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Check Out HopCat, Beer-Focused Bar/Eatery, Opening Saturday In Lincoln Park

By Mina Bloom | September 1, 2016 5:34am

LINCOLN PARK — HopCat, a Michigan-based, beer-focused restaurant, is preparing to open its first Chicago location at 11 a.m. Saturday.

The massive bar/restaurant will bring more than 300 beers — both local and nationally known — and pub food to Lincoln Park at 2577 N. Clark St., a space formerly occupied by Italian eatery Vapiano. 

HopCat seats about 300 people and resembles a 1970s lounge with its red leather booths, patterned carpet, Moroccan-style light fixtures and commissioned velvet paintings of famous musicians like Iggy Pop and B.B. King.

It's modeled after the restaurant in the 1997 film "Jackie Brown," according to Chris Knape, vice president of marketing and communications for the restaurant group.

"We want this to feel like a place that's comfortable to go with friends, as you are," Knape said.

"You could be coming from a show or from mowing your lawn. Just be yourself and have a great time. We're not trying to be a fine dining restaurant."

The Lincoln Park location isn't HopCat's largest — Knape says it's a "typical size" for the chain — but it does have the longest beer list.

Patrons can expect more than 200 bottles of beer and more than 130 varieties of craft beer on tap, including at least 50 locally-made brands, at the Lincoln Park location.

Food-wise, HopCat will serve American bar food for lunch, dinner and late-night grub, as well as Saturday and Sunday brunch.

Burgers, mac and cheese, hand-battered fish and chips, personal pizzas and sandwiches are just some of the items on the menu.

The Lincoln Park location is the 10th for the Michigan-based chain, which has locations in Detroit, Ann Arbor and Grand Rapids.

On opening day, the first 200 guests will receive a card good toward one order of "crack fries" — French fries lightly battered in beer — every week for a year, as well as free HopCat beer glasses. 

Named for how addictive they are, the fries made Food Network Magazine's "Top 10 French Fries in America" list.

Patrons will get a chance to try them on opening day: The bar/restaurant is offering free "crack fries" all day Saturday.

Peek inside HopCat below:


[All photos DNAinfo/Mina Bloom]

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