Fountainhead - A Bar Review
Labor Day weekend brought us to Chicago for the first time as a couple, and we had a great time exploring the city together. Between the incredible dinosaur fossils at the Field Museum, including Maximo the titanosaur and the legendary Sue, and the delicious lobster that we ate at the Great American Lobster Fest, it was a wonderful trip. On our first night in town, we checked out a whiskey bar named Fountainhead on Chicago's North Side.
Atmosphere and Service: Midwestern niceness prevails here, even though it's a big city. We arrived relatively early in the night, around 9 pm, so there were only a few scattered groups of patrons in the bar. The bartenders gave us plenty of time to familiarize ourselves with the deep and impressive selection of both beers and whiskies on offer, and were quick to offer suggestions or help deciding.
The bar's aesthetic falls within the standard casual but upscale vibe at most new American joints. Exposed ductwork and a mixture of exposed brick and wood paneling -- you know the type. One nice touch is that Fountainhead has its own custom-branded glencairn glasses. Classy! The bar is also four shelves high, meaning that the bartenders have gantry ladders handy for getting those hard-to-reach bottles.
One unusual trait is that Fountainhead is both a whiskey and a beer enthusiast's bar. Normally, I'm used to bars going one way or the other -- huge beer list, or huge whiskey list. At Fountainhead, you don't have to pick your poison.
In an odd touch, there happened to be a massive truck parked outside with a big cocktail shaker bearing Monkey Shoulder branding on the back, positioned like a cement mixer. I'm not sure what it was doing there, and it wasn't part of an obvious promotion, as no one was around or making drinks by the truck.
Selection: When a bar's online menu has a search bar, you know that it's doing something right. The menu is eclectically organized, but it is immediately evident that it's going to impress. The bar has a separate page for its own single cask selections, which earns it an automatic merit badge from me. I haven't bother trying to count the number of bottles available here, but it numbers in the hundreds.
One downside to the online menu is that it isn't quite up-to-date. We were excited to try a Port Ellen bottling that was on the online menu, and a relative bargain at $50, but it wasn't available when we got to the bar.
Rare Bottles: This is another area where the bar excelled. As mentioned before, it has its own single casks, which by definition are going to be rare expressions in the sense that you can try that exact bottle of whiskey only at Fountainhead. Those single casks came from well-established and high-quality distilleries such as Glenfarclas and Kilchoman, as well as most of the bourbon single-barrel staples like Weller, Buffalo Trace, and Four Roses.
Fountainhead is also a Scotch Malt Whisky Society (SMWS) partner bar, which is a mark of distinction, as there are not many such establishments in the U.S. I've written about the SMWS's bars in Edinburgh and London, which are well worth visiting for anyone passionate about single-malt scotch. The short story is that the SMWS is a society of passionate whiskey fans with deep connections in the industry and who release 5-10 single casks from distilleries all over Scotland and the world each month. These bottles are largely high-quality, and uniformly quite expensive. Fountainhead didn't quite manage SMWS's own bars for selection of SMWS single casks, but it had a robust collection of their expressions, again on a separate menu page.
Aside from those special collections, the main menu has dozens of rare and unusual whiskies. Bourbon lovers will find a lot to appreciate (if they can afford it), as we saw several bottles from the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection and Pappy Van Winkle on the top shelf.
Value: Overall, prices here were quite reasonable, and for some types of whiskey, the bar offers smaller pours that allow you to taste it without paying for a full 2-oz serving. There were some exceptional values on the menu. For instance, Fountainhead is still pouring 2014 and 2015 Laphroaig Cairdeas for $12-13 a glass, which is a bargain. Those bottles could fetch $200-250 on the secondary market, and I've seen them in other bars for $25 and up.
****
Fountainhead is a standout whiskey bar in Chicago, and would be in any city in the world. But, believe it or not, we enjoyed the next one we visited even more. Next up, the Windy City legend: Delilah's!