Conscious Choice: Good Brew & Food at Hopleaf

May 2004 | Conscious Dining

Good Brew & Food at Hopleaf

by Janine MacLachlan

Step into Andersonville’s 12-year-old Hopleaf Bar and you’ll know that you’ve discovered a tavern with one amazing beer list! Stroll to the back of the exposed brick dining room and you realize you’re in a Belgian-inspired neighborhood restaurant that complements the artisanal (handcrafted) beer with good casual fare.

Handcrafted ingredients

“Belgium is the last home of truly artisanal beer,” says owner Michael Roper. “People come here for the beer — we don’t have a television,” he quips. “And they expect the same attention to the food...serving food that’s connected to the earth makes sense.” Indeed, true to that philosophy, Chef Tim Isaac shops the farmers’ markets for locally grown vegetables to supplement the heirloom tomatoes raised in the restaurant’s back yard. Isaac uses organic Amish chicken and range-fed beef. While the Australian range-fed rib-eye steak ($17) logs more “food miles” than some would prefer, it’s because local producers often need to sell an entire animal to a restaurant that can’t use all the cuts of meat — evidence of the challenges that small-scale local producers still face.

Built Around the Beer

People do come to Hopleaf for the beer; the head-spinning list offers more than 200 selections, mostly Belgian. Belgian beers are brewed without additives or preservatives and emerge with a lot of personality. Adventurous brewers toss in distinctive ingredients like mustard seed, coriander, organic orange peel or crystalized ginger. The list includes some subsets of Belgian beer, such as Lambic and ales brewed by Trappist monks. Some beers are in big wine-size bottles with champagne-style corks and most are presented in brewery-designed goblets. A few organic beers round out the options.

Chef Isaac challenges himself to prepare food that matches the intensity of the beer, often by adopting the Belgian method of cooking with beer just as the French cook with wine. He uses beer as an ingredient for steaming, braising and even whisking up salad dressing. The house specialty is mussels steamed in Belgian white ale with shallots and thyme, served with crispy frites (long, thin-cut French fries), presented in a parchment-lined cup with aioli, a bold, garlicky mayonnaise ($10 serves one, $19 for two as a main course). A favorite appetizer is the beer-battered cod and chips ($7), which comes with more aioli, this time spiked with capers. Salads range from arugula ($9) with pears, almonds and bleu cheese, to a slice of warm herb-crusted goat cheese ($11) with roasted beets and toasted walnuts on fresh greens. The daily specials (usually $13-$18) take advantage of what’s in season. For vegetarians, there was a veggie stew in mushroom broth on the day I visited, while fish lovers could opt for whitefish on braised escarole. The three-selection cheese course — another international experience — comes with apple-walnut compote. And, for dessert ($6), the zesty lemon tart with spiced cherries was one of my favorites. Service is casual and friendly and the dining room is smoke free.

Final Word

Hopleaf Bar started selling food last July; as the kitchen continues to get more sophisticated they might eventually need to remove the “bar” from its name even though their boutique beers are front and center. Roper updates the beer list every few months, rotating in new finds with detailed tasting notes. He plans to add Saturday and Sunday lunch service by summertime.

Hopleaf Bar, 5148 N. Clark Street, Chicago, 773-334-9851; Sunday through Friday, 3 p.m. to 2 a.m., Saturday 3 p.m. to 3 a.m. Kitchen serves 5 to 11 p.m.

Janine MacLachlan is a writer, cooking school owner and food enthusiast whose search for well-raised food is a passion.

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