This isn’t one of my quirky post titles, this is genuinely a tribute to the car dealers of Naperville when the stained glass was created at the beginning of the twenty-first century. There were seven auto dealerships within three blocks of this central building at one point, until there was a move to make them all of of town where they could have more space. There’s more about this whole arrangement at https://www.centurywalk.org/impact/art_details.cfm?artID=17 and I liked this, a real effort to try and tell the story of businesses and people throughout the town’s history.
Category: United States
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2022 US Trip – Day 14 (Naperville – A Tribute to Car Dealers)
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2022 US Trip – Day 17 (Chicago – Brookfield Railway Station to Chicago Union Station)
One final breakfast at the Rodeway Inn and my plan for the day was to get to Chicago city centre before going back out to the airport for a flight to sunny Las Vegas.
Waving the hotel goodbye. I’d better add that I didn’t physically wave as the reception staff might have thought that I was a bit odd.
Back at Brookfield railway station and for reasons I’ve mentioned several times already, there was no way for me to buy a ticket in advance.
The train came sweeping in on time with its horns blaring. It’s very America, it’s just not the same getting on the train to Great Yarmouth. Partly because the trains in the United States actually operate, but I’d better not digress. It’s not clearly visible in the photo, but there’s a bin behind that rear bench and there was a squirrel in there merrily playing and cutting up the bag. The station staff didn’t seem entirely thrilled.
After safely boarding, I went for the top deck again.
I paid for my fare in cash, which I think was just over $5, and the conductor puts the ticket in the gap to show that I’ve made payment. It’s still a little strange trying to conduct financial affairs by peering over the barrier, but it adds to the experience I suppose.
The Chicago skyline, with the anti-sun coating on the window clearly visible.
It was about a 25 minute rail journey and the train arrived on time. The service was relatively busy, but there were always seats available upstairs and downstairs.
The large scale map on the wall of where Amtrak service in the United States and there are plenty of gaps, including many states with no rail service at all. It’s not ideal.
I’ve been to Chicago Union station many times before, but I’m still always slightly in wonder at its grandeur and beauty. 100 years ago this would have been how everyone travelled, before the convenience of domestic air flights and also before mass ownership of cars. The station itself is from 1925, replacing the smaller building which had served rail passengers since 1881. The word “union” is used because it was used by multiple rail companies, hence the number of Union Stations around the country.
Well that photo is slightly on the wonk, despite my best efforts at the time.
A bit better. All that space, it’s an architectural masterpiece and there’s plenty of seating. It’s fair to say there’s some wasted space here as well, but at least it doesn’t feel cramped.
It’s definitely the best way to arrive into Chicago. There are some other handy practical features to the station as well, such as the free toilets although I wouldn’t say that they’re the highlight of the proceedings there. Anyway, that meant I had a few hours to explore the city centre once again before getting back on the subway to go to the airport.
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2022 US Trip – Day 16 (Chicago – BuckleDown Brewing)
I had a rather lovely morning in the hotel catching up on things whilst being delighted with myself how cold I had made the room by having the air conditioning on full pelt. I accept that there are environmental issues, but I overheat too easily and Chicago in October was too hot for me so it was an occasional treat.
However, I thought in the afternoon that I’d go for a meander to a nearby brewery. I did wonder about this sign and how car drivers are supposed to know that it’s a school day, but perhaps I overthink things. I was quite annoyed at these traffic lights as they took over two minutes to change which as a pedestrian seems excessive to me. It also annoyed me that they’ve banned jaywalking in the United States as I couldn’t risk crossing the road in case I was fined. Again, perhaps I overthink. But I was standing there for two minutes and that gave me time to think, although it was primarily about whether the lights were broken and were never going to change. But, I digress.
Although I was in what I’m calling Chicago, I was more precisely in the suburb of Lyons. Wikipedia notes that this was a hotspot for political corruption and dodgy businesses in the 1960s and 1970s, but it has been cleaned up now and is very middle-class.
I was heading here, to the delights of BuckleDown Brewing which opened in December 2013. It was well reviewed and within a twenty minute walk of the hotel, so it would have been a travesty for me not to visit. I’m also glad it was on the side of the road that I was walking, as it’s located on 47th Street which I had no idea how to cross and it was like the M25 in terms of traffic volumes. I’ve noticed I seem to be spending an inordinate amount of time writing about traffic issues, but I was in the United States and I feel that’s allowable since everyone seems to own eight cars.
I was the only customer when I entered and the staff member was very welcoming and conversational. She talked me through all the beers that the brewery made and they only have their own products, with no guests. They are heavily into pale ales, but they had various different beer styles amongst the mix.
I asked if they could do me a flight of beers so that I could try a few, which the staff member willing did and offered recommendations. I did the food pairing choice all by myself though. I tried six beers (I was at the bar for a while, indeed so long that it was quite busy when I left) and the quality was really rather good, I especially like the Cactus Pants with Lime and Sea Salt, which is a twist on their core lager. There were two standout beers though, the Hideout Hazy Blood Orange IPA and the Mega Fat Rino Imperial Stout, both delightful. Oh, and the Nacho Cheese Doritos complemented the beers perfectly.
As an aside, the taps were very aggressive and it was like being under Niagara Falls for my hands. Indeed, this was more of a waterfall than what I had walked a few days previously.
I really liked this brewery as the customers were interacting with each other and with staff, so it felt laid-back and inviting. The surroundings were clean, the service was timely and I felt very welcome. The taproom is open every day and as I mentioned earlier it’s well-reviewed, although someone left 1/5 and described himself as “a bud light man”. I make no comment. All very lovely and as I often mention, I’d merrily recommend this location and indeed also the brewery’s beer.
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2022 US Trip – Day 15 (Chicago – McDonald’s on Old Route 66)
There is little point to this post other than this McDonald’s at 2315 W Ogden Avenue in Chicago, on the old road that was Route 66, has become one of the destinations that I remember from my several weeks long trip in the United States. A slow walk from the wonderful Goose Island to my train, this is a random point in time that I’ve quite fondly recalled.
I ordered via the kiosks as that’s the preferred method now, but I was the only customer in the place. The crew members were suitably polite when handing over my food, but that’s the only interaction that I had. But, despite the place looking like it hadn’t been cleaned for several hours, it felt like a little slice of the United States. Not the debris on the floor, just the whole efficiency of the service in what is perhaps one of the main exports of the country. And, the Chicken McNuggets were delicious with the hot Picante sauce, as was the Hot n’Spicy McChicken. What a time to be alive and all that….. There are moments on any trip when I just think that a moment is unexceptional, but is actually representative of the entire experience. And typical of me, this is the point in time that I’ve decided to pick out. I accept that I need to get out more.
It’s a very badly reviewed location on-line, with some customer service issues clearly evident and they like locking the inside early and make people drive thru (which would have been a problem for me). But, it was all quite memorable for me, despite being entirely lacking in inspiration. I did say that there would be little point to this post ?
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2022 US Trip – Day 15 (Chicago – Goose Island – Fulton Street Taproom Tour)
After having visited the taproom of Goose Island, it was then time to go on the tour that I had pre-booked a few weeks before. The tour guide was knowledgeable and engaging, with the tour lasting just over an hour or so. I’ve gone on a lot of brewery tours over the years and I’m never quite sure that I understand entirely what is going on as there are some many bits of polished metal kit about, but I think I’ve worked the basics out. I’m fairly confident that I’ll never be a brewer though.
There were numerous samples available and the guide allowed visitors to try whichever beers they wanted from this list. With the exception of BCS2022 (Bourbon County Stout) of course, that’s off limits for the moment.
The bottling part of the operation.
Some of the giant beer tanks and I’d note that I had come the furthest of anyone on the tour. Indeed, I was the only one from outside the United States.
Everything about this operation was substantial. As some back history to all of this, Goose Island was formed by John Hall after he travelled around Europe and decided that he thought Americans should be treated to some craft beer. It would be nice to say that Goose Island is an independent company, but they’re owned by Anheuser-Busch who also produce, if I’m being honest, some generic rubbish as well. But they haven’t ruined Goose Island, so I have no complaints and indeed it was only following the takeover that the brewery’s beers became more widely available.
This is the innovation centre where they brew up small batches of beer.
It was quite interesting reading the sheets of paper where the ingredients are listed and what has been amended during the brewing process. I thought that I’d better not take a photo that could be zoomed in on, just in case I was accused of breaching some commercial secret.
After the brewery tour we then went across to the facilities on the other side of the road, but this shows just a part of the large brewery complex that Goose Island have here. This brewery building was opened in 1995, although it has doubled in size since then and it is now 143,000 square feet in size.
This is a warehouse where I understand the infamous Bourbon County Stouts were once stored, but they’ve been moved now and this whole room is more for display than anything else. This exciting bourbon aged beer is something that they’ve been doing since 1992 and they’re now perhaps the best in the world in brewing this type of product.
Although some of the barrels are full.
These are all old wine casks, where they, and I quote, “use wine casks as an environment for beer, wild yeast and fresh fruit to ferment for nearly a year”.
The vineyard label is still visible on the cask.
I hope that’s not a leakage of Bourbon County Stout.
More tasters were offered and this one has yet to be given a name, which means it’s a loss to Untappd…. A nice rye beer though.
I mentioned in my taproom post that I had perhaps the best beer that I’ve ever had, the Rare Bourbon County Brand Stout 2015. This is the 14% version from 2021, which I thought I had tried in Goose Island in Shoreditch, but that transpired to be the 2020 edition. That made this free taster even more exciting as it was another one in the series I got to try and it was once again remarkable. Decadent, rich and with flavours of chocolate, molasses, whiskey and some more subtle notes, all quite beautiful.
I thought that the tour was entertaining, factual and I was pleased with how many free tasters of beer that were available, that was more agreeable. They did also offer everyone a free pint glass, but there was no way that I was going to try and get that back, so they gave me several branded plastic Goose Island glasses as well, which I’m pleased to note did get back safely. The tour is $15 and it’s worth it for the tasters alone, so well worth a little visit. It’s fair to say that I left the Goose Island premises entirely happy with my afternoon out.
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2022 US Trip – Day 15 (Chicago – Goose Island – Fulton Street Taproom and One of the Best Beers in the World)
I’ve already mentioned that my first impressions of this bar were positive as a staff member was welcoming and immediately moved my brewery tour forwards without any issues. That gave me an hour to try some of the beers before the tour and then I could spend longer at the bar after the tour. If I still sound excited about this tour, that’s because I was rather looking forwards to this.
The bar doesn’t really do flights other than of their four core beers. I asked if any of these would be in the tour and the manager went off to check with the tour guide and it was apparent that one would have been duplicated, so they merrily gave me a different beer on this flight to avoid duplication. I appreciated that they didn’t find it odd that I didn’t want to have the same beer twice, but I have an Untappd account to keep varied….
I wasn’t expecting overly exciting from these four beers because they’re designed to be a little generic as part of their core range, it’s the dark beers which Goose Island is perhaps best known for. However, this is the Lost Palate NEIPA which I very much liked, not least because I like mangoes and cinnamon and they’re the ingredients that power through. All very pleasurable and I liked how clean the whole bar was, the staff seem very proud of this venue.
The service was impeccable, personable and timely. Despite being run by a large corporate business, this feels on-trend and slightly edgy in an exciting way. It’s at this point that I went off to the do the brewery tour, which I’ll post about separately.
Back in the taproom, the bar gave me this beer, but I can write with confidence that this didn’t impact on my next comment. And that’s because this is perhaps the best beer that I’ve had. This beer has an Untappd rating of 4.72 and the best rated beer in the world is sitting at 4.77, so that puts that a little in perspective. At the time of writing, this is the 13th best rated beer in the world and it’s the Rare Bourbon County Brand Stout 2015 edition.
I’m going to struggle to describe this 14.8% beer in a manner that gives it justice, but this is a barrel aged stout where the flavour is rich, smooth and every sip has an impactful taste. It’s also complex, with a sweet flavour but yet being full bodied with hints of chocolate, vanilla, fudge and heaps of bourbon. It might be thought that a 14.8% beer would be just too high in alcohol, but there was no sharp edge to this and it almost had port like richness. Intense, exciting, decadent and as perfect a beer as I can possibly imagine.
I’ll leave this post here, I think I’ve made sufficiently clear that this is one of the best bars that I’ve visited. Pitch perfect service, environment, cleanliness, customers, beers and surroundings.
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2022 US Trip – Beerhaus in Las Vegas
This beer restaurant is centrally located on the Strip, outside the New York New York casino and to be thrifty I deliberately visited during the happy hour. I think it’s between 14:00 and 18:00 on Mondays to Fridays, where local draft beers and a number of food items are reduced.
It was perhaps a little formulaic, but the server was friendly, the environment was comfortable and I liked it here. I was given a large booth table which was handy, with the server bringing over the drinks but they don’t take food orders as there’s a separate counter for those. I thought that was a slightly strange way of handling the ordering proceedings, but there was no queue for food and it was all easy enough to understand.
The Peace, Love & Hoppiness from Big Dog’s Brewing Company was a suitably refreshing pale ale, brewed locally. One limitation I had with the local beer menu is that two of the breweries I had already visited in Las Vegas, so there wasn’t an enormous selection to try I hadn’t sampled before. However, it was still a very credible local beer menu, with national options available as well, although they weren’t in the happy hour pricing. The free tap water is just about always provided as a matter of course without needing to ask for it.
Firstly, that is a beer on the left hand side and very good it was too, the Love Juice from the Lovelady Brewing Company who are located in Henderson, just a little way down the road. Lots of fruit flavour in the beer, as is evident from its colour and so that also made it healthy and nutritious. Secondly, the hot dog was also very agreeable and that’s a Nathan’s beef hot dog, one of the national favourites.
I’d happily recommend this restaurant, it offered an immediate and laid-back environment which always seemed inviting and warm. It wasn’t particularly busy in the afternoon, despite the happy hour, but there were plenty of staff about. There aren’t a huge number of venues on the Strip that focus primarily on beer and this seems like one of the better options.
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2022 US Trip – Beers Available for Free in Las Vegas Casinos
On my early visits to Las Vegas I thought that they only offered Budweiser as the free beer in casinos (free other than the tips), but I was pleased to see that there’s actually much more variety if you ask for it. And below is a little sample of what can be ordered, although the choice of course varies in each casino. Unfortunately some are draft pours and it’s not entirely clear what they were, I had to work that out so that I could put them on Untappd….
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2022 US Trip – The Nectar of the Gods – Dr. Pepper and Cream Soda
Two of my favourite soft drinks are perhaps Dr. Pepper and Cream Soda, so I was surprised and delighted to see this being sold in Walgreens. And talk about the nectar of the Gods, this was decadent, rich and quite beautiful. I wonder if there’s a way of turning this flavour into a beer? The company themselves describe this drink as “the symphony of deliciousness”. They’re not wrong.
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2022 US Trip – Day 18 (Only a Few Hours Left Before Check-In in Las Vegas)
I had a few more hours before I could check-into Circus Circus where I was staying, but my first problem was that my phone battery wouldn’t survive that long. It’s surprisingly difficult to find somewhere to charge a phone in Las Vegas and so I went back to the airport as they have several high desks with power and wi-fi. It was slightly odd to have taken the bus from the airport to the city before going back after a trip to some casinos and White Castle, but much about my life isn’t very logical.
When I got back from the airport dawn had broken and I got off the bus outside the Strat, a hotel where I’ve stayed before (and would stay again on this trip). It’s a subtle little building, visible in the rear of this photo.
It was still early morning, but people were milling about, although there wasn’t much traffic on the roads.
Oops…. I don’t much like McDonald’s breakfast and would rather they ditched it from the menu (perhaps replacing it with something more chicken strips related), but they had a cheap offer on two sausage McMuffins, so I forced myself to eat them. Along with eight free refills of Fanta, which is a lovely bright orange colour in the United States.
Inflation has taken its toll judging by the past offers that have been crossed out on the signage.
My room at Circus Circus, where I’ve stayed before as well, was cheap and so I headed there to amuse myself for a couple of hours before I could actually get in it.
It’s unlikely to be a surprise to anyone that the theme of Circus Circus is, well, circus things. Clever branding there.
It’s all a bit dated and is situated at the far end of the Strip, so it tends to be one of the cheaper accommodation options. It’s also one of the few casinos which has made an effort to appeal to families, although I question just how exciting a trip to Las Vegas is with young children.
There are meant to be live performances here, but I didn’t see any actually taking place.
Wooo! I started with $1 and left with $2, that was suitably agreeable. At midday I went to reception to ask what time check-in was available from and the helpful receptionist told me that free early check-in began at 14:00. The staff member was personable and keen to assist, and she processed all the paperwork bits immediately and told me to collect my key from her a little later, which I did after a little sit down in the food court of the casino. This travel isn’t all glamorous it has to be said, but I remember the entire night with some fondness as there’s something different about a late night White Castle and casino trip. You don’t get that on a day trip to Fakenham.