Old Irving Brewing Co.
Old Irving Brewing Co. began the way so many of America’s best craft breweries do: in a garage, with friends, and with the dawning realization that this hobby might actually be a career. Co-founders Jeff Linnemeyer — a refugee from the financial industry — and Trevor Rose-Hamblin, a veteran brewer who had honed his palate in the kitchens of Chicago’s iconic Moto and iNG, started brewing together in 2014 with a clear goal: make beer worth sharing with their northwest-side neighbors. Two years later, in late 2016, they opened the doors to a brewpub on Montrose Avenue in the leafy, lived-in Old Irving Park neighborhood, and the lineage of the place — equal parts neighborhood joint and serious brewery — was set in stone.
The space itself reads like a love letter to the modern Chicago brewpub: a long bar fronted by working tap handles, a back wall of glass that looks straight into the gleaming brewhouse, and a wood-fired grill in the kitchen that perfumes the dining room with cherry and mesquite smoke. There’s a Beer Hall built for big groups, a Game Room tucked away for private events, and enough TVs to make sure you never miss a Cubs inning. The crowd skews neighborhood-first — couples on date night, parents with kids in the early hours, friends sharing flights and burgers later on — but the beer list is what pulls in pilgrims from across the city.
“A neighborhood brewpub that just happens to make some of the most decorated beer in the Midwest.”
That beer list has earned a serious trophy case. Beezer, the brewery’s flagship hazy IPA built on Citra and Mosaic, took home a GABF Gold Medal in 2019 in one of the most competitive categories in American craft beer — and then did it again at the 2024 World Beer Cup. Della, the kölsch named for one of co-founder Charles T. Race’s daughters, picked up a GABF Silver in 2021 and is now the subject of an annual neighborhood birthday bash called Della Days. Champurrado Krampus, a barrel-aged showstopper, brought home FoBAB silver in 2024. The portfolio runs wide — hazy IPAs, crisp German-leaning lagers, fruited sours under the Cushy banner, and a deep barrel-aged program — and a 2024 expansion to a second production facility in the West Loop has only widened the distribution footprint across Illinois and Wisconsin.
What makes Old Irving worth the trip across town — or across state lines — is the rare combination of award-winning beer with a kitchen that takes itself just as seriously. The wood-fired grill, powered by cherry and mesquite, turns out burgers, surf-and-turf skewers, and rotating wing specials that punch well above the brewpub weight class. Pair that with a creative cocktail program, a deep bourbon and whiskey list, and a tap wall that always has something interesting — a fresh Beezer release, a Cushy fruited sour, a one-off barrel-aged stout — and you have a brewpub that rewards multiple visits. Walk-ins only, no reservations: grab a stool at the bar, watch the brewhouse work through the glass, and order whatever the bartender’s most excited about that day.