Asian fusion @ BiXi Beer (Rooftop)

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Menu: https://www.bixi.beer/dining-room-food

Table for 8 at BiXi Beer, a brewpub offering Korean, Chinese & Vietnamese inspired cuisine. The restaurant features a large, airy second floor as well as a roof deck. It was profiled in Chicago Magazine as well.

From Chicago Magazine:

"The Chinese mythological figure Bixi often graces ancient funerary steles, sculpted as a dragon housed in a turtle's shell. So it's fitting that Logan Square restaurant Bixi Beer is named for this creature, as the East Asian-inspired brewpub is a hybrid of its own kind — impossible to classify, and completely unique, at least in Chicago.

Owners Bo and Arden Fowler (Owen & Engine, Fat Willy's Rib Shack) their bar and restaurant in 2018 after three years of planning (and a few holdups). Occupying two floors to seat about 200, Bixi Beer serves up food with Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, and other Southeast Asian flavors; the menu offers dishes like baos and noodles, but there's also an oyster bar on the second floor.

"I wasn’t too fussy about keeping it super authentic," says Bo Fowler. "I try to keep the techniques authentic, but we do what we think tastes good."

Fowler, who is South Korean but grew up in the Midwest, had originally wanted to open a small dumpling shop, but her partner envisioned opening a brewpub. So, as advised by Bixi's general manager, Elliott Beier, they combined the idea to launch a spot where beers are designed to pair with bites. Many include Asian ingredients, from Sichuan peppercorn to puffed jasmine rice.

"I've spent some time reading about the burgeoning craft brewing scene in East Asia," Beier says. "A lot of them either have Americans as their brewers, or nationals who have traveled to the US to get training and gone back. Some, like Young Master in Hong Kong and Great Leap in Beijing, are heavily incorporating local ingredients.

"Knowing that there really isn't anything like [an East Asian brewery] in the states so far, I pressed them to open just one concept, knowing that we’d have something truly unique."

In charge of the beer program is Eymard Freire, a native Brazilian and graduate of Chicago's Siebel Institute who's trained in practical microbiology. Freire has never visited East Asia, but he's been busy experimenting and taking risks with ingredients. "I did not have a preconception of what to do," Freire says. "It's just guessing on what would be popular.""