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Iron Horse Ale House’s logo is a hybrid of a locomotive and a beer tap. It’s pretty manly, pretty turn-of-the-century. Stamped on the doorway of Norwood Park’s new brick fortress—just to the right of the banner advertising a Miller Lite bucket special—it exudes a burly, industrial aesthetic similar to that at Revolution Brewing, which brands its own logo with a triumphant fist that also serves as a handle for each beer tap and a pillar for the bar. Iron Horse’s interior is impressive, actually, crossing a factorylike setting with that of a swashbuckling saloon, grandiose rafters and plenty of TVs with sports included.
- Kevin Warwick
- Can you spot the brick oven?
My dinner partner ordered the Iron Horse Burger, which with a look of pleasant surprise he described as cooked well and “actually really good.” I felt inclined to go for one of the brick-oven pizzas, if for no other reason than to give the three bored-looking guys manning the oven something to do. The Smokin’ features a roasted red pepper cream, smoked mozzarella, roasted red peppers, fennel sausage (which I subtracted), more cheese, and basil (a dusting of dried flakes, not fresh). Not bad. The cream sauce was easily the best part (a vodka cream sauce and buffalo cream sauce are available too). So much so that I wish it had really been slathered on. Because as I neared the end of the pie, the amount in each bite dwindled, or maybe just dried up. My own pleasant surprise at the first slice eventually morphed into a shrug that said basically, “Hey, it’s pizza. I like pizza.”
