The Green Post, a British pub, is now open in Lincoln Square

The Scots have managed to displace the English in Lincoln Square where a bar featuring Scottish whisky is replacing the English pub Red Lion and debuting this week.

The Green Post, 4749 N. Rockwell Street, is from the owners of The Northman and Bar on Buena. They spent a fair amount of time in Scotland tasting whisky while braving sudden hailstorms during early-morning drinking sessions and consistently found comfort and sustenance in the country’s many savory pie shops. Now they’re bringing that combination to Lincoln Square with an all-day public house meant to embody the hospitality of the North Atlantic.

“Somewhere in the American timeline, a pub became just a bar — somewhere to go out drinking at night,” says the Green Post co-founder Aaron Zacharias. “It used to be much more of a gathering place, a public house, and in using that term we went back to this as a place to just hang out.”

The space will feature a quiet zone for working outfitted with WiFi and USB ports plus an area with big TVs showing English Premier League matches, rugby games, and other international contests that air early in the day; the bar will open at 7 a.m. Most of the screens are in custom frames that will also be used to display photos and digital art from local artists.

“It allows people to explore and find their space, something that suits them for that day, for that time,” Zacharias says. “For those guests that come and really want more quiet, just maybe a little bit of background music to focus on, their work won’t be disturbed by the matches that can be going on in the other room. We took great pains to ensure that the audio spillover is very minimal.”

The opening menu from Chris Seeler, also the executive chef of sibling spot The Northman along the Chicago Riverwalk, includes corned beef and hash and spinach pies prepared in a custom pie-making machine imported from England. A small lunch menu features a crisp sandwich made with toasted sourdough, Irish cheese, blistered grape tomato chutney, and served with chips (fries). Visitors can also just stop in for a pastry from West Town Bakery and an espresso drink from Roscoe Village’s Hexe Coffee Co.

Green Post is part of a new wave of all-day third places which includes Pompette in Bucktown and Edie’s All Day Cafe opening its second location in River North. Zacharias attributes the concept’s resurgence to increased remote work during the pandemic. It’s also easier to find day staff.

A burger and a pint. — A burger and a pint is a classic meal.

Creamy sauce poured onto a small pie. — The North Side gets a proper place for a proper pie.

“People want to go back out, but not necessarily go to a place where they have to sit down and have a full lunch or have a full breakfast,” he says. “Sometimes they just want to chat and maybe have a cup of tea.”

While Green Post’s drink offerings are currently just focused on coffee, tea, and other hot drinks such as mulled cider, Northman executive beverage director Ambrosia Borowski will also incorporate coffee into the Green Post’s boozy drinks. The pub features 14 draft lines with beer and ciders. Zacharias said they plan to host educational tastings that will feature community partners as well as show off their love for the food and drinks of the United Kingdom.

The screens will have art when there’s no sports to watch.

The bar will offer hundreds of whiskies, but Green Post will also dig into gin more deeply than any of Zacharias’ previous bars. One of the centerpieces will be a gin aged in a second-use barrel that held a bitter orange liqueur from Minneapolis’ Tattersall Distilling: “We’re looking for more really fun different gin collabs and spirits collabs to help with the cocktail program,” Zacharias says.

Spring will bring two outdoor areas — a sidewalk cafe in front and a three-season patio in back. Provided they’re not booked for private parties, all of the spaces will be open throughout the day and night and there will be no limits placed on how long people can linger.

“We want to have all these different components that’ll allow people to find their own little niche inside the Green Post and do work, have a meeting or watch a match,” Zacharias said. “I think it’s really a little bit of history with a modern twist on it.”

Tour the space below.

The Green Post, 4749 N. Rockwell Street, Scheduled to open Wednesday, October 19, opening hours are 7 a.m. to 2 p.m.; weekend service starts Saturday, October 29 with extended hours; Sunday brunch upcoming.