More than a restaurant, more than a brewery

angled Roots Brewing Company was so impressed by what it T saw in DeKalb that it’s creating a unique local brewpub for the town.

Keg & Kernel will become

Tangled Roots’ next restaurant, which already has its flagship brewpub,

The Lone Buffalo in

Ottawa, as well as Lock & Mule in Lockport and

Hangar Two in Glenview.

Another brewpub,

The Rocket in La Salle, also is in development.

Experience KEG & KERNEL WILL BE AN By: Chris Walker

Keg & Kernel is being renovated at the former location of Tavern on Lincoln at 124 E. Lincoln Hwy. A November opening is anticipated. “We believe in small towns and doing big things,” says Scott Struchen, founder and chief commercial officer for Tangled Roots Brewing Company. “And the idea is not just that we love small towns, but we love economical development and we get to hire local people. We see a renaissance in DeKalb with Ferrara Candy and Facebook and all these things happening, and Sycamore is growing like crazy. It seems like the right move and the right place to be.” Tangled Roots brings its ambition to provide the finest craft beer experience possible to a town like DeKalb and intertwines it with the city’s own story. Here, much of it is corn. At the Lock & Mule it’s the canal that linked the Great Lakes to the Illinois and Mississippi rivers and the mule-pulled boats that made it all possible. “The Tangled Roots brand is unique in that it integrates itself into the city it locates,” says Lockport Mayor Steve Sreit. “In Lockport, Tangled Roots embraced the I&M Canal and its rich history. It will be exciting to see it blend into DeKalb’s character.”

That’s what Tangled Roots has been able to do so well in such a short time after opening its first restaurant and its original craft brewery in Ottawa. “After we opened over five years ago we set our sights on different projects,” Struchen says. “This past year we were able to open our second location with Lock & Mule in Lockport, and it’s great to try to do things that tie in with the history of the town and make an impact with the restaurants. The Hangar Two is a nod to Glenview in conjunction with the Naval Air Museum.”

Brewing its beers with hops and barleys grown on its own farm in Starved Rock Country, Tangled Roots calls itself Illinois’ leading brewer of Farm to Foam beers, which complements a diverse menu that caters to all sorts of taste buds.

“Our goal has been to make sure that this great beer and food can be enjoyed by as many people as possible, whether or not they consider themselves ‘foodies’ or ‘beer connoisseurs,’” Struchen says. “We want things to be fun and accessible. We’re using local ingredients and going to open people’s eyes to a culinary experience they haven’t seen before in DeKalb.”

Keg & Kernel certainly anticipates being the place to be for memorable dining experiences. “We really differentiate ourselves from others in hospitality,” Struchen says. “There are a lot of restaurants doing the same thing, but we don’t want to just be a restaurant or brewery. We want to be an experience where you leave knowing it was a great experience, and you want to tell people about it.” Perhaps some of those dining experiences at Keg & Kernel will be life changing, similar to the chance meeting between four folks, which ultimately led to Tangled Roots. Struchen and Tangled Roots CEO Keith Pearse, who grew up in South Africa and built breweries in the United Kingdom, had a chance meeting with a married couple of entrepreneurs from Ottawa, Inga Carus and Peter Limberger, who had grown up in Germany. “Almost eight years ago, four people got together from around the globe looking for better hospitality and a little more fun and Tangled Roots is the story about people getting together and tangling their roots,” Struchen says. “It’s family and friends and meeting new people for the first time in a brewery setting over beer with chef-driven menus. What could be better than that?”

Having kernel in the brewpub’s name is not only in homage to DeKalb, but will be reflected in some menu items. Obviously, barb wire really doesn’t have a place in or around any kind of menu or restaurant. Besides, if you want to celebrate an invention that is closing in on 150 years, you can always arrange a visit to the Glidden Homestead and Historical Center and include it as part of your Keg & Kernel adventure.

“I got to see a preview of the menu and we’ve got a lot of cool, fun stuff on there,” Struchen says. “There are these elote (Mexican corn) riblets which are unbelievable. It’s Cajun-boiled corn charred on the grill. We change things to be fun and accessible with local ingredients. Braised duck poutine, adobe chicken nachos. We’re opening peoples’ eyes to a culinary experience they haven’t seen before in DeKalb.”

When Struchen says that those who come to Keg & Kernel are destined for a one-of-a-kind experience, he means it. “On the brewery side we’re going to be have a small economical brewing system where we’ll be using local ingredients like Whiskey Acres does and we’ll brew beer with you,” he says. “They can come in for an educational class and learn how to brew beer and a lot of people are into home brewing so they’ll brew with our brewmaster and then we’ll put it on tap for them in a few weeks.” Call it a ferment launch party or something like that, or have the marketing department come up with something clever. It may test your patience waiting a few weeks to return to drink your brews, but it sure beats the same ho-hum celebrations or yet another gender-reveal party gone wrong. “It’s a few-weeks-long experience, but it’s an experience that you’re not able to have elsewhere,” Struchen says. “As an example, a group comes in together and has fun brewing and then they come back for a launch party and have great food among friends while enjoying the beer they brewed. It’s something totally different.”