The Berghoff Hopes $2.2 Million Brewery Expansion Will Attract Millennials

Chicago’s Berghoff restaurant, the venerable German-American eatery that’s lasted 120 years in The Loop, is attempting to reinvent itself with the hopes of drawing younger customers. Ownership has announced plans to once again brew beer, converting space inside the 143-year-old building into a microbrewery. The Berghoff family will spend $2.2 million on the project, according to the Tribune.

The restaurant has withstood Prohibition, a 2006 shutter, and a sale that kept the space family owned in 2016. Pete Berghoff is a fourth-generation owner. They’ll pour six to eight beers on draft and have growlers and crowlers to go. The Berghoff hasn’t brewed beers since the 1990s, according to the Trib. Berghoff-branded beer does already exist, but it’s made by a company in Wisconsin.

Construction on the brewery will start in the spring or early summer. The Berghoffs want to pour their new beers by late September when Okotberfest starts. The restaurant is in transition and the Berghoffs seem ready evolve to survive the volatile Chicago restaurant and bar market. As Pete Berghoff told the Tribune: “If we don’t, we’re going to become a relic. I don’t want to be a dinosaur.”