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Uberstein is not owned or operated by Hofbrauhaus, but it operates under a marketing agreement with them and the only beer they serve here are those brewed by HB. Thus it has the look and feel of a mini Hofbrauhaus, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it obviously limits the beer selection quite severely. As of this writing, only 4 HB varieties are available: Original (a Bavarian lager), a dunkel, a maibock and a hefeweizen. All four were solid, accurate representations of their respective styles: the maibock was deliciously caramel-malt sweet with modest hop bitterness, yet had a slight roast dryness that practically made it a Vienna lager (close enough to call it a maibock); the hefeweizen had all the characteristics expected of the style -- citrus, bready malt, banana & clove, all in decent balance; the Bavarian lager was crisp, clean and aggressively hopped, perhaps a bit too much so; and the dunkel had a gentle roast flavor with modestly high bitterness and a touch of fruity esters. The space is fairly long and narrow, making it not especially conducive to a traditional "beer hall" setup, though during seasonal months there are a number of communal picnic tables out on the front biergarten, from which you can see Wrigley Field a block away. Staff was friendly and prompt enough, though the small crowd was not really presenting them with a challenge. Food menu was quite sparse -- it fit on a card the size of a standard letter envelope -- and contained typical German items like giant soft pretzel & cheese dip, brats, schnitzel sandwich, spatzle & gravy, et cetera. Overall I'd say this place presents the Clark Street/Game-Day crowd an interesting alternative, but with numerous and more impressive German watering holes in the nearby Lincoln Square area, I probably won't go out of my way to visit Uberstein. If, however, I find myself in the area on other business, I'm more likely to stop here than most other places around Wrigley. One last note: while they open at 3pm most days, on Cubs day games they open at 11am.
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