Automate 2026

Automate After Hours: Deep Dish Meetup

Integrators and automation leaders who want a calmer pre-game

Extra Innings

The younger manufacturing/automation community, integrators, content creators — the real after-hours scene

Omni Ventures × Asahi Kasei VC Happy Hour

Founders, operators & industrial/strategic investors in robotics, manufacturing & physical AI

Physical AI Dinner (Physna × Origin Ventures × NVIDIA)

Robotics/Physical-AI leaders, manufacturers, automation operators & industrial investors

ROS-Industrial Consortium — Pre-Meeting Dinner

ROS-Industrial consortium members — robotics developers, OEMs, integrators

ROS Meetup @ Automate

ROS / open-source robotics engineers, OEMs, integrators & researchers

Arc Bar

For the Automate 2026 automation/manufacturing crowd, this is the path-of-least-resistance hangout: it sits in the headquarters hotel that's connected to McCormick Place by enclosed skybridge, so engineers, integrators, OEM reps, and plant managers can decompress or hold an impromptu vendor meeting without ever stepping outside the complex.

Fatpour Tap Works McCormick

The single most reliable after-the-show-floor spot for the McCormick Place trade-show crowd: it's literally inside the convention campus (the Hilton at McCormick's house bar) and fills up when shows let out, hosting post-convention receptions. Perfect for an automation/manufacturing group — integrators, engineers, OEM reps — to grab tables for a low-key team debrief or informal vendor happy hour.

Moody Tongue Brewing Company

The rare spot that works for the whole automation org chart: engineers and integrators can grab serious chef-driven beers at the bar, while a VP can book the intimate tasting room to entertain an OEM or end-user buyer in the same building. It's the most consistently name-dropped 'serious' option in every McCormick Place convention guide.

Reggies

Choose Chicago's official McCormick Place event-goer guide explicitly recommends Reggies for convention group outings — its rooftop holds ~100 and it even runs vintage buses from the convention center — making it a natural spot for an automation/manufacturing crowd looking to decompress in a large group after the Automate show floor.

VU Rooftop

The default convention client-entertainment spot for McCormick Place — explicitly featured in Choose Chicago's meeting-planner guide and The Infatuation's McCormick Place survival guide, and described as built for "convention meetups" and after-work drinks. Ideal for an automation/OEM/integrator crowd taking out a prospect, vendor partner, or out-of-town team after the Automate show floor; dress code is enforced and reservations are strongly recommended.

Momentum Coffee

The coworking setup — huddle rooms and bookable conference space — makes it a natural off-floor spot for automation engineers, integrators, and OEM vendors at Automate to run a private sales or partnership meeting over good coffee. It's specifically recommended in South Loop convention guides "for every conference at Chicago Convention Center," so it has real trade-show pedigree.

The Spoke & Bird

The most-cross-referenced coffee escape for the McCormick Place convention crowd — it shows up in The Infatuation's McCormick survival guide, the Tripadvisor convention forum and South Loop coffee roundups, so it's a reliable, quieter spot for automation engineers, integrators and vendors to grab coffee and hold a relaxed sidebar meeting between sessions.

Buddy Guy's Legends

A natural off-site for an automation/manufacturing crowd that wants a memorable, distinctly-Chicago group outing after the hall — engineers, integrators, OEM and vendor teams unwinding over drinks and live blues. It is explicitly recommended in Automate's own attendee guide, so expect to run into fellow showgoers; it's a destination for a celebratory team night, not a spot for a quiet sit-down deal conversation.

Apolonia

When an integrator, OEM, or vendor team needs to take a customer somewhere a notch above a steakhouse without the formality, Apolonia is the convention-crowd pick: it shows up on the official Automate dining blog, the aplusexpo attendee guide, and The Infatuation's McCormick Place guide alike, and its South Loop location keeps it within easy reach of the show.

Haidilao Hot Pot

A natural team-dinner pick for the Automate crowd: The Infatuation's McCormick Place guide tags it "perfect for group dinners with your entire team," the divided, reservable space absorbs a booth's worth of engineers and integrators, and the robot-server gimmick is a built-in icebreaker that lands especially well with a robotics-and-automation audience.

Il Culaccino

One of the very few real sit-down options within walking distance of McCormick Place, and it's purpose-built for convention traffic — recurring big-group rec across the Infatuation's McCormick Place survival guide, Choose Chicago's meeting-planner list, and Crain's ('finally a place to eat near McCormick Place'). The big tables, hearty portions, and wine list make it the natural spot for an automation team or a vendor taking integrators/customers out after the floor closes.

MingHin Cuisine

Chinatown is the documented off-campus dinner escape from McCormick Place, and MingHin is its most popular, highest-reviewed table — ideal for an integrator/OEM crew or a vendor hosting a customer group, since the 12-to-200-seat private rooms easily absorb a booth team or a post-floor manufacturing-crowd dinner.

Pizano's Pizza & Pasta

The default group-dinner spot for the McCormick trade-show crowd: it's in every attendee guide, handles large engineer/vendor/integrator groups, and the restaurant itself opens early during manufacturing shows like IMTS — so the automation/manufacturing crowd is exactly who fills it during conventions.

The Chicago Firehouse Restaurant

Dinner-only steakhouse (opens 3-4pm) with private rooms seating up to ~150 and full buyouts to 500 — exactly what an OEM/integrator team or a vendor hosting customers books for a post-show-floor group dinner at Automate. Listed on Choose Chicago's meeting-planner event-goer list near McCormick Place, so it's a recurring convention-dinner choice rather than a coffee/lunch meeting spot.