Four Farthings Tavern & Grill
2060 N. ClevelandChicago, IL 60614-4514
Lincoln Park
773-935-2060
fourfarthings.com
Hours: Lunch, Dinner: seven days
Sunday brunch
Open Late: Friday & Saturday till 11
Our Review
The name is a reference to J.R.R. Tolkien, whose books featured the fantastic geographical reference points of East Farthing, West Farthing, North Farthing, and South Farthing; the bar has been around since the 60s, and the attached restaurant (formerly a used book store) opened when the current owners took over in 1981. Raters think the service is great, the atmosphere is inviting, and the food (with an emphasis on steak and seafood) exceeds expectations. "I could see this being a very easy restaurant to dine in with my children," says one.
Price: $$$
Payment Type: American Express, Diners Club, Discover, MasterCard, Visa
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Here on St. Patrick's day. Ordered corned beef and cabbage. To my disappointment, it came with a smarmy sweet mustard sauce. Seemed to be almost all neighborhood people.
Four Farthings was disappointing. The food was below average in terms of tatse and quality, and service was slow and unfriendly. We did not feel welcome at all. When we first walked in, the place had just opened and we were ignored by various staff members walking past us. We had to finally approach someone and ask to be seated. There are a million other bar and grills in Chicago to ensure that we don't have to return here ever again!
This place has become a major disappointment to me, since it's in the neighborhood and convenient. When they start charging $30 for a steak, you had might as well spend just a few bucks more and hit a place like Gibson's, Capital Grille, or Ruth's. The wines-by-the-glass selection, once a great selling point here -- previously a good range of interesting wines -- has slipped, and you're now paying top dollar for small glasses of common wines. Several of the microbrews we had with dinner had gone flat, too. Like so many pubs, they are apparently catering to the microbrew crowd, but they are not selling enough of some of them to keep them fresh on draft. Still a nice space, and the outdoor cafe is enjoyable if nothing special. But the value, to me, isn't here anymore. A steak, two small glasses of ordinary wine, and an appetizer will easily run you $70 per person with tip -- and the quality doesn't merit it.
Everyone else loves Four Farthings more then I do. To me, it's always a little overpriced. Good food at slightly higher than expected prices.
The atmosphere is one of the best things about this place. Named after a reference from the JRR Tolkein Hobbit series, not as a reference to the currency or the nationality of the author that shares a name with one of the restaurant's cross streets.
This place harks back to when Lincoln Park was the Haight Ashbury of Chicago -- in the '60s/'70s. While Lincoln Park still has some good restaurants that go back to its punk rock days in the late '70s and '80s -- when it was to the city of Chicago what Bucktown and Wicker Park were about five years ago -- Four Farthings goes way back to what non-Lincoln Parkers would never beleive about the now affluent neighborhood's history. You can tell that the wooden floor in the bar has been lovingly treated to decades of boots and spilled drinks as part of a daily preservation ritual.
Locals, some who are old enough to remember decades of good times at that place, frequent it though the side door. It can be strange to see ex-hippies who are now long-haired millionaires haunting their old digs, but I have yet to see another place in the city that has blended time like Four Farthings. Who knew?
We decided to stop into Four Farthings for a burger at the bar. The food was okay - nothing special. The service, again, was okay. With the vast number of burger joints near this area, I don't see myself frequenting the Four Farthings too often. I'd rather walk a couple blocks further to Stanley's or the Lion's Head Pub.
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