back to 1887, and has existed in the same location in the Chicago Loop since 1898. It stopped brewing during Prohibition, but the Berghoff Restaurant above the brew works remained open throughout. I doubt much...

I'm about to leave the office for the next 4½ days. Happy Independence Day! And who could forget that the UK will have a general election tomorrow? To celebrate, the Post has a graphical round-up of just how badly the Conservative Party has screwed things up since taking power in 2010: There’s a widespread feeling among voters that something has gone awry under Tory government, that the country is stagnating, if not in perilous decline. Nearly three-quarters of the public believes that the country is...

Thank you, Pfizer-BioNTech, for helping my body recognize and eliminate the SARS-Cov-2 virus in only five days: I've got 5 Brews & Choos stops planned over the long weekend. This helps immensely. And stay tuned: this summer I'm also planning to investigate some of the 12 breweries and distilleries in downtown Milwaukee. (It's only 80 minutes away by train!)

Cassie and I have gone on two walks today, the first for 3.2 km and the second for 4.25 km, despite the really uncomfortable 26°C dewpoint. I mean, it's really gross out there. Fortunately because of the way dogs get rid of excess heat, it didn't bother her as much as it bothered me—the air is only 28°C, after all. But we both felt a lot better when we got back to my air-conditioned house. (Fun fact: my thermostat is set for 25°C, but the dewpoint inside is closer to 15°C which makes all the...

Lunchtime link roundup: Dr Daniela J Lamas of Brigham & Women's Hospital in Boston evaluates how age has affected President Biden and the convicted-felon XPOTUS, given that whoever wins in November has a high probability of being the oldest serving US President in history. Israel's highest court ruled that the IDF can, in fact, draft all the religious nutters who have avoided doing anything for the benefit of society since the country was founded. Perhaps this will help the country's crushing...

I woke up at my usual time this morning, noticed how dark it was, checked radar, and got Cassie out the door less than 10 minutes later. Because by the time I had her to day camp and got myself to the Metra platform, it looked like this: Waiting for the train, I got this: But what luck, it let up just as the train arrived. The photo doesn't do it justice: those are horizontal rain bands, and I was standing behind a window. By the time I got down to Ogilvie, we had this: Again, just a bit of light rain...

I may have my next Japanese itinerary, courtesy of Not Just Bikes:

Imagine an overnight train from New York to Miami that takes 12 hours. China just opened a $165 train that does about the same thing: From Hong Kong to Beijing, the overnight trip takes 12 hours 30 minutes, and it covers roughly the same distance as a flight from New York to Miami or Los Angeles to Dallas. It complements the 8 hour 15 minute day train that has run for years. The overnight trip to Shanghai takes 11 hours. The corresponding day train takes just 7 hours 47 minutes. We can have similar rail...

Dignitaries and Metra executives celebrated the opening of the Peterson-Ridge station on the UP-North line this past Sunday: Hopefully West Ridge, Edgewater, and Lincoln Square residents remembered that patience is a virtue, as they waited for more than ten years for Metra's new Peterson/Ridge station, 1780 W. Peterson Ave., to serve their communities. The commuter railroad, elected officials, and neighbors rejoiced over the completion of the Union Pacific North line stop, which opened on May 20, with...

Urbanist channel Not Just Bikes gushes at the integration and efficiency of the world's busiest train station, Tokyo's Shinjuku: I passed through it every day during my visit to Tokyo in 2011, and yes, it is a marvel.

The last three days—i.e., the first three days of Summer—have shown us most of the weather we can expect this season. It rained most of Saturday, yesterday we had cool, sunny, and eminently walkable weather, and today it's hot and sticky with thunderstorms on the way. At least Cassie and I got to spend most of yesterday outside. In other news: David French argues that Justice Sonia Sotomayor's (I) recent opinion defending the National Rifle Association "reinforced the constitutional wall of protection...

Just doing a quick review of the Brews & Choos-eligible establishments within 2 km of the Milwaukee Amtrak station this morning, I discovered that seven breweries and a distillery have opened since the project started. Accounting for the demise of Milwaukee Ale House, that brings the total to 11 breweries and 2 distilleries. I'll have to make two trips. Now all I have to do is find a weekend...or two...or three...

Now that Cassie's poop no longer has Giardia cysts in it, she went back to day camp today, so that I could go to my downtown office for the first time in nearly two weeks. To celebrate, it looks like I'll get to walk home from her day care in a thunderstorm. Before that happens, though: Russian journalist Mikhail Zygar warns that our 2024 election looks eerily like the 1996 Russian election that eventually led to Vladimir Putin becoming dictator. New Republic's Thom Hartman lays out how the "mud-sill...

Welcome to stop #104 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Demo Brewing, 1763 W. Berteau Ave., ChicagoTrain line: Union Pacific North, Ravenswood. (Also CTA Brown Line, Irving Park) Time from Chicago: 16 minutes (zone 2)Distance from station: 1.1 km (400 m from CTA) The newest brewery on Malt Row opened March 29th just 2 km from Inner Drive Technology World Headquarters and less than 500 meters from the CTA. I had a lot going on in April so I didn't get to check it out until last weekend. Cassie came...

Welcome to stop #103 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: MobCraft Brewing, 101 N. Johnson St., WoodstockTrain line: Union Pacific Northwest, Woodstock Time from Chicago: 91 minutes (zone 4)Distance from station: 200 m Between the perfect weather, the really good beer, and the view of the Woodstock Town Square, my Brews buddy and I really enjoyed our visit to MobCraft last weekend. I mean, doesn't this just make you want to sing "The Pennsylvania Polka?": But back to the beer. We tried two flights...

Cassie and I just got back from her vet, with a good 2 km walk in each direction and treats at both ends. The semi-annual wellness check was only $88, and pronounced Cassie in perfect health. Even her weight (25 kg) is exactly what it should be, so I can start adding a little kibble to her meals if we walk a lot. Of course, the heartworm pills were $230 and the fecal test was $107, so not everything about the checkup was great. Le sigh. Also, it's warm today: 27°C for both walks, which is more like June...

Welcome to stop #102 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Holzlager Brewing, 150F S. Eastwood Dr., WoodstockTrain line: Union Pacific Northwest, Woodstock Time from Chicago: 91 minutes (zone 4)Distance from station: 1 km Woodstock isn't the farthest Metra station from downtown Chicago; that honor goes to Harvard, which is almost 20 minutes farther out. But getting to Woodstock by train on a weekend takes about 2 hours when you have to change trains at Clybourn. And no small irony, the train taking...

My frequent Brews buddy and I trekked out to Woodstock, Ill., yesterday, and visited the two breweries in town, then took Cassie to the newest brewery in my own neighborhood. I'll be going through notes and photos later today, so expect the reviews up tomorrow through Wednesday. Meanwhile, for some reason, Minnesota unfurled a new state flag yesterday: Minnesota's new flag went into official use Saturday, which has many wondering why the state adopted a new flag. The controversial replacement of the old...

We have a truly delightful mix of light rain and snow flurries right now that convinced me to shorten Cassie's lunchtime walk from 30 minutes to 15 minutes to just 9 minutes each time I came to a street corner. I don't even think I'll make 10,000 steps today, because neither of us really wants to go outside in this crap. I'm also working on a feature improvement that requires fixing some code I've never liked, which I haven't ever fixed because it's very tricky. I know why I made those choices, but they...

The sky looks different this morning: I'm about to head to Nuremberg, depending on the price of train tickets. They seem to vary quite a bit every time I check online. But on a day like this, I'm sure I can find something fun to do nearby.

Since I learned how to drive a car, I've wanted to pick up a BMW in Munich. The European Delivery program allowed Americans to buy a made-to-order car at their local dealer, pick it up in Munich, drive it around Europe for up to 6 months, drop it off at an Atlantic port (Antwerp, I think), and drive it home from your local dealer about 12 weeks after that. Because of tax incentives from the German government and other factors, the purchase price of the car and delivery to your local dealer cost almost...

Welcome to stop #101 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Eris Brewery & Cider House, 4240 W. Irving Park Rd., ChicagoTrain line: Union Pacific Northwest, Irving Park (Zone 2) (also CTA Blue Line, Irving Park) Time from Chicago: 13 minutesDistance from station: 300 m Built out of a former Masonic temple in the Old Irving neighborhood, Eris has really good food and really good cider. At this writing, though, they're still working on their beer game. On top of some of the best cheese curds and French...

Welcome to stop #100 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Illuminated Brew Works, 6186 N. Northwest Hwy., ChicagoTrain line: Union Pacific Northwest, Norwood Park (Zone 2) Time from Chicago: 22 minutesDistance from station: 400 m It only took four years and a pandemic to get to the 100th Brews & Choos stop. When I stopped at Macushla in Glenview almost exactly four years ago, I thought I'd knock out all 90 or so breweries and distilleries in about 18 months. We all know what happened a month...

What do you get when you combine a 2°C air temperature, a 2°C dew point, frozen ground with snow patches, and nearly-calm winds? Visibility under 100 meters on my commute to the office: They say we may not see the sun until Wednesday. But they also say it'll be 7°C that day. March came early this year, it seems.

Closed in April 2025; Links Taproom will move into the space in 2026. Welcome to stop #98 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: On Tour Brewing, 1725 W. Hubbard St., ChicagoTrain line: CTA Green and Pink lines, Ashland Time from Chicago: 6 minutesDistance from station: 700 m Of the three breweries my friend and I planned to visit last Saturday, On Tour was our clear favorite. It helped that her employer has done several events there, one of which I attended before the pandemic, so we were both happy...

Welcome to stop #97 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Goose Island Beer Co., 1800 W Fulton St., ChicagoTrain line: CTA Green and Pink lines, Ashland Time from Chicago: 6 minutesDistance from station: 600 m Given Chicago's long association with Goose Island Beer, and my own review of their (now closed) flagship brewpub on Clybourn almost exactly a year ago, I haven't got much to add. Since InBev bought the brewery in 2016 and expanded to places like Seoul and Shanghai, it almost doesn't qualify as...

Welcome to stop #96 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Great Central Brewing, 221 N. Wood St., ChicagoTrain line: CTA Green and Pink lines, Ashland Time from Chicago: 6 minutesDistance from station: 500 m Despite the cold yesterday, a friend and I set off to the West Fulton Corridor industrial area to visit a cluster of three breweries all within a few hundred meters of each other. First on the list: Great Central Brewing. We liked the place, though it really leans into the "industrial" part of...

I grabbed a friend for a couple of Brews & Choos visits yesterday, and through judicious moderation (8-10 oz of beer per person at each stop), we managed to get the entire West Fulton Corridor cluster done in six hours. So in a few minutes I'll start writing four B&C reviews, which will come out over the next three days. Before I start, though, I'm going to read all these stories that have piled up since Friday: Sports Illustrated shut down publication and laid off the entire editorial staff after an...

Welcome to stop #95 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Revolution Brewery & Taproom, 3340 N. Kezie Ave., ChicagoTrain line: CTA Blue Line, BelmontTime from Chicago: 18 minutesDistance from station: 700 m Revolution's main brewing facility and taproom is the granddaddy of independent Chicago breweries. I've already reviewed their brewpub (about 2½ km from the taproom), and longtime readers know I like their beer a lot. So this Brews & Choos stop was more about checking in at an old favorite than...

Welcome to stop #94 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Hopewell Brewing, 2760 N Milwaukee Ave., ChicagoTrain line: CTA Blue Line, Logan SquareTime from Chicago: 16 minutesDistance from station: 400 m The second stop on the "research expedition" my friend and I took on Saturday didn't excite us as much as BiXi or Revolution. My friend decided that Hopewell is what you get when you tell an AI to design a Logan Square taproom. She's not wrong. We tried six beers—well, I tried five, because I really...

A small collection: The CTA's Yellow Line has resumed service seven weeks after a train hit a stopped snowplow near the Howard station. Europe needs more trains, so they're building them. Scholars examining some personal effects from a 17th-century shipwreck have some new answers and some new questions. A coalition of landlords and real estate companies doesn't want a referendum on the Cook County ballot that could levy a one-time tax on the sale of million-dollar properties. Finally, in her column on...

Welcome to stop #92 on the Brews and Choos project. Distillery: Take Flight Spirits, 8038 Lincoln Ave., SkokieTrain line: CTA Yellow Line, Oakton-SkokieTime from Chicago: 46 minutesDistance from station: 700 m This charming single-pot distillery in the only charming part of Skokie began distilling in March 2020 and opened its tasting room in the summer of 2022. A couple of friends and I were visiting a mutual friend a few blocks away, so we decided to traipse down the bike path that parallels the Yellow...

I complained yesterday that Chicago hadn't seen sunlight in almost a week. Ever the fount of helpful weather statistics, WGN pointed out that it made it the cloudiest start to a December since 1952. This streak had nothing on my winter break in 1991-92, when Chicago went 12 days without sunlight, or spring 2022, which had only 1 day of sunshine from March 21st through May 2nd. So the sun on my face this morning was delightful. In other gloominess: Julia Ioffe reports that Hamas has refused to release...

Welcome to an extra stop on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Olfactory Brewery & Blendery, 2245 3rd St., San FranciscoTrain line: Caltrain, 22nd St Time from SF Terminal: 5 minutesTime from Chicago: about 4½ hours by airDistance from station: 800 m I really liked Olfactory Brewery, and though I'd never visited before, I really liked Dogpatch. The place has a chill vibe, good beer, and dogs whenever they stop by. I tried three beers: the (checks notes) Más o Menos Bien Czech Pilsner (4.6%), great...

Welcome to an extra stop on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Fox Tale Fermentation Project, 120 E. Santa Clara St., San Jose, Calif.Train line: Caltrain, San Jose DiridonTime from Chicago: about 4½ hours by airDistance from station: 1.5 km I hadn't intended to visit Fox Tale, because a different brewery was closer to my hotel. But that brewery closed abruptly in November, though no one had updated its Google page. I'm glad I went to Fox Tale instead. Owners Felipe Bravo and Wendy Neff don't just...

Welcome to stop #89 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Off Color Brewing, 1460 N. Kingsbury St., ChicagoTrain line: CTA Red Line, North/ClybournTime from Chicago: 10 minutesDistance from station: 600 m I've actually wanted to stop by The Mousetrap (as Off Color calls their Kingsbury brewery and taproom) for a long time. It opened directly across the street from the Whole Foods Market that Parker and I used to walk to back when we used to walk there. I should have visited years ago instead of...

I have tickets to a late concert downtown, which means a few things, principally that I'm still at the office. But I'm killing it on this sprint, so it works out. Of course this means a link dump: The XPOTUS has a hate-hate relationship with life. After a damning ethics report, Rep. George Santos (R-NY) has announced he won't run again, which is too bad because it would have been an easy D pickup. Speaking of Republicans in Congress, why do they behave like adolescent boys all the time? Israel is seeing...

Welcome to stop #88 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Hop Butcher for the World, 4257 N. Lincoln Ave., ChicagoTrain line: CTA Brown Line, MontroseTime from Chicago: 33 minutesDistance from station: 1.1 km Named after the opening line in Carl Sandburg's "Chicago," Hop Butcher for the World took over Half Acre's Lincoln Ave. facility last January. It took me a while to visit because they're so close to my house that I wanted to walk over, but they don't allow dogs. Boo. So Friday evening, a friend...

Last weekend I made approximately 5 liters of chicken soup due to an unfortunate decision midway through the process to add more salt. Given the saltiness of the soup I put in mason jars, I recommend a 3:2 ratio of soup to water, meaning I effectively made 8 liters of soup. Most of it is in my freezer now, in convenient 250 mL jars, one serving apiece. Suffice it to say I have had chicken soup for lunch 3 times this week. It is, however, very delicious. Except for over-salting it (which is easily...

I'm iterating on a UI feature that wasn't 100% defined, so I'm also iterating on the API that the feature needs. Sometimes software is like that: you discover that your first design didn't quite solve the problem, so you iterate. it's just that the iteration is a bit of a context shift, so I'm going to read for about 15 minutes to clear my head: Kevin Philips, whose 1969 book The Emerging Republican Majority laid out Richard Nixon's "southern strategy" and led to the GOP's subsequent slide into...

I could have worked from home today, and probably should have, but I felt well enough to come in (wearing an N95 mask, of course). It turned that I had a very helpful meeting, which would not have worked as well remotely, but given tomorrow's forecast and the likelihood I'll still have this cold, Cassie will just have to miss a day of school. I have to jam on a presentation for the next three hours, so I'll come back to these later: Alex Shephard says this is the week Twitter finally went totally evil....

Welcome to stop #86 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Lock & Mule by Tangled Roots, 1025 S. State St., LockportTrain line: Heritage Corridor, LockportTime from Chicago: 47 minutesDistance from station: 400 m Metra has special brewery trains on Saturdays this fall, making a quick trip to Lockport a lot easier than it would be during the week. (Just go back to my review of Imperial Oak in Willow Springs for a longer explanation of that pain.) So yesterday, as promised, I visited the two breweries...

My Garmin Venu 3 continues to impress me. First, its navigation accuracy averages  within less than 2 meters, meaning you can see on my activity tracks when I dip into an alley to drop off Cassie's latest offering.  Second, its battery life rocks. I'm charging it right now after it last got to 100% around noon last Friday. When I connected its charger 45 minutes ago it had dwindled to 7%. That equates to just over 15 percentage points per day, or a full discharge in 6½ days. My old Venu 2 could barely...

It never stops, does it? And yet 100 years from now no one will remember 99% of this: A group of psychiatrists warned a Yale audience that the XPOTUS has a "dangerous mental illness" and should never get near political office again. Faced with this obvious truth, 59% of Republicans said they'd vote for him in 2024. Timothy Noah looks at the average age of the likely nominees for president next year (79) and the average age of the US Senate (60-something) and concludes our country needs a laxative....

Meteorological autumn begins at midnight local time, even though today's autumn-like temperatures will give way to summer heat for a few days starting Saturday. Tomorrow I will once again attempt the 42-kilometer walk from Cassie's daycare to Lake Bluff. Will I go 3-for-4 or .500? Tune in Saturday morning to find out. Meanwhile: Quinta Jurecic foresees some problems with the overlapping XPOTUS criminal trials next year, not least of which is looking for a judicial solution to a political problem. Even...

Private railroad operator Brightline has started modestly-high-speed service in South Florida, and has agreements in place to start Los Angeles to Las Vegas service by the end of the decade: Launching with no federal help, the modern debut of private passenger rail connecting two major metropolitan areas will come to fruition when Brightline riders arrive in Orlando from downtown Miami. The Federal Railroad Administration expects to sign off within days, triggering a three-week testing period before...

I tried something different yesterday after watching Uncle Roger's stab at adobo: Ng's basic outline worked really well, and I got close to what I had hoped on the first attempt. Next time I'll use less liquid, a bit more sugar, a bit less vinegar, and a bit more time simmering. Still, dinner last night was pretty tasty. Much of the news today, however, is not: US District Judge Tanya Chutkan set the XPOTUS's Federal criminal trial for next March 4th, two years earlier than he wanted it. Writing for The...

Welcome to stop #85 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Liquid Love Brewing, 1310 Busch Pkwy., Buffalo GroveTrain line: North Central Service, Buffalo GroveTime from Chicago: 55 minutesDistance from station: 1.3 km Before I review Liquid Love, I need to apologize for having a couple of breweries on this list that meet the criteria but really don't belong here. If Hailstorm in Tinley Park didn't have it's great beer and vibe, I would not recommend it, for the same reason that I can't recommend...

Welcome to stop #84 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Tighthead Brewing, 161 N. Archer Ave., MundeleinTrain line: North Central Service, MundeleinTime from Chicago: 59 minutesDistance from station: 200 m Planning to visit the handful of breweries along the North Central Service line presents certain challenges. Metra runs a total of 7 trains in each direction during the work week, but only one in the reverse-commute direction. And until they restored train 105 last December, there was literally...

Since today is the last Friday of the summer, I'm leaving the office a little early to tackle one of the more logistically challenging itineraries on the Brews & Choos Project. So I'm queueing up a few things to read over the weekend: The XPOTUS finally won his "long hard battle" to finally get a mugshot, which the Internet immediately (a) put on swag you can buy and (b) compared with the Kubrick Stare. But where did the Fulton County Jail get his height and weight? US intelligence sources believe the...

I'm still working on the feature I described in my last post. So some articles have stacked up for me to read: The US Senate has the second-highest average age in its 234-year history, with 34 members over 70. The House is the third-oldest, with 72 members over 70. Josh Marshall (and The Daily Parker) don't extend that worry to the presidency, however: we're just fine with four more years of President Biden being the oldest president ever. The Chicago Transit Authority has cut over the CTA Red and...

On my way downtown to hear Brahms' Ein Deutsches Requiem with some friends, I saw this notice, hung with a tragicomic level of incompetence, at the Ravenswood Metra station's 12-year-old "temporary" inbound platform: What? We get our "new" platform that has been almost completed for the past 24 months on August 1st? There’s only one brief note on the station info page, but otherwise…nothing. No ribbon cutting, no acknowledgement that the platform is opening 6 years late, no recognition that former...

It's Tuesday afternoon, and I think I'm caught up with everything in the way of me ploughing through some coding at work the remainder of the week. At some point, I might even read all of these through: January 6th Committee Special Counsel Jack Smith has informed the XPOTUS that he is the subject of a federal investigation, a clear indication that an indictment could soon follow. Abi Breland reports that far-right trolls haven't figured out how to cause misery on Meta's Threads app yet, but don't...

On Friday I posted about Amtrak's $75 billion windfall from the Biden Infrastructure Bill, and I wondered whether the new Siemens Venture rolling stock would make it to Chicago. Well, I took the Wolverine to and from New Buffalo, Mich., over the weekend, and rode in them. My contact at Amtrak said the states of Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Michigan own them. Photos and more details tomorrow.

The Federal Infrastructure Bill that President Biden signed into law in 2021 allocated $66 billion to Amtrak, which they plan to use to bring US rail service up to European standards (albeit in the mid-2000s): Amtrak’s expansion plan, dubbed Amtrak Connects US, proposes service improvements to 25 existing routes and the addition of 39 entirely new routes. If the vision were to be fully realized, it would bring passenger rail to almost every major city in the US in 15 years. (Right now, only 27 out of...

Welcome to stop #83 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Silver Harbor Brewing, 721 Pleasant St., St Joseph, Mich.Train line: Amtrak, St JosephTime from Chicago: 103 minutesDistance from station: 500 m Stopping by the best brewery in St Joseph, Mich., does not mean I'm going to expand the Brews and Choos Project to include every brewery, distillery, cidery, and winery accessible by train from Chicago, no matter how far away, but it's a tempting prospect. No, there's still a 2-hour time limit on the...

Here is the state of things as we go into the second half of 2023: The government-owned but independently-edited newspaper Wiener Zeitung published its last daily paper issue today after being in continuous publication since 8 August 1703. Today's headline: "320 years, 12 presidents, 10 emperors, 2 republics, 1 newspaper." Paula Froelich blames Harry Windsor's and Megan Markle's declining popularity on a simple truth: "Not just because they were revealed as lazy, entitled dilettantes, but because they...

Every time I travel to a country that competes seriously with the US, I come back feeling frustrated and angry that we consistently lose. In every measure except our military, on a per-capita basis we keep sliding down the league tables. We have more people in prison, more people in poverty, worse health-care outcomes, more health-care spending, more regressive taxation, worse environmental regulation, and more crime (and more gun crime) than most our peers. We also have horrible infrastructure. For a...

I had a lot going on this morning, so I'm only now snarfing down a Chipotle bowl. Also, I'm going to have to read these things tomorrow: Over 100 candidates, including a dog, will stand for election in Toronto's mayoral election on the 26th. Writing for Mother Jones, Ali Breland thinks the content-creator rebellion at Reddit won't stop what Corey Doctorow calls "the enshittification" of online platforms. Similarly, private-equity debt has killed yet another good company making good products, Insta-Pot....

I took a quick trip to Berchtesgaden, Germany, this afternoon. I think it might be the most beautiful place I've seen in Europe: I didn't stay too long, but I did get in a 2½ km walk that included part of a river path: The whole area looks like Bavarian storybook hour: To get there, you take a train from Freilassing, a nondescript town just over the German border from Salzburg. The train meanders through Alpine meadows at a slow but steady pace, passing through this kind of scenery: I will pass through...

Wow, do I love European trains. They're fast, clean, and way less expensive than flying. Except they do fly, as my train from Vienna to Salzburg did for part of the trip: That screen capture from my phone's GPS monitor shows us moving at 229 km/h (143 mph) roughly here. And then I landed in Salzburg. It's cute. I might even say lovely. But it's tiny—only 150,000 people or so—so it doesn't rise to Prague-like overwheliming beauty. But it's a lot less touristy than I thought. It turns out, Salzburg is a...

Thanks in part to Conservative Party mismanagement of the UK transport sector for the last 13 years, things have gotten a bit fraught in the Old Country. And now, I get to spend a bit of extra time getting from Gatwick to my hotel on Saturday: The Gatwick Express takes about 30 minutes from the airport to London Victoria Station. There is no other train option. Instead, it looks like I can take a cab straight to my hotel for about £90, or a bus to bloody Heathrow and the Elizabeth Line for about £25....

I chose not to poke into Hungary, but I did pop over to Bratislava, Slovakia, and took a quick stroll around the Presidential Palace: I'll have more photos possibly later today. Since I walked 3.5 km getting to the Vienna train station, I really could use a shower and a nap. Then I'll explore a bit more.

Between check-out and my departure for Vienna I have about 2 hours to kill. I've had my caffeine for the day already, so I'm not hanging out in Wenceslas Square occupying space at a cafe. Instead, I decamped to the park across the street from the train station: This might actually be the best thing I've done all week. And whether because either Prague has lax leash laws or no one cares about them, several random dogs have said hi today. I'll be back here soon.

While we in Ravenswood continue to wait for tile deliveries or whatever so Metra and the UPRR can finish replacing the platform they tore down in 2011, the a priori Peterson/Ridge station that broke ground 18 months ago is almost done: Work on the station is slated to wrap up this fall, when the long-awaited station will open to the public, project managers said at the community meeting. Announced in 2012, the Peterson-Ridge station has been the victim of the state’s years-long budget impasse and then...

I'm chasing down a bug that caused what we in the biz call "unexpected results" and the end-users call "wrong." I've fixed it in both our API and our UI, but in order to test it, I need the API built in our dev/test environment. That takes about 18 minutes. Plenty of time to read all of this: Ruth Marcus wants you to really think about Jean Carroll's testimony in her defamation suit against the XPOTUS. Tom Nichols sees narcissism, not "misguided patriotism," as the root of the classified intelligence...

Freelance writer John Carpenter (a "husky man of 60, with the approximate flexibility of a rusty old tractor") explores some of the abandoned railroads that now have bike paths on them in the Chicago area: Chicago is teeming with them — rail trails, I mean. Once extolled by the poet Carl Sandburg as the “player with railroads and the nation’s freight handler,” it remains a national railroad hub. That means there are bike paths along existing lines, like the Green Bay Trail beside Metra’s North Line, and...

I'm arguing with the Blazorise framework right now because their documentation on how to make a layout work doesn't actually work. Because this requires repeated build/test cycles, I have almost no time to read all of this: The US Surface Transportation Board has approved a merger between the Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern railroads, which will almost certainly bollix up commuter rail traffic in Chicago's western suburbs. A Russian warplane downed a US drone over the Black Sea. George Will...

Welcome to an extra stop on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Greenwood Brewing, 922 N. 5th St., PhoenixTrain line: Valley Metro Rail, Roosevelt/CentralTime from Chicago: 3½ hours by airDistance from station: 350 m I walked just a couple of blocks from Pedal Haus and found the kind of taproom where Cassie and I would hang out often: the woman-owned Greenwood Brewing. I enjoyed all the beers and found their space comfortable and inviting. Once again, I had a flight and took notes. Emera Easy Hazy IPA...

Welcome to an extra stop on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Pedal Haus Brewery, 214 E. Roosevelt St., PhoenixTrain line: Valley Metro Rail, Roosevelt/CentralTime from Chicago: 3½ hours by airDistance from station: 350 m I discovered last week that Phoenix built a light-rail system between my visits in 2015 and 2023. And it goes past a bunch of breweries. So when I had a few hours between my flight landing and the conference welcome dinner, I went to two of them. Pedal Haus Brewery has multiple...

Welcome to stop #82 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Art History Brewing, 649 W. State St., GenevaTrain line: Union Pacific West, GenevaTime from Chicago: 72 minutes (Zone H)Distance from station: 1.0 km Art History Brewing opened in the summer of 2020, a few months after their planned March 15th opening (oops). They got through the pandemic in part by brewing for Hopleaf, the excellent Belgian-inspired restaurant less than a kilometer from my house. But for whatever reason, none of their beers...

Welcome to stop #81 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Obscurity Brewing, 113 W. North St., ElburnTrain line: Union Pacific West, ElburnTime from Chicago: 85 minutes (Zone I)Distance from station: 1.2 km Elburn, Ill., is the end of the line for the Union Pacific West line. The station opened in 2006, extending the line past Geneva for the first time since the Chicago & North Western ceased intercity train service in 1971. In fact, when the last C&NW train pulled into Elburn 51 years ago, it...

The storm predicted to drop 100 mm of snow on Chicago yesterday missed us completely. That made my Brews & Choos research a lot more pleasant, though I did tromp all over the place in heavy boots that I apparently didn't need. Of course, had I not worn them, I would now be writing about my cold, wet socks. So while I'm getting two reviews together for later this week, go ahead and read this: Illinois had the 18th warmest and 17th wettest winter on record, including the state's 6th warmest January, with...

The rain has stopped, and might even abate long enough for me to collect Cassie from day camp without getting soaked on my way home. I've completed a couple of cool sub-features for our sprint review tomorrow, so I have a few minutes to read the day's stories: Matt Ford doesn't think US Representative Marjorie Taylor (R-GA) wants secession so much as uncontested Republican rule, which, you know, is on brand for her and her party. San Francisco native Michael Moritz worries that one-party rule by the...

After standing on the Ravenswood Metra platform for 10 minutes in 40 km/h winds and blowing rain, I hearby sentence former Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner to 100 days of standing on said platform without an umbrella or waterproof shoes for the offense cutting off funding to all Illinois transportation projects for 3 years in a fit of ideological pique and general lack of empathy for anyone else. Each instance of Rauner's prickishness causing suffering and inconvenience to the citizens of Illinois shall...

Welcome to stop #80 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Broken Tee Brewing Co., 406 Green Bay Rd., HighwoodTrain line: Metra UP-North, Highwood Time from Chicago (Ogilvie): 52 minutesDistance from station: Across the street Broken Tee, the newest brewery in Lake County, opened over Labor Day weekend—the weekend before Urban Brew Labs closed down. But while Broken Tee requires a longer train trip than UBL did, I found it worth the trip. I met an old friend for a beer and a bite last Friday. I only...

I spent way more time than I should have this morning trying to set up an API key for the Associated Press data tools. Their online form to sign up created a general customer-service ticket, which promptly got closed with an instruction to...go to the online sign-up form. They also had a phone number, which turned out to have nothing to do with sales. And I've now sent two emails a week apart to their "digital sales" office, with crickets in response. The New York Times had an online setup that took...

Let's start with combat-actor Jill Bearup explaining how the Netflix-ITV-BBC ban on corsets solves entirely the wrong problems: Meanwhile, in the modern world: The National Transportation Safety Board reported that an axle on the 23rd car of the train that derailed in East Palesine, Ohio, had a bearing temperature 140°C over normal—which is 30°C over "critical." The crew were trying to stop the train when the bearing failed. Perhaps if the train had fewer cars, or more crew, or the proper braking...

I spent the morning going over an API for standards and style, which will result in an uncomfortably large commit before I leave the office today. I prefer smaller, more focused commits, but this kind of polishing task makes small code changes all over the place, and touches lots of files. So while I have my (late) lunch, I'm taking a break to read some news: Chicago's El got color-coded route designations 30 years ago today. No more Howard-Dan Ryan line; now it's the Red Line. Web hosting service...

I released 13 stories to production this afternoon, all of them around the app's security and customer onboarding, so all of them things that the non-technical members of the team (read: upper management) can see and understand. That leaves me free to tidy up some of the bits we don't need anymore, which I also enjoy doing. While I'm running multiple rounds of unit and integration tests, I've got all of this to keep me company: US Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA), who even people who love her wonder if...

Welcome to stop #79 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Bungalow by Middle Brow., 2840 W. Armitage Ave., ChicagoTrain line: CTA Blue Line, California Time from Chicago: 14 minutesDistance from station: 600 m I had plans to meet a friend who lives in Logan Square last Thursday, so why not combine it with the Brews and Choos Project? The friend loves Bungalow by Middle Brow, and I understand why. It's really cool. I tried a sip of my friend's Cottage Mexican Lager (4%), and put it in the category of...

It got practically tropical this afternoon, at least compared with yesterday: Cassie and I took advantage of the no-longer-deadly temperatures right at the top point of that curve to take a 40-minute, 4.3 km walk. Tomorrow should stay as warm, at least until the next cold front comes in and pushes temperatures down to -18°C for a few hours Thursday night. I'm heading off to pub quiz in a few minutes, so I'll read these stories tomorrow morning: London plans to build an elevated rails-to-trails park...

In other news: Greg Hinz goes over the upcoming Chicago mayoral election. Kansas Republicans have not given up their fight against the state constitution as they try to ban abortions there against the will of the majority of voters. The US Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing today into the monopolistic behavior of organized crime syndicate concert promoter Live Nation and its accomplice, Ticketmaster. The Long Island Railroad begins service to Grand Central Station tomorrow, bringing commuters...

Just a pre-weekend rundown of stuff you might want to read: The US Supreme Court's investigation into the leak of Justice Samuel Alito's (R) Dobbs opinion failed to identify Ginny Thomas as the source. Since the Marshal of the Court only investigated employees, and not the Justices themselves, one somehow does not feel that the matter is settled. Paul Krugman advises sane people not to give in to threats about the debt ceiling. I would like to see the President just ignore it on the grounds that Article...

Welcome to an extra stop on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Black Hammer Brewing, 544 Bryant St., San FranciscoTrain line: Caltrain, San Francisco terminalTime from Chicago: about 4½ hours by airDistance from station: 600 m I spent most of Monday in Palo Alto, Calif., one of the few places in California that has an actual commuter rail station. Caltrain's northern terminus, at 4th and King, is only three blocks from an actual brewery, so naturally I stopped in. My $20 flight started with the Jaded...

Unfortunately, though, I'm already at the airport, staring out at blue skies and sunny...airplanes. I'm looking forward to getting home, though, and to picking up Cassie tomorrow morning after her bath. (She was already overdue, but after 4 days with her pack, she'll need it even more.) I've got a couple of Brews & Choos from yesterday as well as a few photos from the weekend coming later this week. Stay tuned.

The Federal Aviation Administration halted all takeoffs from US airports for about an hour this morning after the Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) system failed. Planes have resumed flying, but the ripples from this morning's ground stop could take a day or two to resolve. Good thing I'm not flying until Saturday. Also this morning, Chicago's transit agencies released a new real-time train tracker that finally allows commuters to see where (many) of Metra's trains actually think they are. I tested the...

In a form of enlightened laziness, I often go into my company's downtown Chicago office on Friday and the following Monday, avoiding the inconvenience of taking my laptop home. It helps also that Fridays and Mondays have become the quietest days of the week, with most return-to-office workers heading in Tuesdays through Thursdays. And after a productive morning, I have a few things to read at lunch: The Economist says a lot of nice things about Chicago, including that we have an almost inexhaustible...

The House will probably elect a Speaker before the end of March, so we probably won't set any records for majority-party dickery before the Congress even starts. (We might for what the 118th Congress does, though.) But with three ballots down and the guy who thought he'd get the job unable to get the last 19 votes he needs, it might take a few days. Meanwhile: How does the House elect its Speaker, anyway? Whoever the Republicans elect, they have already made clear their intentions for the 118th to...

Derp. Yesterday was the 30th birthday of the SMS, too. Also, I came across a nifty live CTA tracker, so I now know where part of my bonus is going. I feel seen! (They have a bunch of other live trackers, including one for the Tube. Kewl.)

One of my favorites (and Cassie's), Urban Brew Labs, closed on September 10th due to inadequate beer sales. They ran out of my favorite brew a couple of weeks earlier but I still managed to get there on the 9th to wish them luck. In a bit of Karmic balancing, Smylie Brothers closed their awful Lakeview location (on my birthday of all things!), for no apparent reason. I mean, my hypothesis would have to include the food and beer, but owner Michael Smylie declined to comment when Block Club Chicago asked...

The President announced this morning that negotiators have reached a tentative deal between the railroads and their engineers and conductors, averting tonight's planned strike: Freight rail companies and unions representing tens of thousands of workers reached a tentative agreement to avoid what would have been an economically damaging strike, after all-night talks brokered by Labor Secretary Martin J. Walsh, President Biden said early Thursday morning. The agreement now heads to union members for a...

Chicago's heavy-rail commuter district, Metra, started cancelling train service that would extend past the midnight-Friday start time of the planned nationwide rail strike. Well, taking the El to work instead of Metra adds about 9 minutes to my commute, so I'll have to deal with that on Friday, I suppose. Except that commuter rail shutdowns don't even start to illustrate how bad this strike could turn out for the US economy: [A strike] would cause immediate problems for manufacturers, says Lee Sanders...

My commute to work Friday might get a little longer, as Metra has announced that 9 out of its 11 lines (including mine) would likely not operate if railroad engineers and conductors go on strike Friday. Amtrak has already started cancelling trains so they won't get stranded mid-route should the strike happen. In other news: Cook County tax bills won't come out until late autumn, according to the County President, meaning no one knows how much cash they have to escrow when they sell real estate. The Post...

Every time I commute to work from the Ravenswood Metra station, I get annoyed. Metra has yet to finish the inbound platform after almost 10 years of delays. So I emailed the alderman to ask why, and CC:d Block Club Chicago, the local news outlet. Reporter Alex Hernandez called me the next morning, and ran this story today: The Ravenswood Metra station overhaul that began more than a decade ago is hitting yet another bump.  The $30 million project to renovate 11 bridges along Metra’s Union Pacific...

Welcome to stop #76 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Soundgrowler Brewing, 8201 W. 183rd St., Tinley ParkTrain line: Rock Island District, Tinley/80thTime from Chicago: 37 minutes (Zone E)Distance from station: 1.4 km When I visited Hailstorm Brewing in March 2021, I really should have gone to Soundgrowler next, as they're just a short walk from each other and I'd never have to go to their industrial park in Tinley Park again. They're both great in their own ways, don't get me wrong; but now...

One of my favorite local breweries, Urban Brew Labs, will close when it runs out of beer in the next week or so: Owner James Moriarty announced on Instagram the brewery and taproom, 5121 N. Ravenswood Ave., will close by the end of the summer. Moriarty did not give a specific end date for the business, but thanked fans, neighbors and employees for keeping the business going for so long.  “We’ll keep the lights on as long as we have beer to serve, but this will be our final summer season,” Moriarty...

So I'm going to have to postpone reading all of these: Isaac Chotiner interviews UT Law professor Steve Vladeck about whether former presidents deserve special treatment. Does the Republican Party even have a message this election cycle? Julia Ioffe argues that Vladimir Putin's "triumph of the will" turned out better than most people realize. Your mental model about what causes traffic is almost certainly wrong. From 2016, author Cixin Liu (The Three-Body Problem) examines contemporary Chinese science...

If Cassie could (a) speak English and (b) understand the concept of "future" she would be quivering with anticipation about going to Ribfest tonight after school. Since she can't anticipate it, I'll do double-duty and drool on her behalf. It helps that the weather today looks perfect: sunny, not too hot, with a strong chance of delicious pork ribs. Meanwhile, I have a few things to read on my commute that I didn't get to yesterday: Remember when psychiatrist Bandy Lee got shouted down when she warned...

This is a bit of good news for my weekend getaway: Long-running weekend strikes on London's Night Tube have been suspended after the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union accepted a concession from London Underground about rotas. The bodies have agreed to have a minimum number of drivers who prefer to work overnight on each line. The RMT stressed the dispute was not resolved, and the situation would be reviewed in three months at the latest. Ongoing weekend strike action began in January and was...

So I have queued up stuff to read later: How can anyone believe the Republican Party's "freedom" rhetoric in light of their current behavior? Millions of Canadians have yet to regain Internet and telecoms services after monopsony telecom provider Rogers suffered a catastrophic outage yesterday. Speaking of Canada, the Court of Appeal for Ontario heard three weeks of testimony about the struggling Ottawa Light Rail project, one of a slew of Canadian transport projects that hasn't gone as planned....

Welcome to stop #75 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Maplewood Brewery, 2717 N Maplewood Ave., ChicagoTrain line: CTA Blue Line, Logan SquareTime from Chicago: 16 minutesDistance from station: 1.7 km I've actually visited Maplewood many times in the past, but not since starting the Brews & Choos project. The pandemic got in the way, especially after it killed Fat Willy's Rib Shack and nearly killed the movie theater around the corner. I finally returned to the movie theater on Wednesday to see...

The Elizabeth Line through central London, formerly known as Crossrail, opened today: First approved in 2008, the heavy rail line will dramatically improve public transport coverage of the city, says Transport for London (TfL), slashing journey times, providing substantial extra capacity and making the city more altogether more accessible. By extending the transport system to areas that were previously much slower to access and creating new central hubs for transfers to the Tube, the line could also...

The London Underground gets a new line on May 24th. Eventually, you can take the Elizabeth Line from Heathrow to Essex in one go; for now, you have to change twice. But it still adds about 10% more capacity to the Tube: The Elizabeth line will initially operate as three separate railways, with services from Reading, Heathrow and Shenfield connecting with the central tunnels from autumn this year. When the final stage is complete, customers will be able to travel seamlessly from Abbey Wood to Heathrow...

Welcome to an extra stop on the Brews and Choos project. Update: Mikkeler Bar closed permanently in October 2022. Had it not, I would have dropped it from the official list because, it turns out, they didn't actually brew on premises. Brewery: Mikkeler Bar, 34 Mason St., San FranciscoTrain line: BART, PowellTime from Chicago: about 4½ hours by airDistance from station: 200 m While in San Francisco last weekend, I happened across a brewpub that would fit the Brews & Choos ethos perfectly, were it in...

Welcome to stop #74 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Burning Bush Brewery, 4014 N. Rockwell Ave., ChicagoTrain line: CTA Brown Line, RockwellTime from Chicago: 35 minutesDistance from station: 1.5 km The brewery opened in March 2020, and like others on this list, quickly pivoted to to-go sales. That let them get pretty good at making beers. Yesterday, Cassie and I stopped by the brewery after a 5 km walk to the Horner Park Dog Park just across the river. I got a flight, naturally, and Cassie...

Welcome to stop #72 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Moody Tongue Brewing, 2515 S. Wabash Ave., ChicagoTrain line: CTA Green Line, Cermak–McCormick PlaceTime from Loop: 6 minutesDistance from station: 900 m Moody Tongue surprised everyone when it won two Michelin stars in 2021, in part because of their novel 12-beer parings menu in the dining room. Fortunately for the Brews & Choos Project, they also have a separate bar area, which by itself would qualify for a Bib Gourmand. I got a reservation...

A massive fire destroyed the brewery and two other businesses last night: The fire broke out about 3:30 a.m. in a multi-unit residential building in the 4300 block of North Richmond, according to the Chicago Fire Department. Neighbors said the fire started in a three-story building on the corner and quickly spread to the Twisted Hippo brewpub, 2925 W. Montrose Ave. and the Ultimate Ninjas Gym. About 150 firefighters were on the scene battling the blaze. As of 8:30 a.m., crews had the fire under control....

Welcome to stop #71 on the Brews and Choos project. Note: Exit Strategy closed permanently on 29 October 2023. Brewery: Exit Strategy Brewing, 7700 Madison St., Forest ParkTrain line: UP-W, River Forest (also CTA Blue Line, Forest Park)Time from Chicago: 18 minutes (Zone B)Distance from station: 1.3 km (800 m from CTA) Forest Park used to have a reputation for anchoring one end of Chicago's skid row. No longer: the village has great restaurants and cute neighborhoods, including Exit Strategy Brewing. I...

Welcome to stop #70 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Afterthought Brewing, 218 E. St. Charles Road, LombardTrain line: UP-W, LombardTime from Chicago: 46 minutes (Zone D)Distance from station: 500 m In my conversation with the staff at Afterthought Brewing, I mentioned that they are almost precisely the opposite of Goldfinger. Where Goldfinger precisely controls yeast strains, brewing times, temperatures, and their immaculate Euro-style taproom, Afterthought lets nature do her thing and decides...

The Brews & Choos Project officially kicked off two years ago today, with a stop at Macushla Brewing in Glenview. I expected it to take a lot less than two years. But the list now has 135 breweries and distilleries on it, up from the 98 I identified at the start of the project. With 69 reviews on the blog, and a little arithmetic, that stretches the project out to...almost exactly 4 years. So what's next? Well, it's February, so I'm prioritizing less walking and places without outdoor seating. Depending...

Former Illinois governor Bruce Rauner (R, of course) famously stopped almost all discretionary spending in the state during his term in office by continually vetoing state budgets passed by the Democratically-controlled legislature. His term overlapped with a project to rebuild 11 railroad bridges on the North Side of Chicago, and which included a companion project, partially necessitated by the track reconfigurations required to replace the bridges, to rebuild the Ravenswood Metra station serving...

Welcome to stop #68 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Goldfinger Brewing, 513 Rogers St., Downers GroveTrain line: BNSF, Fairview AveTime from Chicago: 43 minutes (Zone E)Distance from station: 500 m Goldfinger Brewing opened in July 2020, which really sucked for them. But because they focused on making nothing but high-quality, traditional, Central-European lagers, they attracted an immediate following that kept them going. Fun fact: Lagers take about three times longer to brew than ales, which...

Welcome to stop #67 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Imperial Oak Brewing, 9526 Ogden Ave., BrookfieldTrain line: BNSF, Congress ParkTime from Chicago: 24 minutes (Zone C)Distance from station: 200 m The ugly stepchild of the original Imperial Oak in Willow Springs opened in March after the owners acquired a failing local bar in December 2019. The pandemic didn't hurt them since it took about 15 months to build out the new brewing facility. They have some of the same beers as the original, but...

Welcome to stop #65 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Public Craft Brewing, 716 58th St., Kenosha, Wis.Train line: Union Pacific North, KenoshaTime from Chicago: 1 hour, 40 minutes (Zone K)Distance from station: 800 m As our music director sometimes says with a pained look on his face, "there were a lot of good things in there." So with Public Craft Brewing, which seemed entirely the opposite in many ways from Rustic Road just around the corner. The high ceilings and well-lit seating area felt a...

Welcome to stop #64 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Rustic Road Brewing, 5706 6th Ave., Kenosha, Wis.Train line: Union Pacific North, KenoshaTime from Chicago: 1 hour, 40 minutes (Zone K)Distance from station: 900 m Kenosha, Wis., is the end of the line for the Metra Union Pacific North Line. It takes a while to get up there, longer than to any other Metra station. (The South Shore Line isn't a Metra railroad.) Plus, the weekday train schedules make a day trip nigh impossible Monday to Friday....

Today is the 50th anniversary of DB Cooper jumping out of a hijacked airplane into the wilds of Washington State. It's also the day I will try to get a Covid-19 booster shot, since I have nothing scheduled for tomorrow that I'd have to cancel if I wind up sleeping all day while my immune system tries to beat the crap out of some spike proteins in my arm. Meanwhile, for reasons passing understanding (at least if you have a good grasp of economics), President Biden's approval ratings have declined even...

Welcome to stop #62 on the Brews and Choos project. Note: A massive fire destroyed the brewery on 21 February 2022. Brewery: Twisted Hippo, 2925 W. Montrose Ave., ChicagoTrain line: CTA Brown Line, FranciscoTime from Chicago: 38 minutesDistance from station: 700 m I will say this: Twisted Hippo has awesome beer names, and I respect the way they portray Africa's deadliest animal as kind of cute. And inebriated. I was less impressed by their brewpub than I had hoped, though. It seemed more like a suburban...

Welcome to stop #61 on the Brews and Choos project. Distillery: Chicago Distilling Co., 2359 N. Milwaukee Ave., ChicagoTrain line: CTA Blue Line, California Time from Chicago: 14 minutesDistance from station: 300 m It's dangerous to have such a great distillery two doors down from a great brewpub. It's also convenient, when you're out with friends and want to have a cocktail after having a pile of pub food. Chicago Distilling makes really good spirits, full stop. And they've recently launched a line of...

Revolution announced on 1 November 2024 the brewpub will close on December 14th. Welcome to stop #60 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Revolution Brewpub., 2323 N. Milwaukee Ave., ChicagoTrain line: CTA Blue Line, California Time from Chicago: 14 minutesDistance from station: 200 m I've enjoyed Revolution beers for such a long time I can't really review them like I do the ones I've just met. When I met some friends for dinner at their brewpub (cf. the Revolution Taproom on Kedzie), I did try a...

The Tribune yesterday reported that local breweries have started producing more lagers as people get tired of IPAs: Lager accounts for most of the beer sold in the world — including the 16 biggest-selling brands in the United States — but it has rarely been a recipe for success for craft breweries, which often default to ratcheting up experimentation, flavor and intensity. Lager, by contrast, tends to be approachable and predictable. Think Miller Lite. Michelob Ultra. Modelo Especial. While tropically...

I was pretty busy today, with most of my brain trying to figure out how to re-architect something that I didn't realize needed it until recently. So a few things piled up in my inbox: David Corn is reporting that US Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV), who has basically halted his party's own progress to, well, progress, threatened to leave the Democratic Party if he didn't get his way. Part of the President's agenda includes starting to build a 320 km/h rail line from New York to Boston that includes a tunnel...

Oh boy: Voters have defeated billionaire, populist Czech prime minister Andrej Babiš through the simple process of banding together to kick him out, proof that an electorate can hold the line against strongmen. A school administrator in Texas told teachers that "if they have a book about the Holocaust in their classroom, they should also offer students access to a book from an 'opposing' perspective." Because Texas. Oakland Police should stop shooting Black men having medical emergencies, one would...

Welcome to stop #58 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: All Rise Brewing Co., 235 N. Ashland Ave., ChicagoTrain line: CTA Pink and Green Lines, Ashland Time from Chicago: 6 minutesDistance from station: 200 m In terms of breweries and distilleries accessible from one Metra station, mine (Ravenswood) tops the list. But the single densest train station of any kind is actually Ashland on the CTA Pink and Green lines. Two stops from Clinton, which is close to both Ogilvie and Union Station, and three...

Yes, that Guinness. They've found a derelict railway building in the Fulton Market area and plan to open a new stop on the Brews & Choos Project: Chicago developer Fred Latsko has struck a deal with Irish beer brand Guinness to open a brewery and beer hall in a long-vacant Fulton Market District building while he lines up plans to build what could be one of the former meatpacking neighborhood's tallest office buildings next door. Guinness is poised to open the venue as part of a revival of the...

Welcome to stop #57 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Horse Thief Hollow, 10426 S. Western Ave., ChicagoTrain line: Rock Island, 103rd–Beverly Hills Time from Chicago: 26 minutes (Zone C)Distance from station: 1.3 km About 180 years ago, the low, swampy area where 111th Street meets Vincennes Avenue today provided excellent cover for a band of horse thieves who plagued the farmers far to the south of Chicago. In 2013, Neil Byers opened a restaurant and brewery nearby. Eight years in, they are...

Welcome to stop #56 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Open Outcry Brewing, 10934 S. Western Ave., ChicagoTrain line: Rock Island, 111th–Morgan Park Time from Chicago: 30 minutes (Zone C)Distance from station: 1.1 km Yesterday I snuck out of the office before sunset and headed out to Tinley Park to see the new beer garden at Banging Gavel Brews. Despite my very careful reading of train schedules to visit three Rock Island Line stops in one evening, I did not read Banging Gavel's website carefully...

Welcome to stop #55 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Greenstar Brewing, 3800 N. Clark St., ChicagoTrain line: CTA Red Line, Addison Time from Chicago: 18 minutesDistance from station: 800 m The local organic restaurant pair Uncommon Ground brews organic beer at its Wrigleyville location just a block from Wrigley Field. Since 2011 they've brewed good beer and served it alongside decent food, offering a grown-up alternative to the Kindergarten bars around the ball park. A couple of friends joined...

From 1916 until 1956, the Chicago, North Shore, and Milwaukee Railroad ran trolleys from the Roosevelt Road in Chicago up to Milwaukee. Trains traveled along what is now the CTA Purple Line to Linden Street, where the Purple Line now ends. From that point, they went another block up 4th Street, then west on Greenleaf to the Chicago & Northwestern tracks, then ran parallel to those clear on up to Wisconsin. On Friday, I walked along the North Shore Line's right-of-way for most of the way. (It's now the...

Note: Temperance closed permanently on 27 October 2024. Welcome to stop #54 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Temperance Beer Co., 2000 Dempster St., EvanstonTrain line: CTA Purple Line, DempsterTime from Chicago: 34 minutes (longer on weekends)Distance from station: 1.8 km I've made an exception to the "within 1500 meters" rule for Temperance. I almost always have some Gatecrasher IPA in my fridge, so I couldn't simply ignore one of my favorite breweries just because it takes an extra three...

Welcome to stop #53 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Dovetail Brewery, 1800 W. Belle Plaine Ave., ChicagoTrain line: UP North, Ravenswood (also CTA Brown Line, Irving Park)Time from Chicago: 13 minutes (Zone B)Distance from station: 1.3 km (Metra), 300 m (CTA) I know, I know, I should have posted about Dovetail months ago. I mean, Dovetail and Begyle (stop #15) are less than 100 meters apart, and until recently both had dog-friendly policies. But on the day I visited Begyle for the Brews and...

Chicago & Northwestern Station, 9 August 1971: Approximately the same location, 23 August 2021: The station was demolished in 1984 and replaced with Citicorp Center.

Welcome to stop #52 on the Brews and Choos project. Note: The brewery closed permanently in February 2023. Brewery: Dry City Brew Works, 120 N. Main St., WheatonTrain line: UP West, WheatonTime from Chicago: 51 minutes (Zone E)Distance from station: 500 m Just as Methodist-founded Northwestern University in Evanston kept that city dry from the 1850s until 1972, Wheaton College had the same effect on the DuPage County Seat until 1984. Dry City Brew Works celebrates (?) this history with their...

Welcome to stop #51 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Two Hound Red, 486 Pennsylvania Ave., Glen EllynTrain line: UP West, Glen EllynTime from Chicago: 45 minutes (Zone E)Distance from station: 500 m You know? Downtown Glen Ellyn is a lot cuter than I expected. And Two Hound Red, which opened in June 2019, is worth the trip. If only they had fewer TVs... They don't have flights, but they will give you pairs of 5-ounce samples, so I had two. Meaning four. And they were pretty good—though it turned...

Welcome to stop #50 on the Brews and Choos project. Note: EBC closed on 8 June 2025 and will be replaced in 2026 by 93 Octane Brewery. Brewery: Elmhurst Brewing Co., 171 N Addison Ave., ElmhurstTrain line: UP West, ElmhurstTime from Chicago: 32 minutes (Zone 3)Distance from station: 300 m Elmhurst Brewing opened in February 2018 and got through the pandemic with take-out and delivery. I can understand how: they have good beer. They brew in the back, then send the beer up to giant steel containers behind...

The Chicago Transit Authority's RPM project has claimed another victim: For comparison, here's the view from 10 days ago: Yep. The Lawrence El station is gone. By the end of autumn, the entire east half of the embankment should be gone as well. I will post updates as interesting things happen.

Those topics led this afternoon's news roundup: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its 6th periodic report on the state of the planet, and it's pretty grim. But as Josh Marshall points out, "Worried about life on earth? Don’t be. Life’s resilient and has a many hundreds of millions of years track record robust enough to handle and adapt to anything we throw at it. But the player at the top of the heap is the first to go." Charles Blow has almost run out of empathy for people who...

Welcome to stop #49 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery closed in August 2023. Brewery: MyGrain Brewing., 50 E. Jefferson St., JolietTrain line: Heritage Corridor or Rock Island, JolietTime from Chicago: 70 minutes (Zone H)Distance from station: At the station One of the subtle (to American audiences, anyway) bits of satire in Simon Pegg's 2013 movie The World's End is the sameness of the pubs that the characters visit. They have the same faux-handwriting, faux-chalk menu boards; the same layouts...

While I look out my hermetically-sealed office window at some beautiful September weather in Chicago (another argument for working from home), I have a lot of news to digest: The infrastructure bill unveiled in the US Senate this morning would give $66 billion to Amtrak, which desperately needs the money. Josh Marshall argues that social-group identity drives resistance to vaccination. Brooke Harrington elaborates by pointing out that people who are conned usually can't admit to being conned. In...

Welcome to stop #47 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Imperial Oak Brewing., 501 Willow Rd., Willow SpringsTrain line: Heritage Corridor, Willow SpringsTime from Chicago: 32 minutes (Zone D)Distance from station: 100 m It is very important to remember, if you plan to visit either of the breweries along Metra's Heritage Corridor line, that they run only three trains only from Chicago on weekday afternoons, and none to Chicago. So when I visited Imperial Oak Brewing yesterday, I took the first...

Welcome to stop #46 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Flapjack Brewery., 6833 Stanley Ave., BerwynTrain line: BNSF, BerwynTime from Chicago: 15 minutes (Zone B)Distance from station: 100 m Some parts of the Chicago area deal with heavy infrastructure differently than other parts. Take the North Shore: the heavy-rail commuter line serving Clybourn Junction on up to Kenosha blends into the area elevated on a tree-covered embankment on up to Wilmette, then at or below grade level surrounded by more...

Welcome to stop #45 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Milk Money Brewing., 75 S. La Grange Rd., La GrangeTrain line: BNSF, La Grange RdTime from Chicago: 26 minutes (Zone C)Distance from station: 500 m La Grange Road has a lot of competition, being essentially the restaurant district of La Grange. So for a suburban brewery, Milk Money does a good job. I stopped by on the Friday before July 4th, when the weather felt more like September and the vibe felt more like 2019. They don't do flights per...

French start-up Midnight Trains plans a set of overnight train routes of 800-1,500 km in length, from Paris to Edinburgh, Madrid, Copenhagen, and Rome: The founders say the aim is not to match the famous – and expensive – luxury of the Orient Express but offer an alternative to the basic, state-run SNCF sleepers and short-haul flights. Key to the service will be “hotel-style” rooms offering privacy and security, and an onboard restaurant and bar. Midnight Trains is the latest arrival in what is becoming...

Oh, to be a dog. Cassie is sleeping comfortably on her bed in my office after having over an hour of walks (including 20 minutes at the dog park) so far today. Meanwhile, at work we resumed using a bit of code that we put on ice for a while, and I promptly discovered four bugs. I've spent the afternoon listening to Cassie snore and swatting the first one. Meanwhile, in the outside world, life continues: Ukrainian police arrested members of the Cl0p ransomware gang, seizing money and cars along with the...

Work continues on the Ravenswood Metra station, letting us commuters believe that finally! we might not have to stand in the rain waiting for an inbound train sometime this autumn. Until then, we still have to wait on a rickety wooden platform that now extends four meters from the original rickety wooden platform, meaning we have a worse station experience than our great-grandparents would have when the station opened in the 1890s. Of course, once we board the trains, our overall travel experience on...

After languishing for four years while former Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner (R-of course) refused to govern, Metra's Peterson/Ridge station project...has stalled again: Crews for Metra were slated to break ground in May on the train station at Peterson and Ravenswood avenues. Due to a permitting issue with the city, work will be delayed by roughly three to five months, said Joe Ott, director of Metra’s construction department. If the permits take any longer to secure, major construction on the new...

The Chicago Transit Authority will demolish my local El station starting May 16th, kicking off a 4-year, $2.1 bn project to rebuild the Red and Purple Lines from Lawrence to Bryn Mawr. Good thing we have an alternative only 400 meters away: Crews will begin the demolition work on the project’s northern end at Ardmore Avenue and work south, CTA spokeswoman Tammy Chase said. The construction zone spans from Ardmore Avenue to Leland Avenue. The Lawrence, Argyle, Berwyn and Bryn Mawr stations will close May...

Amtrak has big plans—especially for Chicago—if it gets a piece of President Biden's $2-trillon infrastructure bill: Chicago passenger-rail riders ought to thrilled. A proposed map released by Amtrak shows rail service out of the Windy City absolutely exploding, with enhanced service to Detroit, Milwaukee, Indianapolis, St. Louis, and other locales, plus new service to cities including Minneapolis/St. Paul, Green Bay, Iowa City, Rockford, Cleveland and Louisville. According to spokesman Marc Magliari...

Welcome to stop #42 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Crystal Lake Brewing Co., 150 N. Main St., Crystal LakeTrain line: Union Pacific Northwest, Crystal LakeTime from Chicago: 81 minutes (Zone I)Distance from station: 200 m A bit more than half of the scheduled Metra UP-NW trains end their runs at Crystal Lake on weekends, so you probably won't miss the stop. The brewery is just one block north of the station. And as you can see, on a gorgeous early-spring day like last Sunday, they have a...

Welcome to stop #41 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Blue Island Beer Company, 13357 Old Western Ave., Blue IslandTrain line: Rock Island, Blue Island-Vermont (also Metra Electric, Blue Island)Time from Chicago: 20 minutes (Zone D)Distance from station: 800 m This entry might run a bit long, as Blue Island Beer Co.'s owner Alan Cromwell sat down with me for about an hour when I mentioned the Brews and Choos Project to him. And while we were talking, Jim Richert, president of the soon-to-open...

Welcome to stop #38 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Dry Hop Brewers, 3155 N. Broadway, ChicagoTrain line: CTA Brown, Purple, and Red Lines, Belmont Time from Chicago: 16 minutesDistance from station: 800 m Dry Hop Brewery on Broadway belongs to the same restaurant group as Corridor Brewery and Provisions (stop #37) and Crushed by Giants. It has similar (good) food, plus the advantage of sharing space with the fourth restaurant in the group, Roebuck Pizza. Like Corridor, Dry Hop's beers are...

Welcome to stop #37 on the Brews and Choos project. As promised, now that Illinois has moved into Phase 4 (and, we hope, Phase 5 before too long), we're brewing and chooing again. But a confession: I walked to this one. Brewery: Corridor Brewery and Provisions, 3446 N. Southport Ave., ChicagoTrain line: CTA Brown Line, Southport Time from Chicago: 27 minutesDistance from station: 100 m Corridor Brewery might be the least-pretentious restaurant on the Southport Corridor. They brew beer; they serve...

I'm having a series of productive days lately, which has taken me away from wasting a bunch of time. So for example, I haven't yet today read these items: A group of Redditors has put a short squeeze on two hedge funds to the tune of billions of dollars, and there was much rending of clothes that kind of, sort of, made the Redditors' point for them. Journalist Yudhijit Bhattacharjee investigates a source of thieving phone scams in India. From November 2019, National Geographic explains how a phenomenon...

I dropped off my completed ballot this afternoon, so if Joe Biden turns out to be the devil made flesh, I can't change my vote. Tonight, the president and Joe Biden will have competing, concurrent town halls instead of debating each other, mainly because the president is an infant. The Daily Parker will not live-blog either one. Instead, I'll whip up a stir-fry and read something. In other news: Chris Christie continues the tradition of Republican politicians not understanding something until it happens...

Welcome to stop #35 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Two Brothers Roundhouse, 205 N. Broadway, AuroraTrain line: BNSF, Aurora Time from Chicago: 81 minutes (Zone H)Distance from station: At the station In 1856, the nascent Chicago & Aurora Railroad built the first roundhouse in Illinois in the small city of Aurora. It served as a locomotive shop and storage facility until 1974, then abandoned, even as it won a spot on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. Flash forward to 2011 when...

Welcome to stop #34 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: One Lake Brewing, 1 Lake St., Oak ParkTrain line: CTA Green Line, Austin Time from Chicago: 21 minutesDistance from station: 200 m Carved out of a 1920s-era bank building right on the border with Chicago, One Lake Brewing has an unusual, multi-level space with a pleasant rooftop beer garden, good food, and great beers. On Sunday, a friend and I trekked out to Oak Park to try a few beers there. From right to left in the photo above, I tried the...

Welcome to stop #33 on the Brews and Choos project. Note: closed permanently, 10 September 2022. Brewery: Urban Brew Labs, 5121 N. Ravenswood Ave., ChicagoTrain line: Union Pacific North, Ravenswood (Also CTA Brown Line, Damen) Time from Chicago: 16 minutes (Zone B)Distance from station: 600 m (1.6 km from CTA) Update: The taproom opened on 1 August 2021. This relatively new (2018) brewery just across the tracks from Empirical has a tiny patio and large ambitions. James, the owner, plans to open a...

Conductors on the heavy-rail line I take downtown twice a week haven't asked me for my ticket all summer. Apparently they're pissed at Metra, the agency that runs our commuter trains: Metra, which is struggling financially during the pandemic, said Union Pacific’s refusal to send conductors into the train cars is costing the commuter rail system $1 million a month in lost ticket revenue. Union Pacific, which operates the UP North, Northwest and West lines, is not allowing conductors back into the aisles...

Welcome to stop #32 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Mickey Finn's Brewery, 345 N. Milwaukee Ave., LibertyvilleTrain line: Milwaukee District North, LibertyvilleTime from Chicago: 67 minutes (Zone H)Distance from station: 600 m If you look at the Brews and Choos Map, you will notice that the Milwaukee District North line has only two breweries near its stations in Lake County. Grayslake's Light the Lamp Brewery was delightful, and I may go back this summer. Mickey Finn's, well, they're in...

Welcome to stop #30 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Spiteful Brewing, 2024 W Balmoral Ave., ChicagoTrain line: Union Pacific North, Ravenswood (Also CTA Brown Line, Damen)Time from Chicago: 16 minutes (Zone B)Distance from station: 1.6 km (1.5 km from CTA) Spiteful and Half Acre Balmoral occupy the same block, so cheating on distance (over 1,500 m from Metra) for one means cheating for both. I've gone to both for years, though, and they deserve the extra two blocks of walking. During Covid-19...

Welcome to stop #28 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Half Acre Beer Co., Balmoral Brewery, 2048 W Balmoral Ave., ChicagoTrain line: Union Pacific North, Ravenswood (Also CTA Brown Line, Damen)Time from Chicago: 16 minutes (Zone B)Distance from station: 1.7 km (1.6 km from CTA) Half Acre actually operates two locations: its original brewpub on Lincoln Ave., and its newer and much larger brewery/restaurant/beer garden just south of Rosehill Cemetery. Both are on the Brews and Choos list, but the...

Welcome to stop #29 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Sketchbook Brewing Co. Skokie Taproom, 4901 Main St., SkokieTrain line: CTA Yellow Line, Dempster-SkokieTime from Chicago: 48 minutesDistance from station: 900 m I have gone to Sketchbook Brewing in Evanston for years, so naturally I made a special trip to their Skokie Taproom for its grand opening last Friday. We had perfect weather, social distancing, hand sanitizer, and good beer. The brewery occupies the front part of a 1950s-era...

Welcome to stop #27 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Oak Park Brewing Co., 155 S. Oak Park Ave., Oak ParkTrain line: Union Pacific West, Oak ParkTime from Chicago: 16 minutes (Zone B)Distance from station: 700 m Oak Park Brewing Co. is the first brewpub in Oak Park since 1872, when the village went dry. Yesterday evening an old friend and I donned masks and sat outside in the perfect weather to have pub food and, in my case anyway, beer. From left to right, I sampled: the Leprechaun Zombie...

Welcome to stop #26 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Harbor Brewing Co., 701 Harbor Point Rd., Winthrop HarborTrain line: Union Pacific North, Winthrop HarborTime from Chicago: 1 hour, 28 minutes (Zone 4)Distance from station: 800 m It turns out, one can get beer during a pandemic. Harbor Brewing has two locations: a brewpub, which is closed due to Covid-19, and a Biergarten, which is very open. I tried three beers. The Harbor Light Ale (4.0% ABV) lives up to its name, having tons more flavor...

As this 2017 article from National Geographic explains, humans and yeast have had a tremendously successful relationship for the last 9,000 years or so: From our modern point of view, ethanol has one very compelling property: It makes us feel good. Ethanol helps release serotonin, dopamine, and endorphins in the brain, chemicals that make us happy and less anxious. To our fruit-eating primate ancestors swinging through the trees, however, the ethanol in rotting fruit would have had three other appealing...

Finally, after 97 days and an hour-long webinar on Covid-19 safety precautions, I will finally get to work in my actual office on Monday. We're allowed 2 or 3 times a week, with masks, sanitizer, and no passing between floors. (This matters only because my floor doesn't have an ice machine.) During the informative webinar just now, I scheduled walks for Parker and started rejiggering my meal plans. (We're discouraged from using the refrigerators, so I'll have to scrounge lunch downtown.) I'm actually...

I think today is Tuesday, the first day of my 10th week working from home. That would make today...March 80th? April 49th? Who knows. It is, however, just past lunchtime, and today I had shawarma and mixed news: Carbon emissions have declined 17% year-over-year, thanks to Covid-19-related slowdowns reducing petroleum consumption. (See? It's not all bad news.) Crain's Chicago Business reviews how businesses rate Mayor Lori Lightfoot's first year in office. And their editorial board says we should "start...

So believes NYU media professor Jay Rosen about how President Trump will try to win this fall: The plan is to have no plan, to let daily deaths between one and three thousand become a normal thing, and then to create massive confusion about who is responsible— by telling the governors they’re in charge without doing what only the federal government can do, by fighting with the press when it shows up to be briefed, by fixing blame for the virus on China or some other foreign element, and by “flooding the...

I suspended the Brews & Choos Project after March 7th as the state closed restaurants and bars to slow the spread of SARS-COV-2. I had planned to continue the project as soon as things opened up again, knowing the economic pause would certainly change the roster. Sadly, it already has, with the permanent closure of Argus Brewing on the city's south side on March 28th: Since launching in 2009 in a former Schlitz horse stable — a relic of when beer was delivered by hooves — Argus always hovered at the...

Welcome to stop #24 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: More Brewing, 126 S. Villa Ave., Villa ParkTrain line: Union Pacific West, Villa ParkTime from Chicago: 36 minutes (Zone D)Distance from station: 1.5 km In the suburbs, sometimes "concepts" take precedence over everything else. This bustling, family-friendly brewpub "concept" fits perfectly with the suburban ethos. They opened during peak brewpub in August 2017, and they seem to be doing well. Still, they brew their own beer, and they're...

Welcome to stop #23 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Stockholm's, 306 W State St., GenevaTrain line: Union Pacific West, GenevaTime from Chicago: 67 minutes (Zone H)Distance from station: 800 m Penrose may have been the first pure-play brewery in Geneva, but Stockholm's, which opened on 5th July 2002, was the first place to brew beer there since prohibition. According to Mike Olesen, the owner, back in 2002 "it was hard to get people to try the beer," so he opened a restaurant instead of a...

Welcome to stop #21 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Flossmoor Station, 1035 Sterling Ave., FlossmoorTrain line: Metra Electric, FlossmoorTime from Chicago: 54 minutes (Zone E)Distance from station: 200 m This unusual place took over Flossmoor's historic 1906 railway depot in 1996 (but, ironically, it's not directly accessible from the railway). Flossmoor natives Dean and Carolyn Armstrong rescued the building from demolition and built out a pretty decent restaurant. Inside they have a four-room...

Welcome to stops #19 and #20 on the Brews and Choos project. Note: Oppidan Spirits no longer has tastings at the Waukegan location, but they still make amazing Bourbon. Brewery: Nightshade & Dark's Pandemonium Brewing Co, 216 W Clayton St., WaukeganDistillery: Oppidan Spirits, 220 W Clayton St., WaukeganTrain line: Metra Union Pacific North, Waukegan.Time from Chicago (Ogilvie): 75 minutes, zone HDistance from station: 800 m Nightshade & Dark's and Oppidan occupy the same space in central Waukegan in an...

Welcome to stop #18 on the Brews and Choos project. The tasting room closed in 2023, but FEW continues producing spirits. Distillery: FEW Spirits, 918 Chicago Ave., Evanston, Ill.Train line: Metra Union Pacific North, Evanston–Main St. (Also CTA Purple Line, Main)Time from Chicago (Ogilvie): 20 minutes, zone 2Distance from station: 200 m (200 m from CTA) Disclosure: FEW Spirits has been a contributor to the Apollo Chorus of Chicago for several years. I serve on the Apollo Chorus Board of Directors...

Welcome to stop #17 on the Brews and Choos project. Note: closed permanently on 23 October 2022. Brewery: Empirical Brewery, 1801 W. Foster Ave., ChicagoTrain line: Union Pacific North, Ravenswood (Also CTA Brown Line, Damen) Time from Chicago: 16 minutes (Zone B)Distance from station: 800 m (1.4 km from CTA) Living by the Ravenswood Metra stop is almost an embarrassment of riches. One of those is the Empirical Brewery on Foster. They have an experimental streak that produces some epic beers. From left...

Welcome to stop #16 on the Brews and Choos project. Previously named "Ravinia Brewing" until December 2024. Brewery: Steep Ravine Brewing, 582 Roger Williams Ave., Highland ParkTrain line: Union Pacific North, Ravinia Time from Chicago: 46 minutes (Zone E)Distance from station: 400 m Actually, something does go almost as well with good beer as pizza: tacos. Ravinia Brewing in Highland Park has both. I had one pint, one taste, and three tacos while up there: The beer was their Steep Ravine IPA (7.2%, 22...

Welcome to stop #15 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Begyle Brewing, 1801 W Cuyler Ave., ChicagoTrain line: Union Pacific North, Ravenswood. (Also CTA Brown Line, Irving Park) Time from Chicago: 16 minutes (Zone B)Distance from station: 1.6 km (200 m from CTA) Note: Begyle informed The Daily Parker in July 2021 that they ended their dog-friendly policy. (They still make great beer.) But also note: As of August 2023, they've re-thought their dog policy. Dogs are once again allowed on the patio!...

Welcome to stop #14 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Piece Brewery, 1927 W. North Ave., ChicagoTrain lines: Union Pacific North and Northwest, Clybourn. (Also CTA Blue line, Damen) Time from Chicago: 8 minutes (Zone A)Distance from station: 1.3 km (400 m from CTA) Pizza. Beer. What's a better combination? Piece Brewery in Wicker Park makes both pretty well. Piece opened in July 2001, so I've had lots of their pizza and lots of their beer. When I visited for the Brews and Choos project, I just...

Welcome to stop #13 on the Brews and Choos project. Distillery: Rhine Hall Distillery, 2010 W. Fulton St., ChicagoTrain lines: Milwaukee District North and West, Western Ave. (Also CTA Green line, Ashland) Time from Chicago: 9 minutes (Zone A)Distance from station: 1.3 km (1.1 km from CTA) I found visiting Rhine Hall on a weeknight in February odd for two reasons. First, I didn't realize that they distill from fruit, rather than grain, so I didn't prepare myself for the flavors of their spirits well....

Freelance writer Alexandra Marvar took the Southwest Chief from Chicago to Los Angeles: I boarded the 2:50 p.m. Southwest Chief out of Chicago’s Union Station on a Friday. By mid-morning Sunday, we’ll arrive at another Union Station: Los Angeles. I could have flown between the two cities in roughly four hours. But as a frequent flyer all too familiar with the rush and stress of air travel, I was drawn to the idea of a long, slow journey across America by rail. Now, 15 hours into my inaugural long-haul...

Welcome to stop #12 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Midwest Coast Brewing, 2137 W. Walnut St., ChicagoTrain lines: Milwaukee District North and West, Western Ave. (Also CTA Green and Pink lines, Ashland) Time from Chicago: 9 minutes (Zone A)Distance from station: 1.1 km (1.3 km from CTA) Now, this is a brewery. Dog-friendly, great vibe, excellent beers, friendly staff and owners—what's not to love? They brew everything on-premises, rotating beers as their tastes change. They just opened in...

Welcome to stop #11 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Haymarket Pub & Brewery, 737 W. Randolph St., ChicagoTrain lines: All Ogilvie and Union Station lines. (Also CTA Green/Pink lines, Clinton)Time from Chicago: 0 minutes (Zone A)Distance from station: 800 m from Ogilvie or Union (600 m from CTA) Haymarket has occupied their current plot in the West Loop for almost 10 years. They haven't changed a bit. I wish they had. The pub has pub grub, televisions, noise, confusion, and bits of interesting...

Welcome to stop #10 on the Brews and Choos project. Note: Ballast Point's Chicago taproom closed permanently in March 2021. Distillery: Ballast Point Brewing, 212 N. Green St., ChicagoTrain lines: All Ogilvie and Union Station lines. (Also CTA Green/Pink lines, Morgan)Time from Chicago: 0 minutes (Zone A)Distance from station: 1.2 km from Ogilvie or Union (400 m from CTA) After expanding a bit too quickly, Ballast Point found itself without enough cash and way too many beers to continue profitably....

Welcome to stop #8 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Sketchbook Brewing, 821 Chicago Ave., Evanston, Ill.Train line: Metra Union Pacific North, Evanston–Main St. (Also CTA Purple Line, Main)Time from Chicago (Ogilvie): 20 minutes, zone CDistance from station: 100 m (200 m from CTA) I love Sketchbook, and have loved it since it opened a few years ago. I've visited many times, often after getting some excellent Italian food at Campagnola next door. And long after the Brews and Choos project...

Welcome to stop #7 on the Brews and Choos project. The brewery closed permanently on 31 December 2022. Brewery: Smylie Bros. Brewing Co., 1615 Oak Ave., Evanston, Ill.Train line: Metra Union Pacific North, Evanston–Davis St. (Also CTA Purple Line, Davis)Time from Chicago (Ogilvie): 23 minutes, zone CDistance from station: 200 m (400 m from CTA) First, as much as I'd like to link to their website, it appears they've lost control of their domain name to a fraudulent, virus-infected host. Good luck with...

Note: Kings & Convicts closed their Highwood taproom on 1 April 2024. Welcome to stop #6 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Kings & Convicts Brewing Co., 523 Banks Ln., Highwood, Ill.Train line: Metra Union Pacific North, Highwood station.Time from Chicago (Ogilvie): 52 minutes, zone EDistance from station: 300 m A Brit and an Aussie walked into a bar and decided to open a brewery. Then a couple of years later they acquired a distressed but well-respected brand, which they will soon add to their...

While I do get to sign off a bit earlier today, I might not read all of these articles until tomorrow: Block Club Chicago lists 21 neighborhood spots that are great for working from home. (Do you think any will let me set up four monitors?) Seymour Island, Antarctica, recorded a temperature of 20.75°C last week, breaking the 18°C Antarctic heat record set three days earlier. From November, Christian Thrailkill speculates on "what happens to Trumpworld once Trump is gone." Ostia Nwanevu, writing for New...

Welcome to stop #4 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Lake Bluff Brewing Co., 16 E. Scranton St., Lake Bluff, Ill.Train line: Metra Union Pacific North, Lake Bluff station.Time from Chicago (Ogilvie): 61 minutes, zone GDistance from station: 100 m I liked this taproom a lot. I only had 35 minutes between trains, but that was enough time to enjoy the chill atmosphere and to try a beer. The pint of Inspiration IPA (6.2%, 66 IBU) went down cleanly and easily. It's a straightforward IPA that doesn't...

Welcome to stop #3 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Old Irving Brewing Co., 4419 W. Montrose Ave., ChicagoTrain line: Metra Milwaukee District North, Mayfair station. (Also CTA Blue Line, Montrose station)Time from Chicago (Union Station): 20 minutes, zone BDistance from station: 600 m (300 m from CTA) I think I should have come during the day and not on a Friday night. Old Irving, which opened in 2016 to good press, wants to be a neighborhood bar that brews beer. I think it succeeds on that...

In just one more example of the president slipping his leash, thanks to the Republican trolls in the Senate giving him permission to do so, the Justice Department said it found prosecutors recommendations for Roger Stone's sentence "shocking." Three Assistant US Attorneys immediately quit the case: Jonathan Kravis, one of the prosecutors, wrote in a court filing he had resigned as an assistant U.S. attorney, leaving government entirely. Aaron S.J. Zelinsky, a former member of special counsel Robert S....

I've added a Google map and sheet to the Brews and Choos Project page. To save you a click, here's the map:

I love trains. I love beer. I don't love driving when I'm having beer. So how to reconcile all of those things, I wonder? My solution: identify breweries in and around Chicago close to rail lines and visit them. Starting in February 2020, I identified 98 locations ranging from one as close as 400 m from a downtown Chicago train station to four that require a 100-minute train ride to a neighboring state. Even better, the densest stop on any train line turned out to be the one closest to my house: there...