Beer and Big Wheels: Emmett’s Brewing celebrates 25 years in West Dundee

Emmett’s Tavern & Brewing Co. is celebrating 25 years in West Dundee the way any venerable downtown institution would … with adult Big Wheel races.

The restaurant and brewing house is honoring their quarter century at 128 W. Main St. with its first Brewfest Saturday. The event will feature a car show, live music, food tents and lots of beer. And, of course, a race to glory on Big Wheels.

Andy Burns founded Emmett’s, which is named after his grandfather, in 1999.

“Very few places make it past their first year, fifth year, let alone get to 25,” he said. “I think I would attribute our staying power to making connections in the community.”

Burns developed a taste for craft beer and the industry while studying at Marquette University and living in Milwaukee.

He started doing some home brewing in college before graduating and joining the Marine Corps, where he trained on the West Coast and experienced their exploding craft beer scene.

“The number of microbreweries that were popping up out there, the amount of craft beer on the grocery shelf, we didn’t have anything like that here,” he said. “It kind of smelled like an opportunity to me.”

He started to put his plan in action once he moved back to the Chicago area. In 1998, when he was 28 years old, he, his family and a group of investors bought the Hunt’s Block building on Main Street.

Burns said there were two potential paths for brewers at that time: either open a manufacturing plant to sell retail or open a brew pub.

“With retail you’re fighting for shelf space and trying to educate the consumer on your product, but you’re relying on a third party to do it,” he said. “I knew how difficult restaurants were as a business model, but it just seemed safer to be able to make that connection with customers.”

Emmett’s has about five core beers that they always keep on tap.

“Sometimes people just fall in love with a certain beer, and that’s what they’re coming for,” he said. “We don’t want to disappoint them.”

Beyond that, Burns said they offer as many as seven other styles of classic beer.

“We don’t chase trends everywhere,” he said. “You see some insane things happening at some breweries, putting chocolate cakes in the beer. We’re traditional brewers.

“There are hundreds of different, well-documented beer styles from around the world and we like to use that as our launching point for what we want to bring.”

While they’re calling Saturday’s event their First Annual Brewfest, they’ve held countless events over the years, including the Big Wheel race, which started as a neighborhood gag with his friends.

Around 2007, one of his friends suggested they get together for beers at Emmett’s on St. Patrick’s Day then race down a nearby hill.

About a dozen of us rode down that hill that day, and we said, ‘Wait, we’re on to something,’” he said.

From there it grew into an annual event on St. Patrick’s Day until they paused during COVID. When they decided to resurrect it, they wanted to do it when it was warmer and more people would want to hang out and enjoy it. The anniversary festival made for the perfect showcase.

“Now there will be food, music, the same good fun we’ve been having over the last decade, we’ll just do it in more favorable weather conditions,” he said.

The event starts at 9:30 a.m. with the car show. Beer tents featuring seven different local breweries open at 10, as do food tents. Live music starts at noon and goes throughout the day. A full schedule is available online.

The Big Wheel race for glory will careen downhill starting at 3 p.m. You can register at the website or in person the day of the race. Emmett’s suggests pimping your ride to fit your adult body since stock Big Wheels can be tricky for full-grown adults. The race has three categories, from stock to fully tricked out rides that feature metal parts.

After the initial success of the West Dundee location, Burns opened locations in Downers Grover (2004) and Palatine (2007).

“We’ve kind of found our niche in classic downtown locations, and we like older properties,” he said. “They support the heritage theme that’s inherent in our brand.”

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