The launch of DryHop Chicago has been widely anticipated for almost a year now. Owner Greg Shuff, Brewer Brant Dubovick, and Chef Pete Repak have been working on their recipes, as well as innumerable licensing and building code issues since the start. But the day is finally here — June 13th. Lakeview, you have no idea.

I met Greg in his early days, when he was still honing his concept and building relationships with Chicago's craft beer community. He's an easy fit — ambitious, curious, and always looking for feedback. Since then, I've been able to help Greg build his brand by developing a visual and written storytelling style that was authentic, and captured their unique point of view. In return, Greg and Pete collaborated on my weekend camp at Wandawega in October, making some of the best rustic camp food you can imagine and pouring some of Brant's first collaboration beers. They helped make it an unforgettable weekend.

Now it's time to see what they can really do, with real tanks, a real kitchen, and a real place to call home, right in the heart of Lakeview near Belmont and Broadway. The first beer menu looks solid, including a cream/steam hybrid beer, a Pils and a Saison, all favorite styles of mine, among a few others. And Pete's dinner menu is guaranteed to be pork heavy and shareable — that's his style. Read more here >>

So what's it been like, toiling away all this time? Not an idle-hands type of crew, Greg describes the journey:

"The last few months have been insane. We pulled an almost endless string of late nights getting everything hammered out for inspections. We got the brewpub permit at 10am last Monday, spun on our heals, and were mashed in by 11. The 10x30 foot kitchen is packed with ten cooks all mastering the 30+ menu items. Everything is running at about 80% and we’ve got two weeks left to bring the whole show up to 100%. Things couldn’t be more awesome."

If you can't wait til June 13th, apparently neither can they. They'll be doing a special pre-opening growler fill for the neighborhood on June 8th. I'll be there. And I'll leave with at least 64 ounces.