September is the most beautiful month in this city where the Great Lakes meet the Great Plains, and on this achingly beautiful Sunday I visited one of my favorite restaurants.
It's a
brewpub that features great food along with great beer.
Turns out they've added a couple of election season brews to their beerlist. Patrons are encouraged to "vote" by downing either a "Bush beer" or a "Kerry beer."
Both beers are unique.....they're not merely slapping two different names on the same beer. Each beer features a description of the beer's makeup, along with an innocuous bit of "humor". The Bush beer is
"as dark as Midland oil, and goes great with barbecue,"
while the Kerry beer is
"great with a burger, preferably with lots of Heinz ketchup."
I personally would have preferred that the Bush beer be listed as
"Initially seeming quite strong, but proving itself weak, this beer has an inconsequential head, and finishes quite bitter,"
but I recognize that a wise retailer can't afford to alienate too many folk.
We ordered a couple of samplers, each containing a Kerry beer (very, very, very good,) and asked the server how the "voting" was going.
"Oh, overwhelmingly for Kerry," she replied. On the way out we noticed the tally for the day: 345 Kerry beers, 143 Bush beers.
Scientific? Hell no. Much of a surpise in Chicago? Well this brewpub is located in Yuppie central...nothing but Bimmers and SUVs clogging the streets. I found the size of the majority quite heartening.
So why post this diary? I've been feeling better about this upcoming election, it was a transcendingly beautiful day here, and I got to fill myself up with good beer.
And it gives me a chance to say to any Kossacks out there who've never been to Chicago, you've got to come and spend a few days here sometime. It truly is one of this country's best kept secrets.