I’ve already covered what to eat after you’ve spent a night at the bars in the pizzeria edition of my guide to B-town noshing, but plenty of this town’s drinking establishments also offer some yummy options in addition to their libations. And I am not talking about the $25 Hot Pocket on the menu at The Vid, either. Bar food in this town can be shady in some spots, but others are good enough to order as carry out. Here is a rundown of the best of the best.
My personal favorite places to grab a beer and a bite are our town’s two wonderful and delicious microbreweries: Upland Brewing Company and Lennie’s & the Bloomington Brewing Company. I personally dig Upland Wheat; but as far as their food menus are concerned they are both so delish that I am not going to try and pick a favorite between the two. Instead I will just highlight the wonderful-ness of both.
Upland does pub food right, and their atmosphere definitely has Lennie’s strip mall locale beat. The patio is perfect place to spend a summer afternoon. Their local pulled pork and buffalo burger, and Hoosier Classic Pork Tenderloin are among the best sandwiches in all of Bloomington, and their fish and chips put the fried food kings at Irish Lion to shame. Any Bloomingtonian knows that their beers are awesome, and the Bloomington Tap Room is the best place to experience them all. Try the sampler, or go visit the knowledgeable staff between three and five pm on the weekends during their free tour hours. Sounds like a great date or a fun thing to do when your parents come to visit. When dining, do remember that they are not keen on reservations and have a relatively small dining room that fills up fast.
Lennie’s features award winning BBC beers and amazing pizzas. For starters, their shrimp and blue crab dip and Anna’s French onion soup rock, and I’ve heard it said that they have the best hot wings in all of B-town. Their white garlic sauce is seriously so good on a pie with their traditional crust and a Free Stone Blonde BBC ale. The menu is somewhat misleading though, as the sauce with garlic in the name is considerably less garlic-y than the white sauce, so be advised. I also enjoy their Ruby Bloom Amber beer a lot. Anything made with their Fisher Farms meatballs won’t disappoint, either.
I have said it before and I will say it again, I am not a fan of the pizza at Nick’s English Hut. However, I am a pretty huge fan of everything else about Nick’s. The Strombolli, the lamb burger, and the Italian beef are excellent. Remember, getting the au jus on the side with your Italian beef is key. And when they have the Cuban, get the Cuban. This is imperative.
If you like things fried, you will pretty much like anything the Irish Lion has to offer. And at the end of the day, who doesn’t really like fried food, at least a little bit. You can probably infer from the name of the place that they are pretty big on Irish cuisine, but they have a large and diverse menu that is far more delicious than the offerings of the Crazy Horse next door. I personally think they have the best chicken fingers in town. They aren’t on the menu, but they have them and will make them for you, and you will be really happy about it.
For bar food on a budget, Scotty’s Brewhouse is a gem hidden in plain sight. Everyone knows about Scotty’s huge downtown location, but what you probably don’t know is that every weeknight they have half-priced appetizers starting at 9 p.m., and on the weekends it starts at ten. It. Is. Awesome. Twelve boneless wings? Only four bucks. Their delicious buffalo chicken dip and tortilla chips? Just $4.63. You can get four of their delicious mini-chuck scooters for less than five dollars. I could go on an on, but you should probably just pop in there later tonight and find out for yourself.
On Tuesday’s at Kilroy’s on Kirkwood, well you probably already know what’s up. Let’s get real, $2 Tuesday is probably one, of if not the best, part of being an IU student. Two-dollar wings, pepperoni breadsticks and cheeseburgers all compliment a $2 Long Island Ice Tea pitcher quite well. Since the renovation, they now offer a $2 lunch special during the lunch hours, which is the standard cheeseburger and potato chips, but now also includes a cup of soup, which surprisingly doesn’t suck.
For late night, possibly drunken noshing on the cheap, Yogi’s Grill and Bar has got your back. Until 2 a.m., they offer select items from their appetizer menus such as hot wings, cheese fries, and my personal favorite, mini-corndogs at a fraction of their normal prices. And don’t forget to visit Yogi’s for a wild time on the Monday after Easter for their Dyngus Day celebration. Dyngus Day is a Polish holiday celebrated in some U.S. cities in New York, Michigan and Indiana. At Yogi’s, locals and students alike celebrate by wearing crazy mismatched costumes, eating hard-boiled eggs ($.25 a piece or three for a dollar – yes, you read that correctly), and drinking way too heavily for a Monday night. I will see you there.
Hyperlink Guide:
Upland Brewing Company – http://uplandbeer.com/
Lennie’s – http://bbcbloomington.com/index.html
Pub food – http://uplandbeer.com/eat-n-drink/b-town-tap-room/dinner/?page=4
BBC Beers – http://bbcbloomington.com/menu.html
Nick’s English Hut – http://www.nicksenglishhut.com/
Irish Lion – http://www.irishlion.com/index.html
Crazy Horse – http://www.crazyhorseindiana.com/
Scotty’s Brewhouse – http://www.scottysbrewhouse.com/
Half-priced appetizers – http://www.scottysbrewhouse.com/media/216826/halfpriceapps.pdf
Kilroy’s on Kirkwood – http://www.kilroyskirkwood.com/
Yogi’s Bar and Grill – http://www.yogis.com/
Dyngus Day – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_Monday