MyGrain brewpub now looks at August opening in Joliet

JOLIET – MyGrain Brewing now is targeting late July or early August for opening of the downtown brewpub.

"Things are going well, but everything takes time," said Gregory Lesiak, one of the partners in the start-up brewing company.

They had previously set early July as the target for opening but cautioned that the date was tentative.

Lesiak said a July opening is still possible but "August for sure."

MyGrain owners are setting up a brewpub with restaurant along with the capacity for producing canned beer in the old Union Station.

Kitchen equipment just arrived last week, Lesiak said.

A city project reconstructing the Union Station plaza to accommodate delivery trucks was recently completed, he said.

The city owns Union Station, a limestone station that opened in 1912 but was taken out of use as a working train depot in 2014.

The city in May contracted for reconstruction of the Union Station plaza to accommodate delivery trucks for the brewpub. Brick pavers were replaced with concrete, a landscape planter was removed, and the Katherine Dunham statue was relocated to the front of the station.

The plaza work cost $178,000. But the city council on Wednesday will consider a change order increasing the cost by $25,000 to pay for the addition of a concrete landscape area around the perimeter of the plaza.

The council will consider another change order adding $5,700 to the cost of replacing a steel column that was found to be defective when leaks were being repaired in the building. The change order will bring the cost of that job to $20,231.