That name is cursed. GE history or not. I hope the new owner drops it like a hot potato. Obviously, a perennial money loser. Bars that are making money in G.E. typically do not change hands and/or close for remodeling.

Curly's was a good friend to many. Time to let it go.

quote:

Originally posted by Clamato:
Curly's was a good friend to many. Time to let it go.

I know you're right. I just need time to grieve.

add me to the list of lunching at Curly's while house hunting in GE. 1992.

quote:

Originally posted by Clamato:
That name is cursed. GE history or not. I hope the new owner drops it like a hot potato.

May I suggest renaming it Frise or Chez Frise (accent over the e in Frise - I don't know how to do that).

They can call it whatever they want, as long as Tap House is involved. I just left my son's Cub Scout dinner and they catered the event. These guys bust their a** and have really become part of the community. It also helps that their food is as great as their beer selection.

I agree Isaac. It was cool to see Dan not only overseeing the efforts at the cub scout dinner, but to be pitching in as well.


p.s. Fry's had a great cameo appearance in one of the cub scout films.

quote:

Originally posted by isaac:
It also helps that their food is as great as their beer selection.

Wait ... what?

You're saying a great selection of draft beer? Or bottles?

Last time I was there they had about five beers on tap, three of which were the same as they had been six months before that (I'm a big fan of 'Cane and Ebel' -- but I'd love to see more regional brews in addition to Two Brothers.) And many more rotating selections.
Or are you talking about a great selection bottled beer? (Our server sorta waved over toward the tap handles for the selection.)

We left that place grumbling about the uninspiring beers on tap (after specifically going there *for* the beers on tap.) Did they add more beer?

Oddly enough, we ended up going to Two Brothers Tap House in Warrenville -- and *that* was a great selection of (their own) draft beer (plus a fantastic selection of bottled Belgian brews).

Now, if the Tap House could pull a real cask-conditioned ale, then we'll talk. Until then, I'm not convinced.

I am by no means a beer snob, but I have always found the various bottled beer specials to be great. There is usually something new I can try that I have not had before. I believe they have a larger draft selection in their St. Charles location, but I may be wrong. I would guess your beer knowledge far exceeds mine. I don't even know what cask conditioned ale means - is it anything like "croisened"? I am usually happy when the little mountains on my beer bottle turn blue.

I have been to the Two Bros. Tap House a few times and like both the beer and food. I had to get a map and a Sherpa to find the place, but was happy when I got there. The restaurant is connected to a brewery, so the draft selection would be more favorable for those looking to experience a beer rather than drink it. Given the choice, it is much easier to head downtown to Tap House for me.

LOL!

No -- not beer snobbery. My point is that if a place calls itself the 'Tap House' then there should be more than just five taps (one of which is the old-standby 'Sam Adams Seasonal' -- which is on tap at nearly every bar around.)

There's a German restaurant in Lisle (on Ogden) -- name escapes me now -- that has 25 beers on tap and over 150 bottled varieties. Now that's what I'm talking about. No disrespect meant for the Tap House -- I know it's a forum favorite -- and the food is fantastic. Just that folks rave about the beer selection -- I've heard this many times -- and unless we went there on an off day, the beer selection is pretty uninspiring -- at least the stuff on tap. (It's the 'Tap House' -- so, you know ...)

re: cask-conditioned ale

Cask conditioned ale is just a standard English bitter server right from the cask where it's undergoing its secondary fermentation. It's live beer, in other words -- carbonation is low, temperature is near room-temp, and the yeasty critters are still working away even as the beer is being poured and consumed.

It's like bottle-conditioned beers, in a sense -- beer that still has yeast in the bottle when it's shipped. Most beers are pasteurized and filtered (which kills the yeast and "polishes" the beer so it's clear enough to watch TV through) -- but you'll come across some American beers or some Belgians that are "conditioned in the bottle".

Cask-conditioned ale is a real treat when you can find a pub that's pouring. It's usually pretty low in alcohol (which is great because you can drink more) and it's got a unique -- almost "green" -- taste and texture that really can't be matched by anything else.

At any rate, no biggie. Agreed on the difficulty of finding Two Brothers. It's near where my GPS said it would be, but we needed a u-turn to figure out where it was!

Lisle place is the Bavarian Lodge. Only place that I have ever seen Duvel on tap . . . and it is so very worth the trip.

quote:

Originally posted by Clamato:
Lisle place is the Bavarian Lodge. Only place that I have ever seen Duvel on tap . . . and it is so very worth the trip.

That's it! Yeah -- delicious food, too.

I don't know much about beer distribution -- but I know it's a quagmire for a lot of regional brewers (and the distributors, apparently, are like a cartel or a mafia) -- but I always wondered how the Bavarian Lodge can actually *acquire* some of these beers in Illinois -- especially when most area bars have the standard Fat Tire, Sam Adams, Blue Moon, Goose Island 312, and Two Brothers Domaine DuPage (along with the usual AB Stella Artois -- which I'm still mystified where the 'Belgian' part of that beer comes in.)

Actually, we went to Redstone on Butterfield not long ago, and I was surprised to see Goose Island's 'Greenline' on tap. Yummy, too. I realize city places now have the real beer selections, so I'm always thrilled to go somewhere and find interesting stuff on tap. A few months ago, the Gage downtown was offering a pint of Dogfish Head's Punkin Ale against Southern Tier's Pumking. Not a big fan of pumpkin beers, but both were great -- and it's nice to see cool stuff like that.

All this points to why the GE Brewery should never have closed up shop -- or converted to a sports bar which probably killed it. At one point, that place had fantastic beer. Since then, that corner has been cursed.

I miss the old coffee shop just east of Bells and Whistles....

Was that Blue Sky?

First place we dined in G.E. while looking for a house. After weeks of having my fax filled with listings of homes that I didn't want on streets way away from my target area (CLEA), we decided to come out and look for ourselves. Found our house in the paper. Promptly went to a different broker to let us see it. House under contract two days after. Amazed me how much G.E.'s number one agent had no clue re: how to listen to the simplest of requests. I am certain she is dead at this point.

Faber:

A friend of mine opened a bar in Logan Square that you might enjoy. The Rocking Horse is at 2535 N. Milwaukee, which is a nine-iron from the Blue Line. Lots of draft and even more bottles, and the food is great.

quote:

Originally posted by isaac:
Faber:

A friend of mine opened a bar in Logan Square that you might enjoy. The Rocking Horse is at 2535 N. Milwaukee, which is a nine-iron from the Blue Line. Lots of draft and even more bottles, and the food is great.

Thanks. I'm definitely checking it out!

yup, blue sky it was.

Had a similar experience with our agent. Said we wanted a 2 car garage in our price range. Agent said those don't exist in Glen Ellyn. Ran across our house on a website, pointed it and out and she said, "wow, there is one".

Well, I am dumbfounded at the fact that the new owner will indeed retain the Curly's name. That name outlived its usefulness quite some time ago. Why would you buy and renovate a place, obviously trying to build a new experience, and keep the ghost of the multi-owner failure around? The average hayseed will think, "Curley's . . . hated that place."

What do I know?

Happy to see that the curse I placed on the Mill Race Inn after being badly treated on my last visit finally took hold. Take that, MRI.

quote:

Originally posted by Clamato:
Amazed me how much G.E.'s number one agent had no clue re: how to listen to the simplest of requests.

Are you certain it wasn't intentional? Keep the riffraff out, and all that sort of thing?

Does that mean that Tap House is not buying Curly's?

That does not. Pretty much the worst kept secret in GE retail.