Tighthead Brewing Company, Mundelein

Tighthead Brewing Company owner and brewmaster Bruce Dir—a tighthead prop back in his rugby days—taps nearly two decades of personal and professional brewing experience and transforms it into beer. His brewery regularly churns out several types of beer seen in local bars and restaurants, including Comfortably Blonde ale, Scarlet-Fire and Irie IPA named for its viability as a session beer.

Attached to the brewery is a tap room, where guests can enjoy pints while watching games or catching up with friends. The watering hole also dispenses take-home growlers of any of the beers on tap, which include several experimental and theoretically impossible beers only available at the brewery. Though not a restaurant, the tap room keeps a stack of menus from local restaurants on hand, and orders delivery from them when asked.