Lodi Tap House
LEADS TO MAPLE PARK REVITALIZATION By: Stephen Haberkorn
Located on the eastern edge of DeKalb County, Maple Park is now home to a hot new destination spot that is helping to spur the redevelopment of its downtown business center. Opened in December of 2016, Lodi Tap House has been a big hit—so much so, that they have already nearly doubled their seating capacity and were recently featured on the WGN show, Chicago’s Best. The cozy establishment at 309 W. Main Street specializes in a constantly rotating selection of Illinois craft beers, as well as local and Illinois-centric wine and spirits. They also offer a tight menu that includes vodka-battered fried chicken, delicious burgers and sandwiches, wraps, soups and salads, and exceptional sides and appetizers.
Explaining what makes the Lodi Tap House unique, owner Gavin Male of Elburn said, “A lot of places, you can get good food, but they certainly don’t have the beer selection that we have. A lot of places that have a comparable (but not as good) beer selection, don’t have food, or don’t have TV’s. We like beer. We like food. We like TVs. We wanted a place that had all three. We just made a place that we would want to go do, and apparently, a lot of other people have the same idea.” They have the NFL package and the sports package, so there’s really not a sporting event that exists that you can’t come and watch on one of their six TVs; however, according to Luke Goucher, “The atmosphere, in a lot of cases, actually is the entertainment … making friends
with the people next to you, interacting with your server … getting intimate with the beer board, and tasting the offerings either through a pint or a flight.” The four friends who own the pub come from commercial banking and real estate backgrounds, but are united in their love for craft beer and really good food. They came up with the inspiration for an Illinois-centric Tap House from their travel to Michigan, where they heard a lot of talk about “Michigan-centric” food and beer. “That became our focus and a pretty easy springboard, because there’s a lot of cool stuff going on in the state [of Illinois],” said Goucher. The name, Lodi Tap House, is a nod to the history of the village that straddles DeKalb and Kane Counties. Maple Park
DEKALB COUNTY MAGAZINE | September 2018 | 19