Bidding Farewell to the Revolution Brewpub

You may have seen yesterday that the original Revolution Brewing Brewpub in Logan Square will unfortunately be closing in mid-December. Details of the news are on Instagram, if you’d like to learn more. Since I comment on and react to the news, it’s hard to ignore our own, but that’s our owner Josh’s message to deliver and he summed it up great. Instead, I share with you my own experience living in the neighborhood, fanboying out at the Pub, and how my own timeline likely draws parallels to so many others.

The Brewpub opened in 2010, before Logan Square had many draws. The timing couldn’t have been more perfect, positioning itself to be an early catalyst in Chicago’s craft beer boom, in a neighborhood ready to pop. The Pub became an anchor of Logan Square, attracting my wife and I to move from Lincoln Park, shortly after getting married in 2012. One year later, we bought our first condo just a few blocks away from the Brewpub. We’d meet there after work to celebrate good news, like a promotion, or just the end of the day.

I love how she went with a full pint while the old ticker in me had to get a flight 😆

The more we got into the second half of the 2010s, and especially the pandemic, the more the neighborhood began changing, and turning over many of its residents. In addition to all the new exciting restaurants and breweries throughout Logan Square, so many of the people who first fell in love with the Brewpub’s magic left Chicago, moved to the suburbs, or like my family in 2020, simply relocated to a more family-oriented neighborhood.

In 2016, I joined Revolution Brewing for my dream job in finance at a brewery. Our focus on distribution allowed the wholesale business to thrive as our fans gradually spread out. During that time, the nearby Taproom became a showpiece with it’s massive space, windows looking inside the brewery where the sauce is made, ability to take an impressive tour, and be surrounded by 1,000+ oak barrels aging our most anticipated releases.

Logan Square is now hopping, just with significantly less people who have that connection and loyalty to the magical days of discovery in 2010-2015, before you could find locally made beer everywhere. The volume of people looking for a Pub concept over all the new experiences is down and unfortunately continued to get worse no matter what we threw at it. While grieving yesterday, I went through my phone and was reminded of all the cool events that I got to be apart of, thanks to the Brewpub.

Personal Top Pub Moments

When I joined Rev as both a beer enthusiast and loyal Member of the Party, I was anxious to get involved and be active beyond my primary role as CFO. The Pub was often the outlet for creative ideas that I’m proud to have played a part in, giving me the confidence and experience to eventually migrate over to marketing. Here’s some of my favorite memories:

The Beer Temple Insiders Roundtable 100th Episode

The year 2013 is when I knew I wanted to work at a brewery, but the road to getting there was a struggle. When The Beer Temple started it’s Insider’s Roundtable podcast in 2015, bringing together 3-4 industry voices each week to hit on relatable topics, the content was game changing for me to build a well-rounded perspective toward each facet of the beer world. When I saw their 100th episode approaching in 2017, I invited host Chris Quinn to record the episode live from our Brewpub and we packed the house.

Oktoberfest in the Street

Learning how to throw a Chicago street festival in back-to-back years, bringing in big name bands, getting rained on, doing it all in front of the Brewpub, and donating a ton of money to our local CPS school.

Life After Deth

You can only be known for so many things these days and the Deep Wood Series has risen to be one of our top areas of pride. With the barrel-aging taking place at our Production Brewery in nearby Avondale, it was always challenging to find new ways to bring it’s fans to the Brewpub and fill the room. My favorite execution was a seated dinner with WhistlePig distillery, featuring their whiskeys, beers we aged in their spirit barrels, and incredible food pairings. The margin from events like this were slim, if they existed at all, but we did them because we loved it.

Barleywine Is Live - Batch 1

Being able to partner with Alex Kidd aka @dontdrinkbeer to fly him and co-host Stephen Loh to Chicago on the coldest weekend of the year to do a barleywine-themed comedy show and selling out the room was an all time moment for me.

Barleywine Is Live - Batch 2

And then being able to do it all over again one year later

Base, Superstructure, Maintains & Shapes, Shapes & Maintains

Hatching the crazy idea for a 4-part collaboration with Hop Butcher for the World over lunch at the Pub, named after the Karl Marx theory on society.

Caramel Crisp

Telling the Chicago media about Caramel Crisp, a celebratory Brown Ale made with the legendary Garrett Popcorn, alongside a favorite collaborator of mine, Kris Penn (VP of Strategic Parnerships, Garrett Popcorn) and our brewers who made it happen.

Lurie Childrens Fundraising

My wife Alma and I being able to tell the story of our fundraising journey with Lurie Childrens Hospital from the Brewpub.

Watching My Kids Grow Up 😭

To all the people who have supported the Brewpub on the years, thank you! To all the friends, family, and partners who I’ve shared a pint or two with there, I’ll never forget those memories. We had a great run and are lucky to have had so much support to continue pushing the boundaries at our Production Brewery and Taproom. Please stop by the Pub before December 14th for a final farewell.