USA, IL: ShadowView Brewing preparing for opening n Woodstock

If you aren’t really a beer person, prepare to convert.

That’s the message John and Mark Koziol want to get across as they prepare for the opening of ShadowView Brewing, located in Woodstock at the former Rendezvous Bistro site, 2400 Lakeshore Drive, the Northwest Herald reported on June 17.

“It’s almost like saying, ‘you don’t like food,’” Mark Koziol said. “That’s not true. You might not like certain things but there is food that you like. You just have to go find it. It’s the same thing with beer.”

The two brothers are in the process of renovating the space in preparation of the grand opening, which could take place later this year.

Mark Koziol, who works in engineering and technology at an Arlington Heights company, and John Koziol, mayor of Marengo and a McHenry County Sheriff’s Department sergeant, plan to bring a unique brewery and restaurant to the location.

“We aren’t trying to be one of these giant breweries downtown,” Mark Koziol said. “We are trying to recognize that the whole craft brewing explosion is happening. Everybody is getting on the train and heading to it when they can just come here.”

“We don’t have a lot of competition. It’s going to be our own thing,” John Koziol added.

Mark Koziol has been a home brewer for the past 30 years and said it was time to offer up his stylings to a broader audience.

The brewpub will offer a variety of beers along with wood stove-cooked pizza, burgers and Italian sausage. Beers will include sours, German beers, wheat beers, stouts, Belgian ales and IPAs, and could change depending on customer feedback.

“If people don’t like a beer, we won’t make it. If they like a beer, we will make more of it,” Mark Koziol said. “If they want us to try something new, we will. We want this to be an interactive thing with the public and the patrons.”

The name comes from perhaps the most Woodstock thing of them all – Groundhog Day.

Groundhog Day stemmed from an Irish festival called Imbolc, which involved Saint Brigid – also the patron saint of beer.

“It’s just meant to be,” Mark Koziol said. “So hopefully we will have some imagery of Saint Brigid of Kildare, out in the woods with her groundhog hunting down shadows and things. ... There is a lot of cool artwork of shadows, too, but we wanted to tie it in with the city.”

An opening date hasn’t yet been set but the goal is to open by the fall.

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