Jackson Ave Pub

Meh, ok place. It’s in the downtown, so a nice place to grab a good pint of beer. I would stop by just to grab a drink while shopping. No exclusive visit to this place required.

Best place in downtown Naperville for food. Burgers are delicious. They have a good selection of beer as well

This pub is in a fantastic location and is a hidden gem in the crowded bar scene on the opposite street (Chicago Ave). This bar has moderate crowds on weekends and is a refreshing change from fighting (hopefully not literally) for a drink at Bar Louie. This place is no non-​sense for those types of drunkards. The bouncers do a great job. Hence, this place wouldn’t be a bad spot to talk to someone and not have to scream in their ear or worry about Mr. Sunglasses at Night spilling bear on you.
The bar staff and management are very attentive and friendly. The food is very very good. I don’t think you could go wrong with anything, but I always get this burger with egg and hand-​pressed chorizo patties… I want one right now!
Brian, or B-​Guy (Nickname?), is the head manager and seems to do a great job managing this facility from top to bottom.
I highly recommend checking out this place next time you are in the area for a meal or for the nightcap.

Really Really Love this place! It’s not often that you find a unique little neighborhood spot that really cares about the people that frequent it! This place is a true Jem! From the burgers to the beers, and apps this is the only choice in Naperville. Recently I had a small complaint, within two days, yes two days I was contacted with an apology and a generous offer to make it right. The offer is not necessary, I will still come in as well as spread the word about how much we love this place because you made us feel welcome and listened to what we had to say. Love the staff, love the burgers and salads not to mention the truffle fries, to die for!!! If you’ve never been here you owe it to yourself to give Jackson Ave a try!

The food is good and the staff is very friendly. I love that you can carry-​out, too. The only issue is that there’s no hostess. They do have someone working hard, while bar tending, to get your name on the board if you’re waiting for a table, but he/​she is juggling a lot. It’s a quaint place, so people stare you down, causing you to eat super fast as if it’s your last meal, ever, because they want your table. However, it’s totally worth checking out! You’ll like it!

What a great local pub! Thanks to other Unilocalers we avoided another bar/​grill place down the street from Jackson Ave Pub and came here instead!
Super good pub burger options and fabulous beer list options. Friendly service and just a warm-​locals place. No frills but good quality pub environment!
Look forward to going back!

This is my favorite bar in Napervile. The burgers and fries are REALLY good, they have a great beer list and the staff is friendly and attentive and know their beer. All in all a great little bar.

Nice little pub tucked away on the strange one-​way glorified alley that is Jackson Avenue in downtown Naperville. A zillion years ago I knew this place as the red door tavern, I think, but it has clearly changed hands and for the better! What was once kind of an eyesore of a dive bar has become a cute, warm, and inviting pub with TVs adorning the corners and fun music at slightly higher than reasonable for old people levels. They have Stella cidre which is my current drink of choice and a limited food menu with incredibly well seasoned fries and cute but extraordinarily plain sliders, there are other items of course but that’s what we tried. On a Friday night the place was PACKED and people were hovering around tables pleading with their eyes for people to leave, but definitely not the obnoxiousness levels you’d expect to find at a Naperville bar. I’d definitely return for a few ciders and some delicious grub.

I find myself bringing friends here all of the time. Somehow, I always manage to snag the last table available. Always a good draft beer selection. Great tasting burgers at a fair price. Many to try but my favorite burger is the drunken pear!

Overall a good place for gourmet burgers. We had a group of 8, each ordered a different burger. A few weren’t cooked to the right order but delicious none the less. The pretzel buns were also a great add on.
The restaurant itself is definitely a smaller pub style not intended for large groups. I could see this being a great place to frequently visit if we lived closer.

I really wanted to like this place. I was excited because of all of the great reviews. Unfortunately, it was just not meant to be. When compared to other great burgers I’ve had at various restaurants, these just do not stack up. But let me rewind a bit…
We arrived on a very busy Saturday night. There is no hostess or anything. You wiggle your way to the bar and tell them you want a table, and one of the bartenders will put your name down on a mystery list. The restaurant itself is very small. I was expecting something else on the inside. I would say this place is 80% bar and 20% tables. So if you want to go somewhere where it’s not a noisy bar, this is definitely not the place for you.
I had a cider and my husband had a draft at the bar while we waited. The beers here are good and there is a good selection. When we sat down, we ordered the jalapeño poppers to start. These came out and were massive! However, the bacon was burnt into another dimension of time and space. Somehow, the ranch sauce pulled it all together and it was still edible.
Then came the burgers. My husband ordered a Maui Waui and I ordered the Premier burger with sweet potato fries and Parmesan truffle fries (up charge for both types of fries, but cool with us). We both wanted ours medium rare. We got the regular ol’ patties. They were very thick.
Unfortunately, my burger was cooked until it was very, very dead. I think, maybe, my burger came back from the dead, and then the cook had to re-​kill it with fire. My husband’s burger was cooked ok, but it was missing jalapeños and had the tiniest little piece of pineapple hiding on it. If you can’t tell, right now I’m making a sad face.
The thick cut fries were the stars here, which kinda sucks because this is a burger place! I was so excited to come here, but I’m not even sure if I ate half my meal. Although service and drinks were okay, I don’t think I’ll be back. I’ll just head next door to Tango for their lunch burger or I’ll make the hike out to Kuma’s in Schaumburg.

I used to frequent this location in its prior incarnation, Grumpy Bulldog. I realize it’s been a couple years since it became Jackson Ave Pub, but it remains a good local beer/​burger place.
The food is hearty and the burger choices are inventive. I had the Bulleit Bourbon Burger, and could taste the sweetness, while arugula was a nice touch. Hand cut fries were really good and went well with the burger. By the way, giving an option of a traditional Kaiser-​type bun or a pretzel bun is great-​I had the pretzel.
Beer choices, both bottled and draft are plentiful. It’s not a large place, but I recommend going for a late lunch or after work spot during the week or a mid to late afternoon early dinner/​pre-​night out on the weekend.

I had the Goodfella burger which comes with mozzarella and a basil and garlic spread. The burger was delicious and prepared just right. I didn’t taste much cheese or spread since the burger was so big and delicious. Their homemade fries are addicting and they give you a generous portion.
They have a number of interesting beers on-​tap and mix a very competent rye manhattan.
Jackson Ave Pub is a definite thumbs-​up!

What a great little place!
Standing in the corner of downtown Naperville on a more than dreary Saturday, my husband and I decided to let Unilocal decide where we should pop into for a drink and a bite.
The first place to pop up was Jackson Ave Pub… And we’re glad it did!
It’s a small place, dark and cozy with a couple TVs over the bar to keep the sports fans happy. They have a great beer selection… Lots of local places and craft seasonals.
While we didn’t order entrees, we had a hard time deciding between all the delicious-​sounding appetizers… With our sever’s help, we decided on a go-​to: buffalo chicken flatbread, and a feature: fried artichoke hearts.
Both were unassuming in appearance, but wonderfully delicious. Especially the fried artichoke hearts; I’ve not heard of those before, but will certainly be on the lookout for them! Served with a side of ranch, they were everything we wanted them to be: salty, crunch and arti-​chokey…
A great little place to tuck into…

So good! Sweet potato fries were amazing. The black bean and quinoa burger was awesome too! Staff really nice and lovely place. Will definitely be back.

I can’t believe how many times I’ve walked past this place without ever stopping in to check it out. It is pretty small, with a nice casual seat your own kinda atmosphere. We dropped in on an early Saturday evening, college football games were playing on the many TVs, and there always seemed to be a table or two empty. We were sitting pretty close to the door and it was pretty cold out, so when people entered or left, it got a little chilly. I had no problem keeping my coat on for dinner though.
Our server was attentive and pleasant, checked in occasionally through the meal. The front page of the menu is appetizers and salads, and the back page is a long list of burger options. There are some creative options on pub fare. Angus beef patties can be subbed for chicken breast or house-​made vegetarian patties, and can come with a regular or pretzel bun.
We ended up going with the pretzel sticks with beer cheese for a starter, which wasn’t bad, but kind of forgettable. The burgers were really good though. I got the drunken pear burger, a delicious mess of burger, arugula, bourbon poached pear slices, goat cheese, and balsamic glaze.
I like that there are many options for side dishes, different salads and various fried potatoes or sweet potatoes. Some sides require a small upcharge, such as the parmesan truffle fries. I got the side house salad and was happy — it was a nice size, beautiful bed of mixed greens with just a little tomato, cucumber and croutons thrown on top without going overboard, and a good balsamic vinaigrette.

Downtown Naperville is like out of Mayberry. It’s cute and quaint and almost creepy in it’s cleanliness and friendliness — definitely not something you expect just out of a big city.
I was meeting a friend for the first time and she was spot on with this suggestion. A small little bar tucked off the main street, Jackson’s has a great menu of interesting burgers. They were big and juicy, came with a giant order of fries and I took half home to eat later.
It’s a bit dark in there and it was very crowded by the time we left at 7 pm. But a lot of the other stuff I saw in the area was chains, so I was happy to avoid that and have a killer burger on top of that!

Today we visited this pub for the first time. It’s a small bar, dimly lit, with 10 – 15 tables and is located in downtown Naperville. It’s a little local bar that serves food. Good food. We came in to grab a snack and a drink. My husband had a beer and me, a Moscow Mule. We ordered dates wrapped in bacon and a buffalo chicken flatbread to share. The dates were outstanding. Loved them. The buffalo chicken flatbread was good. It could have used more blue cheese as that flavor got lost. I did like the crunchy raw carrots and celery on top. The burgers looked fantastic and I’ll probably be back to try those. There were many to choose from on the menu. The waitstaff was friendly and the place clean. The woman’s bathroom (just a onesie) was very clean which is rare in a bar. Prices weren’t too bad either. I would come back here again.

I think we hit this place on an off night. The food service was really slow and when the burgers came out they were cold. I asked for med rare and got medium. The couple next to us had their order all screwed up, although the server made it up to them.
Great décor, great choice of any kind of burger you can imagine. Decent craft beer list. Friendly servers as well. I’ll probably give them another try based on all the other reviews here as anyone can have a bad day. But its 3 stars for last nights meal.

Great place if you’re driving through town and need a bite to eat!
Two reasons for ⁴⁄₅
1. They serve grass-​fed beef burgers (and have a million topping choices)
2. Bacon-​wrapped dates.
They also have sweet potato fries, which is a major win!
I have to say that the burger and the fries were definitely under seasoned, but I was alright with adding my own salt and pepper. It was nice to be in a place with a cool vibe, laid back atmosphere and decent service.