While on a mission in Glen Ellyn, we popped over to Villa Park for an impromptu pre-Saint-Patty-Party with Bette’s cousins, one of which has a boyfriend, Charlie, the proprietor of the Lunar Brewing Company, a small neighborhood bar and microbrewery.
The bartender was personable, and cheerfully handed me my two pints of Total Eclipse Oatmeal Stout and four cokes for the rest of the party. I tasted while standing at the bar, and found thick chocolate notes. He agreed and said they use a lot of malt. It was good. He was having some trouble getting the stout out of the tap, but said they were not filtered beers and tended to clog things up occasionally. The stout tasted slightly flat to me; was it just low on CO2? I am not able to answer. Maybe handmade beers are a little less bubbly, but I loved it anyway. Charlie, fill me in…
After a family-and-regular-only dinner (they don’t normally serve food) of corned beef and cabbage and a wonderful NON-South-Beach-Diet Irish grandma recipe of mashed potatoes with onions and something green, I had a McRed Red Ale for dessert – think Killian’s with taste. Wonderful.
Bette was driving, so as I chatted with Cheryl, I got a Raspberry Cream Ale. Yes, it tasted like raspberry, but was very light, not overwhelming like some. Not sweet either. Thick nose, luscious. Bette got a taste and approved. Nice.
The bartender was great, he even made a Margarita (gasp) for Jill which was she said was good. He apologized in advance for its composition, and said, “this is a brewpub, and I mostly just pour beer”. Well said. They also sold some top-shelf Tequila shots, and Cheryl liked those.
Some gentlemen at the next table had snifters of something. I asked them; it was the Neil Armstrong Ale, a 10% kicker. They liked it. I will order one next time before I have three pints.
The place is like an old Chicago style neighborhood place, clean, a few kids running around, and a band was getting ready to play later that evening. Cheryl said that the place is busy on Saturday nights with the live music, but the proprietor is very careful to keep the sound level down during shows (even trolling the venue with a dB meter) which I appreciated. In baseball season, Cubs fans are at one side of the bar, and Sox fans at the other. And check out the cool custom moon-face tap handles. And you could tell the regulars – there were a lot of them stopping in.
Sounds like a great regular place if you are close. We are not, but will try to visit again when in the hood. Just look carefully, it is invisible and everyone drives right past it the first time.
Highly recommended.
LunaR Brewing Co., 54 E St. Charles Rd, Villa Park, IL (630) 530-2077
Roughly E St Charles Rd at Illinois, 2 blocks east of Ardmore.