FOSTERING COMMUNITY AT HOMEWOOD BREWING CO.
Location:
Homewood, IL
Everything about Homewood Brewing Co. in Homewood, Ill., is designed around one goal: To create a sense of community. The project comes from a special place for owner Carmela Wallace, who lived in Homewood with her son Jarad Anthony Higgins. He passed away in 2019, and together with her son Brian Wallace and husband Robert Lauderdale, they wanted to build a place that would pay tribute to Homewood and honor Jarad’s memory.
“Jarad always felt at home here in Homewood, and I wanted to create a place that was warm and inviting, to share that feeling and sense of community with others. It’s beautiful for me to see the touches of Jarad throughout the brewery. It’s just been a project of love to honor my son and Brian’s brother.”
– CARMELA WALLACE, OWNER, HOMEWOOD BREWING CO.
Streamlining The Process
One of the keys to success of the Boelter One Partner program is the priority placed on communication and collaboration. Throughout the process Goodloe attended regular calls with the Homewood Brewing Co. partners, as well as the architect, general contractor and other important teams that worked to bring the project to completion. “Adam really took the extra step in customer service,” Carmella says. “He was part of our weekly meetings for over a year, bringing together all the trades, making sure everything was working as it should, and handling anything as soon as it came up.”
A Kitchen Designed to Adapt and Grow
The menu at Homewood Brewing Co. embodies a fusion of Creole and midwestern influence, while encompassing a range of types of cuisine from comfort food to fine dining. From sausages made from scratch on premise to beer cheese soups and macaroni and cheese, food plays a big part in making people feel at home when they come to the restaurant.
“I had some pretty specific things I wanted to do with this project, and Adam was able to guide us through that process and make my vision a reality,” Robert says. Adam worked closely with Robert to understand the goals for the restaurant, work together on menu development and design a space capable of bringing that vision to life in a way that would be both efficient and productive.
Equipment Plays a Primary Role
From smoked sausages to ice cream made on-site, getting the right equipment was key to helping Robert’s culinary vision come to life. Not only was Robert focused on quality, but he also wanted equipment that would be user-friendly in a foodservice environment where labor costs and staffing issues remain a challenge for operators. Goodloe and the team at Boelter drew on the company’s advantage of a vast knowledge of the foodservice equipment industry and years-long relationships with manufacturers to help recommend equipment that would produce the desired results.
Goodloe’s attention to detail when it comes to efficiency is another place where the kitchen design at Homewood Brewing Co. excels. For example, a holding cabinet on the cookline provides a place for the smoked meats that play a central role in the menu offerings. Freezers were placed next to the fryers, making ingredients easily accessible, and refrigeration along the cookline helps make prep work easy. “Once they start a meal service, everything is right there where they need it,” Goodloe says.
A couple of special equipment requests help make this operation unique. A blast chiller and vacuum packing machine will allow for sous vide cooking, a technique Robert developed in culinary school that he wants to implement at Homewood Brewing Co. And thanks to a Stoelting ice cream maker, homemade beer ice cream shows up on the dessert menu.
Supporting the Brewery
Boelter’s design expertise played a role outside the kitchen as well. For Homewood Brewing Co.’s first-floor bar, which has 18 taps each to a different beer, Goodloe designed the keg racking as well as a fail-safe beer cooler to ensure cold beer would be on tap at all times. This meant designing and equipping two separate systems running on two sets of fans, so when one has to defrost the other is working. The system also keeps things running in the event of a power outage or equipment failure.
Boelter also supplied a large walk-in cooler in the brewery and a retail cooler for beer to-go. “Boelter’s expertise was invaluable when it came to equipping the brewery and working together with First Key Consultants, the brewery consultant,” says Brian Wallace.
Building the Atmosphere
The One Partner solution brings together multiple business units from Boelter, and in the case of Homewood Brewing Co. that included supplying smallwares and creating a branded program for the restaurant to use going forward.
Finding the right plates and serving ware plays an important role in creating the overall feel for a restaurant. The partners at Homewood Brewing Co. wanted to convey a feeling of coming home, not only with the comfort foods available on the menu but also in the pieces that food would be served on.
“Working with Boelter really helped simplify what can be a daunting process,” Carmela says. “The team set up a mini-expo for us to be able to see and touch everything right there in person, from branded items to the dishes and flatware. Being able to bring it all together was just an awesome experience.”
Complementing the tableware are branded coasters with a simple, yet touching design. On one side is Homewood Brewing Co.’s logo, and on the other side is an image of a map of the location with a blue heart.
That blue heart sums up what’s important to Homewood Brewing Co., and the personal touch of Boelter One Partner Solution was a perfect fit for this community focused project.
Want to read more? View the full Homewood Brewing Case Study below!
Looking for a full tour of Homewood Brewing? Check out our video below!
Read more about Adam Goodloe, and see some of his extensive project portfolio.