Whole Foods Red Star Bar expands to 7 more locations
The team at Whole Foods took a full year to completely gut and rehab the 7 Dominicks locations they purchased. All of those stores will feature the Red Star Bar concept previously only available at their Kingsbury store in Lincoln Park.
Each store will have 24+ drafts to showcase local beer and spirits. The new locations will also feature an exclusive beer from Chicago’s own, Begyle Brewing.
Recently we met at the West Loop store with Mike Kilgore and Allison Phelps to chat about the direction of the Specialty Department and their relationship with Begyle.
The plan is to have a different Begyle beer at each Red Star Bar.
“Every store will get their own beer. The base will be the same but we’re changing the hop profile and the yeast strain for each one.” explains Mike.
Begyle has a 10 bbl system that will yield about 100 cases of bombers and 4 sixth barrels per batch for Chicagoland locations.
“At the end of the year we will pick our favorite of the 7 varietals and that will be our year round proprietary beer for all the stores.”
The West Loop IPA will showcase Willamette and Warrior hops.
DePaul
Streeterville
Whole Foods’ focus has always been to spotlight local suppliers. There’s no corporate standard regarding specialty items across the stores so each one takes on it’s on personality as Allison shared with us. “Each neighborhood is different. We encourage creative freedom at our locations… and that includes everything. Guacamole in West Loop wont be the exact same as Streeterville.”
The idea is simple, a no pressure, family friendly situation. A space where you can enjoy a curated list of rotating beers and spirits, some of which will be proprietary to Whole Foods.
In addition to Begyle flagship ale, Mike selected barrels back in October for collaborations with other breweries.
Evil Twin Brewing will be working with Whole Foods in the near future. Jeppe Jarnit-Bjergsø is the Danish gypsy brewer is known for producing limited release classics (9th Symphony and Xmas Eve at New York City Hotel Room) as well as a series of seasonals available internationally.
“He’s got some experimental tropical hops he wants to play with. The plan is to brew in May for a July release. That beer will go to all 8 states in the region. “
Mike was tapped to coordinate the Red Star Bar expansion efforts last year, previously he was team lead at the Lincoln Park store. His excitement is contagious, that location was known for its taplist and non stop events schedule. Customers will walk into these bars and have a hard time deciding what to drink, the selection is that good.
“We’ve got a barrel-aged series in the works. It includes 2 Journeyman Distillery barrels for Begyle, and an extra añejo tequila barrel for Vandermill Cider.”
“Then there are 3 Knob Creek barrels, 2 are for Revolution, the other is for CH Distillery. We are going to make a barrel aged fernet with them.”
West Loop
whiskey, beer and wine flights available at all locations
There will be custom wine, beer and whiskey flights available at the bar as well.
–Nkosi
Here’s the rollout for Whole Foods Red Star Bar Locations
Streeterville 255 E Grand Ave, Chicago January 2015
DePaul 959 W Fullerton Ave, Chicago –February 2015
West Loop 1 N Halsted St , Chicago –March 2015
Edgewater 6009 N Broadway St, Chicago-April 2015
Elmhurst 215 S Rt 83 –TBD
Willowbrook 6300 Kingery Hwy TBD
Evanston 2748 Green Bay Rd– TBD
