Saturday 28th of November 2009 11:16:30 AM

link
Resi's has a fantastic selection of German beers, and very authentic German food. Sausages are purchased from a local butcher, and the potato pancakes are delicious.(Although I feel the food is a little overpriced.)

Interior is a blast from the past with orange vinyl booths, but the real gem is the outdoor seating. Biergarten is small and very quaint. Easy to relax and drink a few. Nothing beats Resi’s biergarten on a beautiful summer day!

Tuesday 28th of October 2008 11:49:23 AM

link
One of a trio of quality German Pubs in the neighborhood (the others being Laschet's & Glunz Bavarian Haus), Resi’s has many qualities that make it easy to recommend.

The façade of the bar has recently been updated and is now attractive in a quaint Teutonic way. The interior of the bar while a bit worn down is comfy and a bit homey. This is a place that has really benefited from the smoking ban. It is now possible to really enjoy your food and drink.

The bartenders are a friendly lot that take good care of their customers and respect beer. They are quick with suggestions and patient when you spend a long time pursuing the tap or bottle choices.

Speaking of choices, you have about 16 taps to choose from and a decent bottle selection of about 40 brands. They used to carry many more bottles, but I would rather see a smaller selection that turns over. I think you will be able to find a few examples of just about any German beer style here. Note that they often have a mystery beer special. It could be Schlitz, Bitburger, or something else.

The food is tasty with plenty of authentic German choices. I think it a very fair value for the quality and quantity you receive. This is a great place to lay down a base for an evening of drinking.

The Beir Garten is one of the best in the city. While small, the layout, trees and decorations all add to the allure. The waitresses are great and if they are not to busy, will often pull-up a chair to sit and chat. It can be a truly enchanting experience with the right weather and the right group of folks.

Do yourself a favor and stop by for some good beer and tasty food!

Friday 24th of October 2008 09:16:08 PM

link
I had not reviewed here? Oops. I was here on a Thursday night. I intended to have something to eat here before going on to another tavern in the North Central neighborhood.
I do not have to inform you that Resi's has great beers on tap. I think they're all from Germany; i.e.; Austrian & Czech beers are available - but I want to scribe only in bottles. As it happened, I had only two beers [half-liters] on draft this night: the BBK Kutscher Alt, and the Warsteiner Oktoberfest. They were $6 each.
What I ate was its special of the day: A steak patty smothered in gravy and mushrooms ($14.95). Other main courses, including any number featuring wursts, are $12.95. You have a choice of soup or salad. Having read previous reviews, I opted for the soup [today's was cream of broccoli], and the mashed potatoes. (The potato pancakes seem to get raves, but they're only available a-la carte for $7.95. I was not going to spend that much.)
The steak was good. It would get a 3½-star rating by itself.
So what happened that I'm giving Resi's such a high rating? It was another incident of me catching lightning in a bottle. This might not occur when you're here. At 7:00 pm, a gentleman named Joel, who it turned out, used to be the beer manager at Sam's Wine & Liquors, walked in, greeted Ron, our bartender, and set up a tasting of the mead [!] and beers (Flensburger) that his distributing corporation [Fox Deluxe Distr. Co. {!}] is handling.
(I must have 'beer radar' in my genes. I had no premonition that this was going to occur.)
The mead he has is Redstone Meadery [Boulder, CO.] raspberry mead. It was a refreshing mead. The raspberry flavor was appropriate. The alcohol was present, but not overpowering. He also made a custom drink which he hopes will become a "signature" aperitif for Resi's based on the raspberry mead.
The Flensburger beers were a pilsner, a dark lager, and a hefeweiss; all in bottles (and regularly on offer at Resi's). I liked the dark lager. It had a slight malt taste which lasted throughout.
There were only seven people in the venue. Joel spoke with them all. One table of four wound up purchasing bottles of the raspberry mead ($12) to take home.
Hopefully, the data I printed on a bar napkin informing Joel on how to sign-up for the Chicago Beer Society E-Mail list, and the URL of the BeerMapping.com forum, will prove useful in helping him publicize other tastings he is conducting. What he uttered was that Fox Deluxe is a two-man operation. He has the city, and his associate has the suburbs. You can look for its offerings at Binny's [Ivanhoe] and Sam's Wines & Liquors.

Transit options: It is still the North Central neighborhood. Be alert for the #80 Irving Park bus which runs westbound as far as Central until 12:25 am. [Browse the CTABustRacker service for up-to-the-minute data.]

Friday 9th of November 2007 03:10:06 PM

link
Beerinator's review sums up the selection here nicely...the most comprehensive German beer bar in town. No, they don't have everything, but they cover almost every style of German beer out there. Berliner Weisse, Doppelbock, Hefeweizen, Kolsch, Bock, Alt, Maerzen, Weizenbock, you name it. My favorites here are Aventinus, Optimator, and Augustiner Maximator. Drafts are available in .5L or 1L glassware. The liter krugs are certainly the manliest glassware I know of.

Food is excellent, supremely hearty and authentic. Thuringer & Sauekraut is quite affordable, and my favorite cheap meal here. Entrees can cost a bit more, but are shareable too. If the kitchen is closed after 10pm or so, ask for a Landjager sausage at the bar. It's smoky and served with spicy mustard for $2, great late night bar snack.

The garden in the back is very quaint an homey, with working vintage beer lanterns, flowerboxes, and a massive tree towering over the entire area. Have a look at my avatar for reference. Service is friendly, and they will warm up to you once you are acquainted. When it's crowded in the summertime, the garden may experience service delays, but it's expected. Indoors there's usually good service, no issues at all.

Monday 4th of June 2007 09:03:06 AM

link
I think when it comes right down to it, Resi's has the best beer selection of any of the Chicago based German establishments that I have been to.

Resi's tap selection seems to be a bit broader than Laschet's down the street. While Laschet's seems to focus on the pilsners and bocks, you're much more likely to find a schwarzbier or a dunkel at Resi's.

The bar back is covered with ancient beer coasters. The rest of the inside establishment is a bit dark and comforting as long as there is not too much smoke lingering around.

There is a beer garden in back with 8 or 9 tables. They have plenty of trees providing shade as well as large umbrellas for each table. In good weather this is a great place to sit outside and enjoy a pint/liter.

I haven't tried the food here yet, but I hear it is good. The parking in this area is street parking and you probably will need to park more than a couple of blocks away. Resi's is about 5 blocks west of the Irving Park Brown Line stop.