Emmett’s Ale House

March 23, 2008
Great food!!! Nice upscale casual dining restaurant...decent service and solid beers...

January 30, 2008
This place just reopened. Beer selection is a little thin, since they are not brewing yet, but word is that they will be up and brewing mid-February. Until then, they are shipping in their beer from the Dundee and Downers Grove breweries.

May 20, 2006
first time i’ve seen more than a couple people there - then i find out it’s closing for good the next day. so that’s why it was packed. they also had some awesome beers on tap that i imagine were because it’s closing down. imperial pilsener and imperial amber, victory pale, belgian pale ale and tripel. a couple others. awful expensive, i mean, $5.50 for a half pint of imperial amber? even if it is almost 10%abv, that’s ridiculous. the waiter knew what he was talking about, that’s a big up. good experience, too bad they’re closing. i gave the selection an 11, but it’s relative. for the type of establishment, it seemed to have a lot of awesome beers of theirs. especially compared to my visit a couple years ago. but very limited guest choices.

December 4, 2005 [ Updated June 4, 2006 ]
6-3-06 The Palatine location is now closed. The newsletter states that they lost their lease but will move this location to another northwestern suburb soon.

Pretty nice place. It is much larger than the West Dundee location and it looks like the building was built for this place. Nice patio outside that had a fire running even though everything else was covered in snow. The bar area is quite large with lots of seating. Tables and booths everywhere. As usual a very nice place. One thing tho, the west dundee location has at this time about twice as many beers on tap than the palatine location. The only reason why we came here was to try the barleywine.

November 4, 2005
Very upscale place. Not used to this kind of a venue for beer sampling. Nice variety on the tap list with about seven at a time that span the spectrum of styles. The food was awesome, though the sandwich was so piled high with pork I had to use a knife and fork. Service was pretty slow.

October 20, 2005
Well, this is the last of the Emmett’s for me to try and it’s a virtual clone of the other two in West Dundee and Downers Grove.

Nice atmosphere, pricey food menu, decent house beers. Had a burger and it was good but not worth raving about. Very comfortable on a weekday afternoon. Our server was our bartender and was very keen on Emmett’s beers... even revealing that there is a Barley Wine being discussed for future production! I still have a problem with Emmett’s limited beer menu and slow rotation.

If I were to pick one Emmett’s to visit, I’d suggest Downers Grove, due to the fact that the area felt more quaint, and the bar has guest taps (which is a plus even though their house beers are adequate). The Palatine location is, however, terribly convenient to Arlington Park Race Track and the Rolling Meadows Court House, so stop by to celebrate after you pick a pony or bribe a judge.

July 4, 2005
The in house beer is actually really good. They have about 6 or 7 on tap. A sampler of five is $5.75, but the douche bartender messed up the order of beers on the tray two days in a row. The same bartender was having a very unprofessional conversation about sex with some at a bar that was really uncomfortable. The food is not too bad. Large menu and a lot of steaks. The restaurant is very large, clean and new. There is an outside area to drink and eat. There’s no tour of the brewery and they only have two kettles visible in the entrance.

February 28, 2005
Nice, large building with hardwood floors and private dining areas. Beer sampler paddle has 5 beers on it for $5.95. They’ll also let you sample the seasonal ones, no charge, as well. Beer was descent but not wowing, but it’s a nice place brewing its own beer and serving good food. I’d recommend it.