Miskatonic Brewing Craft Kitchen in Naperville will close its doors Nov. 2, a move attributable in part to the financial hit it took after months of downtown bridge and road construction, co-founder Josh Mowry said.
The company’s announcement was made Monday on Facebook.
“This decision was very difficult and breaks our heart, but as we look back, we’re filled with gratitude as much as sadness,” the social media post said.
Darien-based Miskatonic Brewing Company announced plans to open a brewery with a restaurant component in downtown Naperville in January 2023. The craft kitchen, located off Washington Street, opened about 11 months later.
The closure will not affect the Darien location or production brewery, according to the post.
In a phone interview Thursday, Mowry said the restaurant and bar took a big hit because of the reconstruction of the Washington Street bridge and road construction needed for the installation of a new water main, also on Washington.
“We had construction for 18 of the 22 months we were open,” Mowry said. “It’s just one of those things that even now, three months after construction on the bridge is finished, I talk to people all the time that aren’t aware that construction is over because people started avoiding downtown pretty hard. … There was still a lot of people who needed to discover us.”
On top of that, Mowry said it has been a “hard couple of years for breweries.” Sales of craft beers fell by 4% last year, according to a report from the Brewers Association, an industry trade group. Last year was also the first in which more breweries closed than opened in the U.S. since 2005, the report said.
“In general, trends have gone away,” Mowry said. While Miskatonic’s Darien location is not losing money, the company’s focus for the next couple months will be on ensuring the company can survive and grow long term, he said.
“We essentially made the decision that if we had any hope of saving the Darien location — and not just have the entire company suffer a loss and closure — that the hard decision of closing Naperville had to be made,” he said.
Mowry and his co-founder John Wyzkiewicz have wanted to have a restaurant component as their business since they first opened their brewery in 2015, he said.
“I came into craft beer loving it because of the food component to it as well,” Mowry said. “They make a natural pairing.”
He wanted to bring an experience to diners that included food as “thoughtful” as the IPAs and lagers crafted by his brewing company, he said. He was proud to do that for Naperville.
“I’m just extremely sad to see it go away, especially as a citizen of Naperville,” Mowry said. “My wife and I live in Naperville with our kids. Our kids go to Naperville schools. We really enjoyed and looked forward to being a business member of the Naperville community as well.”
Naperville resident Adam Flatter was disappointed to learn of Miskatonic’s closing. The 28-year-old said he was excited for the craft kitchen to open ever since he heard about it nearly two years ago. The business had become a regular gathering spot for him and his friends, and they spent spent many weekends there playing the game Exploding Kittens and sipping on IPAs.
“I think one of the cool things was they always just had a rotating tap, (they were) very creative with their beers,” Flatter said. “They had some really delicious food. … I always made it a point to get one of their homemade sausages.”
He plans stop by before Nov. 2 for one last meal.
“We’ll definitely try to get our last licks in this place if we can,” he said.
cstein@chicagotribune.com
