Oak Forest Pub Serves Up Dinner Delights with Big Beer Flavor

Beer, even at its priciest, has rarely been a conceit item.

To prove that, Chicago-area breweries are satisfying local and national pallets by providing an assortment of incredible craft beers that won't pinch your wallet.

And after a night of indulging in outstanding brews from Warrenville-based Two Brothers and dining on fine, German-influenced food by chef Antonella Loiacono at in Oak Forest, the only pinch this reporter felt was the one from his belt.

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“If you like food and you like beer, it's good mixing them together,” Loiacono told me from the pub's steamy kitchen, as she readied her menu of beer-infused soup and roasts, and bratwurst-stuffed peppers.

Tickets for the spread, which included six craft beers and apple strudel for desert, were $50 per person and well worth it. 

The roasted pork tenderloin—drizzled with a sweet- and tangy-barbeque sauce (Loiacono's secret recipe), atop red-garlic mashed potatoes with bacon—paired with Atom Smasher lager, was fit for a barstool king. At 7.7-percent-alcohol content, the lager was a potent yet smooth compliment to the heavenly barbeque sauce.

“I want to bathe in this barbeque sauce,” said Oak Forest native Adam Balauskas, who, along with his two friends, looks to travel the country in search of the finest craft beers. “I can't touch domestic beers anymore—I don't think I'm able too.”

When I asked Balauskas' good friend Jeremy Podczerwinski if craft beer has become a luxury drink in America, as wine or champagne is in Italy or France, he flat-out dismissed the idea.

“There's been more innovation with beer, where wine is traditional and aged,” Podczerwinski expounded, over sweet peppers stuffed with seasoned bratwurst, simmered in beer. “Some of the best, world-class beers are under [$20 per bottle].”

A self-proclaimed, 'craft-beer nerd,' Podczerwinski argued that drinking beer is no longer just a blue-collar norm. But like many, he added, his love of craft beer is forever tied to rock and roll and good eats.

“We're more than just beer nerds,” he said of his group, “we're other nerds, too.”

As my plate wound down to a few tempting bites of apple strudel, paired with Robust Porter beer, it hit me: I realized the truth, the meaning of beer. But, being a bit besotted, I forgot.

I'll leave you, though, with what Two Brothers sales manager Chad Lynd said of their mission: “We're trying to let everyone know that beer should not be a weird chemical concoction that's flavor neutral. It should be shared with family and friends—and that's kind of what we're based on.”