Josh Mowry’s dream of owning both a brewery and a restaurant will come to fruition this spring when he expands his Miskatonic Brewing Company business to include a full-service restaurant in downtown Naperville.
Planned for Washington Street, just north of the Barnes & Noble store, it will be an offshoot of the Darien-based brewery and taproom with which it will share a name.
When Mowry and John Wyzkiewicz started Miskatonic in 2015, they initially considered including a restaurant component, Mowry said.
“Even before we got into brewing, we loved to cook,” he said. “But none of us ever worked in a kitchen.”
So, they kept the focus on brewing, selling and serving beer in Darien in a business park near Cass Avenue and Interstate 55, he said.
With the brewery and taproom going strong, Mowry said, he’s ready to open the restaurant component in a more vibrant area.
While he’s not from Illinois, his wife is, and the two found a home in Naperville, he said.
“Naperville has great energy,” Mowry said, and it’s far enough from Darien that the two businesses won’t be in competition.
The restaurant location is a blank slate, he said, allowing them to mold the former retail space into what he describes as a modern beer hall with table seating for about 100 and another 20 to 25 stools at the bar, he said.
“It will be a place to come together,” he said.
Mowry wants the menu to remain simple with between 15 and 20 items.
“It’s better to do 15 things really, really well,” he said.
Twelve different beers brewed by Miskatonic will be on tap at any given time.
Their most popular pilsner and India pale ale varieties will be available year round, and the rest will be swapped out seasonally, he said.
Wine and cocktails also will be available.
Mowry said he wants to be active in the Naperville community and to participate in and host events.
One activity customers can expect the restaurant to host, he said, will be Oktoberfest festivities in the fall.
