Pete Crowley’s been a craft brewer all his adult life, but he was weaned on Milwaukee’s Best Light and Keystone Light. In college, he says, “I thought Spaten Oktoberfest was craft beer. That was the special beer I would drink when I wasn’t drinking garbage.”
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His last day there will be May 1. Crowley’s in the process of launching his own place, Haymarket Pub and Brewing, in the West Loop. The 250-seat brewpub, in the former Bar Louie space at 741 W. Randolph, will include a bar, a beer garden, a dining area, an open kitchen, an open brewery, and an events space that will be the new home of the Drinking & Writing Brewery, a currently itinerant theatrical group.
Crowley and John Neurauter, his friend and partner in the venture, had been searching for the right space for more than two years. When they toured the Randolph Street location, “it just clicked that it was also part of the old Haymarket Square,” Crowley says. “The whole labor movement and fair labor practices started there . . . and the wives of a couple of the martyrs became very famous civil rights activists. The history of the square is so rich that it really made the location and the space fit perfectly.”
Crowley, who currently serves as president of the Illinois Craft Brewers Guild, is passionate not only about Rock Bottom’s products but also other local beers. In fact, at Haymarket he’s planning to have about eight “guest taps” to spotlight other area brews. “There’s a lot of local beer now,” he says, “and it’s good. So I don’t want to have ten beers on tap from overseas when there’s great beer right here.”
