Friday 4th of July 2008 10:20:35 AM

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My wife and I had been passing Millrose by for years on our way to the nearby AMC megaplex. Finally, last Saturday afternoon we decided to make a special trip to try the beer at this place that proclaimed itself a brewery on the sign by the street.

The atmosphere was nice. The hostess sat us inside by a window as we requested. There were also nice tables outside in a shaded courtyard, but we preferred to observe from air conditioned comfort.

The first thing we asked the waiter was of course what beers they had on tap. There was no beer menu with detailed descriptions of the beers as I am accustomed to seeing at places that brew their own beer.
The waiter quickly went through the list:
pale ale, pilsner, amber ale, dark lager... commercial brew #1... I stopped him there to save time.

It was interesting that he described the dark lager as being "not too heavy even though it is dark". My hopes were starting to sink at this point, because it started to look like this was not a beer lovers place.

I ordered the amber ale and my wife chose the dark lager. They were both served in tall pilsner glasses.

There was no noticeable aroma as I brought the glass to my nose. My first sip of the amber ale left me disappointed, but that wasn't my final judgment. I soldiered on and kept trying it. I wanted to like it, but there just wasn't any flavor to this beer. The watery character and carbonation reminded me of the typical macro brews, although this beer was amber colored rather than the typical macro yellow.

At the same time, my wife was having a similar experience with the dark lager. I tried her beer as well (just for research purposes of course) and I was surprised at how similar it tasted to my amber ale. Other than a slightly more bitter flavor, I would be hard pressed to tell them apart in a blind taste test.

We gave up on the beer at this point. We just didn't have any confidence that the other two choices were going to be significantly better than what we had already tried.

While all this disappointing beer tasting was going on we did order food. The macaroni and cheese with crab and asparagus was very tasty and was served at a good temperature. We paired that with a lemon oregano chicken wrap. The wrap was fair, but the flavor was very mild for something with lemon and oregano in it.

I am unlikely to return to Millrose any time soon. The beer was extremely disappointing to me. The food was pretty good, but a little on the expensive side. I guess prices are going up everywhere, so this isn't surprising, but since I am looking for good beer, that is the deal breaker.

Wednesday 27th of June 2007 11:37:08 AM

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Lovely restaurant, reminded me of a combination of an old barn and a log cabin. Although it has a rustic decor, the place is very much clean-cut, almost fancy.

Food is outstanding, the prices are bit up there, but in line for Chicago area (and the neighborhood).

The brewing seems to be rather secondary to the food. They had me confused when I was served a pale ale that was, well, VERY pale, almost straw-colored like a lager. I ended up getting their dark lager which was decent. They have a few other guest taps, Fat Tire & Blue Moon.

Nice place overall, but not specifically for the beer.