The only place in town where you can wash down frog legs with blueberry mead

There are hundreds of Chicagoland bars where you can watch the game, drink a Bud, and eat a burger. Hopleaf isn’t one of them. You can, however, procure a pint of blueberry mead (honey beer) and a plate of frog legs.

My interest in craft beers piqued after attending AleFest, I paid a visit to Michael Roper, who has been running this legendary Andersonville beer bar since 1992. Craft beer was new to the Midwest when Roper opened the place, and Hopleaf started as a lone room. Today it’s expanded to a dual-level dining room, a 24-seat patio where the staff grows herbs used in the kitchen, and a second-floor bar area used for beer seminars (Roper led an immersion beer tour in Belgium this fall) and literary events produced in conjunction with local bookstore Women and Children First and Bookslut.com. The bar carries more than 200 varieties of beer, with 45 drafts and 150-170 in bottles, including fruit- and honey-based beers like lambics and mead, as well as a respectable selection of wine and liquor. Roper’s personal tastes guide the offerings—he favors Belgian and Belgian-style beers such as Unibroue (I tried the spicy brown Maudite for the first time here six months ago) and Delirium Tremens, as well as stateside microbrews Dogfish Head and North Coast.

The Belgian-influenced food menu is equally unconventional, with organic meats and local produce, wild game including pheasant and boar, and a rotating seasonal section (the summer version includes a duck reuben and a Belgian rabbit waterzooi stew). Many of the dishes involve beer, including the wildly popular mussels, which are steamed in Wittekirke white ale and served with Belgian frites.

Hopleaf’s sophisticated yet casual atmosphere—exposed brick, vintage beer signs, soft jazz—attracts Andersonville drinkers of all ages and tastes; Roper says his oldest regular is a 90-year-old Turkish man who comes in daily. Whether you’re looking for a perfect first date spot, somewhere to bring your parents for dinner or a group of friends for a night out, it’s hard to go wrong with Hopleaf. I can’t wait to go back and try the blueberry mead!

Hopleaf, 5148 N. Clark St., 773-334-9851, 3 p.m.-2 a.m. Sun.-Fri., 3 p.m.-3 a.m. Sat. Hopleaf.com.