Pleasant House Pub

Pleasant House consolidated its Chicago operation and its Three Oaks, Michigan location into the former Nightwood space on South Halsted Street in Pilsen and turned it into an all-day pub. Time Out described the result as a room where people sit over laptops with their pastries during the day and couples take coffee dates over snacks, with the menu switching to full-service dinner in the evening. The cooking is British: hand-raised royal pies including a savoury steak and ale and a vegetarian kale and mushroom, bubble and squeak on the side, a jar of pickled beets, carrots and gherkins to start, and seasonal fruit trifle to finish.

The drinks list reflects a pub that expects daytime customers as well as evening ones, and the non-alcoholic options are labeled as such rather than left to inference. The NA Aperitif Spritz is the only built drink of the four, made with a Giffard non-alcoholic aperitif lengthened with soda and tonic water and finished with an orange twist at $9 - a genuine bitter aperitivo shape rather than a sweet substitute. Two are wine alternatives: Proxies Bubbly Red at $11, described on the menu as a bright, juicy lambrusco-style pour with blackberry, raspberry and black tea notes and designed specifically to be drunk with wood-fired pizza or a charcuterie board, and a Saint Viviana sparkling chardonnay at $13 with green apple, citrus, honey and brioche notes, sold in cans so it travels. The fourth listed NA item is a Cann blood orange cardamom at $12; it is a tonic rather than an alcoholic drink but it contains 2mg of THC and 4mg of CBD per 8oz can, which the menu states, and it should be avoided by anyone in recovery from any substance or simply not wanting a psychoactive. The pub also pours coffee all day, which is what makes it usable from 10am.