BiXi Beer

A chef working in smoke and steam

The sushi rice, brunch steamers and beer taps all pull at the same pass. Bo Fowler, chef at BiXi Beer in Logan Square, Chicago, works inside that crosscurrent rather than smoothing it away. Fowler’s earlier bench was Fat Willy’s Rib Shack, also in Logan Square, where smoke, repetition and the pace of service shaped a cook’s sense of timing until 2020. At BiXi, the station is broader: chef and owner, with the room reading as much through beverage and atmosphere as through the plates coming from the kitchen.

Fowler has described the role plainly: “Hello, my name is Bo Fowler, I'm the chef and owner at Bixi.” The line suits the place. BiXi does not separate food from social tempo; it asks the kitchen to feed dinner, sushi, dim sum brunch and bar-led eating without losing the thread. The lineage available here is not a formal apprenticeship tree. It is a neighborhood one, carried from one Logan Square house to another, through the habits a cook earns by returning to service night after night.

Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese flavor at brewpub pace

BiXi opened in 2018 as a modern brewpub built around Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese-inspired cooking, with house-brewed beer folded into the same identity. That matters at the bench because the menu does not behave like a single-channel restaurant. Dinner, sushi, dim sum brunch, the bar menu, drinks and happy hour each require a different rhythm, from cold fish work to shareable plates built for the counter and the table.

The house names several rolls directly: BiXi Dragon Roll, Yellowtail Avocado Roll, Red Ocean Roll and New York Lox Roll. Those sit beside the broader brewpub program, where beer carries Asian flavor references rather than acting as a neutral pint poured after the kitchen has finished its thought.

The room keeps the pace high

The room is contemporary, social and loud enough to remind the kitchen that this is a brewpub before it is anything more formal. Tables gather in groups, the bar holds its own gravity, and the pass has to answer several kinds of appetite at once: a sushi order, a dim sum brunch table, a dinner spread built from small plates, a guest who came first for a beer and stayed for food.

That mix gives BiXi its particular discipline. The kitchen cannot lean on one ceremony. It works through repetition, quick turns and the practical choreography of a modern neighborhood room, where a roll, a dumpling and a glass of house-brewed beer may need to arrive with the same confidence. Fowler’s next move is not announced here, so the close stays at the station: BiXi Dragon Roll, brunch steam, and the Logan Square bar keeping time.