The restaurant that is taking the place of microbrewery Flatlander’s is another microbrewery. And its principals know the Lincolnshire building’s history.
“If I were sitting here talking about Tap House, it would be easy,” said Mark Zych, who co-owns the suburban restaurant chain Tap House Management Group with Scott Ward. The business partners operate multiple locations in towns like Des Plaines, Lemont, St. Charles and Westmont, but they’re creating a new brand in Lincolnshire. “We’re writing this as we go.”
Ward and Zych are launching Half Day Brewing Company at 200 Village Green in Lincolnshire. Rather than brand their new location as their eighth Tap House, the pair created a new name, look and feel for a community that is decidedly upscale.
“We’ve known about this location for several years, but the project was always pretty daunting,” Zych said. “We love the space. That was the easy part.”
The hard part was starting up a new microbrewery inside the shell of a microbrewery that closed in January 2012.
“How do we make it look like we didn’t just walk in, put a coat of paint on it and reopen it?” Zych asked.
He and Ward’s answer: pump up the menu, bring in a brick-built pizza oven, take the microbrews direct from the barrels to the taps, and make the interior work better.
Those who remember the inside of Flatlander’s will note a few of the cosmetic differences — the stacked-to-the-ceiling kegs are gone and the large dining room has been cut into a few sections with aesthetic walls.
The Allied brewing-tank system that will conjure up Half Day’s eight local brews has not been set up yet.
“It’s somewhere in the United States, on a train,” brewmaster Brandon Boshers noted.
But once that system is up and running, Boshers and Zych said it will connect directly to their taps at the bars, bypassing keg storage. The 460-gallon, steam-powered system will include three fermenting tanks, they said.
Boshers is a product of Chicago’s Siebel Institute of Technology. He confesses to starting out drinking Miller Lite.
“Then I found out there was real beer out there,” he said.
Half Day opened its brewpub area for lunch and dinner on Jan. 11. Zych said he expects to open completely on Jan. 18. The regular schedule should include brunches on Sundays with a jazz band.
Zych said he and Ward spent more than four months working on the interior look, and executing some of their ideas took longer than expected. Flatlander’s had secured their two-story-tall keg cooler with 18 inches of concrete; Zych said it took a month for his renovation crew to jackhammer that out safely.
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They thanked Village Hall’s economic development coordinator, Tonya Zozulya, and manager Brad Burke, for working with their concept —but they also understood they high value Lincolnshire places on their facility.
The Village Board had the opportunity months ago to allow the building to become a health club, but the trustees would not let that idea move forward because it would generate virtually no sales tax.
They said they were holding out for another restaurant, or some other kind of retail. They have it now.
“I’m excited that everything’s supposed to happen right around here,” Zych said. “When we looked at this building, we didn’t realize that this is their focal point. But now, we love being the anchor.”
Twitter: @RonnieAtPioneer