Beard & Belly (and Honeypie Bakery)

Beard & Belly opened mid-April in two Edgewater storefronts where the Pumping Company bar and Holzkopf’s Meat Market used to be. Beard & Belly had been a regular pop-up at the Long Room. They've been slowing expanding their menu since they opened. Burgers are a mainstay. They also have a partnership with Honeypie Cafe, a Milwaukee area bakery/cafe, to provide pies and other baked goods.

They have recently opened a back patio and now have brunch. Mr. X and I have had burgers to go from them a couple of times and they are fantastic. The patio called to us for brunch yesterday. We headed over after the first morning rain. Tables on the patio are well-spaced.

We started with their Bloody Mary, which includes their spicy pickled egg. This was a fine drink.



I ordered the B&B B&G (Honeypie biscuits, pork sausage, white gravy, over-easy egg & herb oil). Great dish. My only quibble is the over easy egg was not.



Mr. X had the Brunch Brat (bacon, egg & cheddar sausage topped with crispy potato strings and sriracha mayo on a New England roll). The sausage is made in-house. This was amazing! The photo doesn't do it justice.



Service was friendly. Our server, who used to work at Fat Cat, recognized me as they used to sponsor my volleyball league. (That's been at least a couple of years so I was impressed.) Kyle, one of the owners, was on the Spiteful Brewing team where Mr. X and I have spent a few sessions. All employees were masked as were customers until seated. When another round of storms came through, our table was moved just inside the big patio door. That called for another round of drinks. Beermosa for me and Kyoto cold-brew coffee and Bailey's for Mr. X. We moved back outside when the rain stopped.

This will be a great beer bar when they can open fully. Kyle told us about the new system that's in place. They will feature local brews.

We took our pieces of pie to go. Chocolate mint cream for Mr. X, peach for me. No photos. Get the chocolate mint cream pie. Chocolate cookie crumb crust. Delicious filling. Plenty of whipped cream topping. The peach pie was okay. But that chocolate mint....

Check them out! No delivery - take-out and dine-in only for now.

Beard & Belly (+ Honeypie)
6157 North Broadway
Chicago, IL 60660
(773) 754-7429

Hours as of July 2020:
Monday–Tuesday: Closed
Wednesday-Friday: 4 pm–9pm
Saturday and Sunday: 9am–9pm
Sunday: 9 a.m.–10 p.m

I had checked a few days ago to see if there was a Beard & Belly thread yet, and lo and behold one just popped up. We live very close by and will be paying a visit soon. Little Bad Wolf is not too far away from us, but it would be nice to have a solid burger/brat/pie place within short walking distance.

We made it over there yesterday evening for dinner. Very solid addition to the neighborhood. Both the belly burger and ham/cheese on rye were very good, as were the accompanying fries. All the socially distanced tables in the back patio were full the whole time we were there, with some scattered tables inside moving to the back as space opened up. The coconut cream pie afterwards was excellent. If that pie is indicative of the quality of the other pies they made, Honeypie should become a destination visit for those outside the neighborhood.

While I still rank the burgers at Little Bad Wolf above Beard &Belly, we'll definitely be coming back in the future.

We went back to Beard & Belly for another brunch.

Honeypieish Breakfast Casserole (buttermilk biscuit, tots, mushrooms, sausage gravy, cheddar cheese, bacon, over-easy egg)


Red Eye Ham Sammy (Red Eye Nueske's ham, cheddar, over-easy egg & greens on ciabatta)


Rhubarb Negroni


Mexican chocolate cream pie


The breakfast casserole was the entree winner. Could easily be shared with someone in your bubble. The sammy needed something to balance the saltiness of the ham -- pickled something. I loved the negroni. And the pie was fantastic. We need to get there for a non-brunch meal. Clearly we are fans of Beard & Belly (and Honeypie)!

I've been to Honeypie many times while visiting my sister in Milwaukee. It's one of her favorites spots. So, when they opened in my neighborhood, I was super excited. I ordered from them for my quarantine birthday way back in April. The highlight of my meal was the pistachio cream pie. Highly recommend.

We walked over for dessert last night after dinner at home. The pistachio cream did look tasty, but we went with a slice of cherry and apple. Perhaps a bit too much crumble on top but both were excellent. We'll be trying the pistachio sometime soon.

Another fine meal at Beard & Belly on their lovely socially-distanced back patio, now with heaters! Mr. X had the buffalo chicken sandwich. He enjoyed it. I went with the housemade pastrami rueben. Holy cow was that a good sandwich! Supplemented with a couple of rhubarb negronis and finished with a slice of chocolate cream pie, I was in heaven.

(Cross posted on Best Thing You Ate Lately because the sandwich was THAT GOOD.)

Another good meal at Beard & Belly last night. Mr. X went with the huevos rancheros hand pie. I opted for the Boomers & Swiss burger (5oz patty with swiss cheese, sautéed mushroom medley, pickles, & garlic mayo.) Delicious as always. Negroni for me, beer for him. Can't wait until they move to real glasses but until then, cheers!

Tooting the Beard & Belly horn again here. On our last visit, we were joined by nr706 and moetchandon. We're obviously huge fans of this place. I had the pork schnitzel, as did moetchandon. It was huge. I didn't actually get to the center where all the toppings were until the next day with the leftovers. Mr. X. raved about his ham & swiss sandwich. nr706 will have to comment on the poutine. For dessert, we did a side by side comparison of the chocolate cream pies. One was a graham crust and the other was a chocolate cookie crust. Both were yummy.

Pork Schnitzel


Hot Ham & Swiss


Short Rib Poutine

I hate to be that nattering nabob of negativism, but I wasn't particularly impressed by the poutine. The shredded short ribs themselves were good, but the gravy, inexplicably, was white, and I believe, cheese-based, rather than the more traditional beef-based brown gravy (which, it seems to me, would be better suited to the beef short ribs). The fries were skinny, and a bit on the hard-fried side; as a result, there was almost none of the fluffy potato interior to contrast with the crunchy potato outside. I think I saw maybe 3 or 4 cheese curds, none of which squeaked. Don't get me wrong — it was an okay dish — just not what I'd expect from something called poutine.

The drinks there were great, as were the desserts.

Two of us went here last night and LOVED it. The exposed brick walls, lighting and music were all on point. The old fashioned was stiff and perfectly balanced whiskey, bitters, orange peel and luxardo cherry sipper.

We split a small poutine to start and it was delicious. Homemade, hot, skin-on fries covered with braised short ribs and "3 day gravy", a little white cheese sauce and a few curds. Perfect for a few nibbles with drinks, cant imaging eating a large one for dinner!

My wife had the housemade pastrami Reuben which also had housemade sauerkraut and housemade potato chips, totally delicious. We both have serious weakness for housemade potato chips!

I had the burger special which was a 5 oz patty with "bacon burnt ends", root beer bbq sauce topped with an onion ring! Also a side salad which was enormous.

Went to their Honeypie shop next door and brought home a slice of coconut cream pie, not up to Hoosier Mama crust standards but the filling and toppings very tasty.

This spot has been on our radar for a while and we picked a perfect chilly night to enjoy some really creative comfort food with alot of cheffy twists. Cant wait to go back.