The kitchen part of Beat Kitchen is pretty sophisticated and definitely high quality, especially for a music club. The menu boasts an impressive selection of salads, soups, sandwiches, pizzas and desserts all freshly prepared to order. The cuisine is all over the map, with elements of Italian, Cajun and Thai preparation featured prominently. The kitchen is open for lunch and continues serving until 1 a.m. It's hard to go hungry at Beat Kitchen.
Street parking is pretty easy.
The cover charge is reasonable, but is sometimes collected at the front door and not just at the door to the live room, so be prepared. With plenty of parking, good beer, good food and good music, you could conceivably spend an entire evening at Beat Kitchen and not get bored. Start off with a nice meal, take in some live music later in the evening and wind things up by closing the place with the locals, all under one roof. And you thought WhirlyBall was the only self-contained entertainment complex in town. Lathrop is a Chicago freelance writer.