Mike Matuschka admits that out of practice, each and every time he gets out of his auto, he is nevertheless reaching for a mask before going inside of a business.
“Definitely, which is however on people’s minds all the time,” he explained.
But two a long time following the pandemic started out — and a 12 months just after it was the remaining straw that led to the closing of his battling German beer hall in Rosemont’s amusement district — Matuschka is putting down roots and doubling down on his investment decision there.
He and his business enterprise lover, father Joe, have retooled and reinvented a portion of the cavernous former Hofbräuhaus Chicago into a pizzeria and craft beer bar — a notion he believes will be much more fiscally prosperous yr-spherical.
At the exact time, he’s hoping the pandemic is ultimately turning the corner into an endemic.
“Honestly, I am 100% self-confident. I feel folks are not heading to be set again in lockdown. I do not assume persons are not likely to want to go out any more. They have been in for two many years,” said Matuschka, who opened Crust Brewing at Rosemont’s Parkway Bank Park in February. “This village — this entertainment district — you happen to be not heading to hold any one down listed here. Devoid of possessing my crystal ball, I’m 100% — this is going to be a property run.”
It can be a similar level of assurance expressed by others who control or own venues in the 200,000-sq.-foot complicated adjacent to the Tri-Condition Tollway — household to 15 dining and amusement venues — that could possibly have been the suburban poster boy or girl of how the pandemic influenced the hospitality field.

























As they get ready for the warmer spring and summer time months — when totally free weekly concert events generally attract countless numbers to the park — the business enterprise proprietors are chatting additional like it is really 2019 all over again.
“We’ve gotta double down. We are there now,” stated Kevin Killerman, who is owner or companion in various venues at the park. “There’s terrific eating places and enjoyment there. Exactly where else can you get absolutely free parking and live shows and ice skating and walk from put to spot? There’s so lots of alternatives.”
Killerman is section of a group of buyers shopping for the other component of the former 20,000-square-foot Hofbräuhaus from the village. He and Braden Genuine Estate Chairman/CEO Marc Offit partnered with Texas businessmen Corey Urbach and Greg Sacony to bring Pete’s Dueling Piano Bar back again to the entertainment district.
The 5,800-sq.-foot piano bar opened April 1, as renovations are just about total on an adjoining 1,800-square-foot bar that will open up as Pete’s Tiki Tiki in Might.
The initial iteration of the piano bar opened in November 2019 in a distinctive building in the entertainment district, but closed the following March amid the outbreak of COVID-19. Immediately after a brief summer time 2020 reopening for outside dining and confined indoor seating, Pete’s closed and was transformed into the Verilife leisure cannabis dispensary, which is leasing the making from Killerman and Offit.
“It’s legal, and it can be a great, safe place to go,” mentioned Killerman, who mentioned the wide variety of venues in the park features some thing for everyone, “from 2 several years old to 82 several years previous.”
Though seeking to maintain its family-friendly daytime picture, the park has progressed considering that its opening a ten years back to come to be a main Northwest suburban night time life desired destination.
That’s why Killerman and village officials have been self-assured in bringing again the piano bar, which opened to huge crowds and party bookings in 2019.
Following doorway, at the 13,400-sq.-foot pizzeria and brewery place the Matuschkas ordered from the village — previously, they leased the entire constructing for Hofbräuhaus — the entrepreneurs say they have experienced early achievement given that introducing the new idea in February.
They’ve stored the brewing products from Germany — 9 huge fermentation tanks that encounter the tollway outside, and 8 serving tanks within — but usually wholly transformed the inside. Crust’s menu has 7 staple beers that are brewed on web site, and some two dozen Neapolitan-type pizzas.
Hofbräuhaus — a attract in September and October and on weekends, but peaceful on summer time weeknights — may possibly have been equipped to survive, but in a more compact area, Matuschka explained.
After an 8-12 months operate with the German beer hall, he says he’s satisfied how the new pizza and beer eatery is getting gained by clients.
“When was the very last time you ended up likely out for German foods, and when was past time you went out for pizza?” Matuschka claimed. “Sadly in this hospitality organization the place the earnings margins are slim enough, persons don’t go out for German all the time.”
