Broken Tee: After Golf Career, a Swing at Craft Brewing
Also, goodbye to the Local Foods Grocery
Beer That’s Better Than Par
Long before Paul Bumbaco opened Broken Tee Brewing last September in the Chicago suburb of Highwood, his life path focused on athletics. A baseball star for New Jersey’s William Paterson University, he played on the school’s 1996 Division III NCAA championship team and still ranks second in career hits after holding the school record for 14 years.
Paul also had golfing talent that would lead to a 20-year career as a golf pro; he was at Skokie Country Club in Glencoe (another North Shore Chicago suburb) for 16 years, nine of them as head pro. But during this time, the longtime craft beer aficionado took up home brewing, which became a passion, which became his second career as owner of his small brewery.
“I liked seeking out different beers,” Paul explained during my January visit to Broken Tee Brewing, located about 28 miles north of downtown Chicago. “At the time, I was into Belgians, which was great. I mean, like the Sierra Nevada Pale Ales, that had the malt backbone I loved and the hop punch that I really liked. It was different.”
He continued, “My journey kind of progressed. I got into kegging my beer after that and got a little bit more serious about the process, temperature control for instance. And I basically built this small, semi-automated electric system in my basement, took over two-thirds of the basement, a little fermentation room, went to kegging, and then went into canning, I had my own little canning line.”
After getting positive feedback from friends with whom he shared his beers, Paul took his first step toward full-time beermaster. After resigning as golf pro in 2018, he gained experience working as general manager of the taproom of Ravinia Brewing, located in Highland Park, just south of Highwood.
With the ultimate goal of opening his own brewery, he started researching possible locations, ultimately settling on a short, unpretentious brick building on the corner of Green Bay Road and North Avenue. The building, though long vacant, had for more than five decades been home to Pierantoni’s, a local favorite for Italian food.
While Broken Tee (the “tee” is an allusion to Paul’s past golf career) is in a quiet neighborhood, it is just across the Metra commuter train tracks from downtown Highwood, home to several dining options; Beermiscuous, a pub serving craft beers from a variety of local and distant breweries; and 28 Mile, a craft distillery. Broken Tee is literally steps from the Highwood station, which should make it attractive to beer tourists who don’t want to drive after a few hours of beer sampling.
What’s on Tap
Broken Tee’s beers are created by head brewer Grant Thompson, who Paul first met when both worked at Ravinia Brewing. The current beer menu in mid-March reflects significant changes in the craft beer world over the past few years.
A decade ago, India Pale Ale (IPA) was dominating craft beer, and some brewers competed to see who could make the hoppiest (meaning most bitter) and strongest (highest in alcohol by volume, or ABV). But many brewpub consumers want variety in beer styles and also want more “sessionable” beers with lower ABV so they can linger over two or three beers.
Broken Tee does have three IPAs on its menu, but none are over-the-top strong: Range Session is a Session IPA at 5.5% ABV; One Hop N Bite is a Single Hop IPA at 6.9%; and Power Fade, a Double IPA, is the strongest beer on tap at 7.7%. There are also, though, a 5.2% Italian pilsner called Beerantonis (a tribute to the building’s former owners); Pin High, a Robust Porter (6.1%); and two sessionable German styles: Dew Sweeper, a Coffee Lager (5.2%), and Nacht Putten, a dark Schwarzbier (5.4%).
“More breweries are definitely offering lower alcohol, sessionable IPAs, just session beers in general,” Paul said. “The model has changed as far as tap rooms and having customers here, and I think you're going to see a reasonable ABV to keep the people in the seats… A lot of places are gravitating towards lagers, pilsners, beers that are not really high ABV. They're clean-tasting beers.”
Broken Tee is also among a vanguard of craft breweries seeking to be more environmentally conscious. Around the time that the brewery opened, a colleague connected me to Paul, who was looking for a farmer who would take his spent grain for livestock feed. This led to Broken Tee’s connection with Jacobson Family Farms in Antioch, Illinois, which has been repurposing the spent grain ever since.
“I think we're very conscious of sustainability in the industry and then also recycling,” Paul said. “So for our brand, my head brewer, myself, the notion of not having our spent grains end up in a dumpster or in a landfill is very appealing.” (See note below.)
The Broken Tee taproom is modestly sized with a handful of tables, a long bar that faces the brewery’s beer tanks, and a wall-mounted TV that played college basketball throughout my visit on a snowy January Saturday. The kitchen menu includes a charcuterie board and cheese board, two varieties of poutine (the Canadian dish of French fries, cheese curds and gravy); a version of a walking taco called The Shag Bag; a burger, fried chicken sandwich and a pimiento cheese sandwich, and a list of bar snacks.
The taproom is open Tuesday from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m., Wednesday through Friday from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m., Saturday from 12 p.m. to 10 p.m. and Sunday from 12 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Note: Broken Tee Brewing and its spent grain recycling was featured in an article about innovative craft breweries that I wrote for the March 2023 issue of Natural Awakenings Chicago magazine. Click the link below to access the article.
Goodbye, Local Foods Grocery Store
I was sad to learn this weekend that the Local Foods grocery store in Chicago’s Bucktown neighborhood will be closing permanently on March 26. While Local Foods reports that its wholesale food distribution business is thriving and will continue, the public-facing store’s financial struggles have become unsustainable.
I first connected with Local Foods during my early days working at FamilyFarmed, first visiting the store location at 1427 W. Willow St. when it was under construction. I was there for the grand opening on June 30, 2015, and the excitement of a local-focused grocery store was palpable.
Its ambitions were evident as soon as you walked in the door: The first thing you saw was Butcher and Larder, a fabulous meat shop that Rob Levitt, a leading Chicago butcher, had moved in from its original stand-alone location a couple of miles south. In the center of the small-footprint store was a cafe led by rising-star chef Abra Berens.
But space limitations, including a small produce section, made it much more a speciality store than a one-stop grocery shop — and one that was located off the beaten path, tucked away in a longtime industrial sector near the intersection of Elston and North avenues.
I was a regular at Local Foods for nearly three years after its opening, driving five miles from my Lakeview home, but when we went carless, it made less sense to take the long trip on two buses (with a few blocks walk from bus to store), especially with the profusion of healthy food-focused grocery stores and farmers markets much more conveniently located.
There became even less inducement as the people I knew best departed Local Foods one by one, including the three founding executives; Rob Levitt, who became head butcher at Publican Quality Meats; and Abra Berens, who became head chef at Granor Farm in Three Oaks, Michigan and a highly regarded cookbook author.
Although I haven’t been a customer for some time, I fondly remember my early association with the store, and feel that its closing is a loss to our community.
The store’s closing message is below the photo.
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Notice from Local Foods
With a heavy heart, we announce that Local Foods Public Market and Butcher & Larder will be closing permanently on Sunday, March 26, 2023. Despite valiant efforts by our staff to make the business sustainable, we can no longer justify continued operations.
Our staff has been incredibly flexible and supportive over the past year as we have attempted multiple approaches to make the business viable. Unfortunately our best efforts have not been successful in the face of an isolated location and macroeconomic headwinds.
We will be offering significant discounts of up to 50% on all remaining grocery items beginning Friday, March 10 until our final day of business on Sunday, March 26.
Butcher & Larder will continue to offer premium locally sourced meats from our whole animal butchery program until our final closure. All pre-orders for St. Patrick’s Day corned beef will be provided as promised.
Despite this sad news, Local Foods wholesale distribution business will continue to operate as normal. Local Foods distribution had record sales in 2022 and we look forward to continuing to provide source-identified foods to restaurants, schools, businesses, and other food operations committed to supporting sustainable food systems.
We thank each of you for your support over the past eight years.