Day 173: Essential Features of a Quality Beer Garden

I’m a little upset with myself for not having daily photos for most of the past 2 weeks, but in the meantime I’m going to fill those in with stories and photos from my recent trips.

For months in advance of our America trip, I was constantly telling Patrick, “Oh, you just wait until you see how cheap it is in the States!” I was referring to the clothes, the food, and most importantly the beer, in comparison to life in Australia where products are 2 to 3 times more expensive than their Yank counterparts.

Even in Chicago, a place that I would have normally considered expensive in comparison to my hometown, it is possible to get cheap stuff.

And that brings me to the Sheffield’s pub and beer garden – a place I’m happy to have spent an evening at while in Chicago meeting up with other travel-loving peeps like Shanna Quinn, Katie Aune, Katie Hammel and Megan Kearney. We chatted, drank interesting beer and ate some good food over the course of a few hours, and Sheffield’s easily became a place I could see myself returning to again and again (pulled pork and cheap beer… drools). Here are the features about Sheffield’s that I loved and which also denote what any good beer garden should strive to:

A lovely outdoor space to sit and enjoy your beverage(s).

The beer garden at Sheffield’s was awesome — simple, yet awesome. There were a lot of tables, some standing table room and just an overall cool, rustic vibe. Unfortunately, everyone else in Chicago knows this too, and with it being Friday and needing a space for many individuals, I didn’t actually get to be out in it. Luckily, the inside is pretty enjoyable as well.

A varied beer selection.
If a place can give you an entire menu listing the beers on offer, it is pretty cool in my book. I’m not really about drinking for the sake of getting wasted; I have much more sophisticated taste than that (most of the time). I want to enjoy the process of getting there with a few unique and new brews along the way.

Affordable (aka cheap) beer.
We were able to order up some interesting beers for just $4 each, which is half the price of a beer in Sydney. I would consider $4 not only a cheap beer, but also a damn good price for a beer garden in Chicago. Although it doesn’t beat the $3 pitchers of PBR we had in Peoria, it’s still something worth writing about.

Delicious food.
One of the best American dishes I miss most is pulled pork. It’s not even something I had that often when back in the States, but now, I’m like craving it all the time! Pulled pork… slow cooked… with barbecue sauce. You are amazing, and even more so when served with corn bread. They have this at Sheffield’s.

I can’t remember for sure or not, but I think Pat and I ended up spending in the area of $70 with tip for our hours of sitting there and drinking on top of a nice-sized dinner, so you gotta admit, that’s not bad. Brilliant place, that Sheffield’s, and I would gladly go back on my next venture to Chicago.