For better or worse, former Gage chef Dirk Flanigan is largely responsible for bringing back the Scotch egg over the last decade, as Chicago writhed in the throes of its love affair with gastropubbery. The snack quickly proliferated all over town, and for every molten ovum core jacketed in crispy, hot sausage there were a dozen fryer-petrified fossils as rock solid as a carbon-frozen Han Solo.
The preponderance of snacky, meaty, beer-friendly foods is practically a given, so maybe that’s how I got snookered by the Scotch egg. Had I read the menu more carefully, I might at least have been prepared for it. Served atop a pile of tired-looking mixed greens, the egg so dwarfed conventional ones that my sidekick wondered aloud what animal could have laid one so large. Another surprise was in store when we realized that the menu’s mysterious mention of “lentil falafel” referred to the pasty, sausageless mantle that encircled the egg. Lacto-ovo-vegetarian beer drinkers deserve Scotch eggs too, I suppose.
These low flavor profiles might come about because the Breakroom’s beers themselves aren’t terribly distinctive. The selection changed frequently over the course of my visits, which bodes well for its freshness. But while much mention is made of International Bittering Units and the varieties of hops used from beer to beer (Breakroom does seem to be in thrall to hopheads), they’re food friendly but forgettable. The most distinctive variety, a Berlin-style weiss sour, has so little depth it’s better ordered with one of the optional fruit syrups on hand. Fortunately the beers are served in five- as well as 13-ounce portions, which allows for a quick change of direction if a poor choice is made.
2925 W. Montrose 773-564-9534breakroombrewery.com
