Revolution Brewing will close its Logan Square brewpub in December after nearly 15 years along Milwaukee Avenue. Revolution found Josh Deth says the restaurant, which opened in February 2010 will close on Saturday, December 14. Deth owns the building at 2323 N. Milwaukee Avenue and plans on selling.
“Hopefully someone else will come around and want to take over and do something new concept in this space, and then we’ll consolidate down to one location,” Deth says.
Revolution’s taproom, 3340 N. Kedzie Avenue, won’t be impacted. It opened in 2012 and was one of the first bars in the city to able to serve beer made on premises. Deth admits Revolution canibalized its clientele by forcing them to pick between the Avondale taproom and Logan Square brewpub: “We created that component of it,” Deth admits.
The brewery, the state’s largest independent craft brewery, is known for its Deth’s Tar barrel-aged beers, Anti-Hero IPA, and more. The Milwaukee Avenue brewpub was once a hotspot with long waits, as Revolution followed in the footsteps of Deth’s former employer, Goose Island Beer. Goose Island’s original location in Lincoln Park, along Clybourn, created a strong business model mingling a full-service restaurant under the same roof as a brewery. Brewery taprooms, which don’t have kitchens and only serve the beer produced on premises, had yet to catch on.
Yet Revolution amplified Goose Island’s blueprint, bringing more of a gourmet edge to the experience without alienating the customers who came for the company’s bread and butter — beer. Now, come December, Goose Island and Revolution’s original locations will have closed, while their taprooms will remain: “The brewpub was like a predecessor, in some ways, of today’s taproom model,” Deth says. “That is a better model for most breweries they find because it’s easier to manage, right to have to manage your brewery business, and have to manage all the complexity of a restaurant is it’s a lot.”
Deth notes that Revolution’s cocktail program — something that didn’t exist when the brewpub opened — has improved over the last year as the craft beer industry declines, something Deth says was starting to happen even before the pandemic started in 2020. More and more customers are looking for hard seltzers, cocktails, and THC-infused drinks.
“Our business is going to this simplification… it’s probably going to be good for our team long term, to be the more focused on the primary thing that we’re doing these days, which is wholesale production of beer,” says Deth.
The brewpub temporarily closed during the pandemic in October 2020 as state COVID protocols closed restaurant dining rooms. While most restaurants scrambled, trying to deal with delivery and to-go, sorting through third-party couriers and their fees, Revolution had a safety net with home alcohol consumption rising and packaged good sales at stores through the roof. When it opened, the terrain for restaurants was radically different, as the cost of running restaurants had skyrocketed with labor and inflation costs exploding. The brewpub had to find new footing in this world of restaurants that had radically changed since 2010, with Chicago’s culinary expectations also changed. Revolution was once of the only games in town along Milwaukee Avenue in Logan Square, but now they struggled with standing out in a crowd that includes many heavy hitters from Federales, Andros Taverna, Bixi Beer — another brewpub — and more.
Revolution attempted to recreate the magic, searching for a chef with a new voice. Earlier this year, they hired Rasheed Amedu, a native Chicagoan who they had high hopes to breathe new life into their menu. His run was cut short. The closure, coupled with places like Kuma’s Corner in Fulton Market, paints a dreary picture for restaurants that focus on craft beer. That’s something Three Floyds will attempt to navigate as the Munster, Indiana company preps to reopen its brewpub. Piece Pizza in Wicker Park might be the most stable of all brewpub thanks to its pizza which brings a robust carryout and delivery business. It’s also a regular winner at the Great American Beer Festival.
Deth sees some breweries have adopted kind of a food hall experience, with an outside vendor handling the food service — Pilot Project Brewing (also on Milwaukee Avenue) and District Brew Yards are two examples. District Brew Yards relies on Lillie’s Q barbecue in West Town and Paulie Gee’s pizza in Wheeling.
News of the closure began leaking out on Friday as Revolution told customers with private events that the brewpub could no longer host their event. Deth notes that customers often book their weddings and other functions two years in advance. They broke the news to workers earlier in the week, and hoped that workers and customers alike would hear about the news long before the annoucement made its way on the Internet.
Deth is open to hosting more food pop-ups and food trucks at the taproom to make up for the loss of the brewpub, but says he hasn’t had time to come up with concrete plan. They’re focused on closing up the brewpub and going out on positive. He has gratitude for all his customers and says the taproom is going strong. They just secured a city permit to put in solar panels to the building and hope to invest more in the venue.
While Goose Island moved its Lincoln Park operations to the Salt Shed, Revolution doesn’t have the backing of a multi-national corporation (Goose Island’s parent is the owner of Budweiser). Much like Taqueria Chingón’s Oliver Poilevey, who will closes his Bucktown restaurant later in November, Deth notes Revolution doesn’t have the deep pockets to compete.
“This is our only restaurant, right?” Deth says. “We’re not a big company — we’re not a restaurant group — we don’t have the depth that a larger company has to call upon.”
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