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LEXINGTON — A chemist, an analyst and a manager walk into a bar.
The bar is at 510 W. Main St. in Lexington — and more accurately, the bar is actually a brewery, and the chemist, analyst and manager are co-owners.
That’s the aim of Hudson friends Andy Arndt, Brian Graves and Nate Poehlman, who’ve set a goal of March 2022 to take what was once a garage-bound hobby into the marketplace.
“It’s really been something that is decades in the making,” Graves told The Pantagraph. “It was at least that long when Nate and I started having conversations about home brewing. And it was something that so many things, whether it was careers or kids or family, just kept us from really being able to do.”
Perhaps it was the uncertainty that came along with the pandemic and its related shutdowns. Perhaps it was the realization of a dream yet unfulfilled in a time where many people found themselves reevaluating their lives and priorities.
A rendering of Analytical Brewing in Lexington is shown. Co-owners Andy Arndt, Brian Graves and Nate Poehlman said they hope to be brewing by March 2022.
“I think it speaks to the approach, the mindset that we all have,” Graves said. “Andy is a chemist by profession and education and all three of us have an attention to detail. I think when you think about the analytical and scientific approach, it was just a name that flowed naturally.”
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Although they didn’t detail their exact processes, the co-owners said they plan to leverage Arndt’s background in chemistry, knowledge of craft breweries across the U.S. and experience with “higher-end” home-brewing systems to create a host of beers.
A rendering of what the exterior of Analytical Brewing, an up-and-coming brewery in Lexington, will look like once renovations are complete. Co-owners Andy Arndt, Brian Graves and Nate Poehlman said they hope to be brewing by March 2022.
“Really, our intention is to provide and produce really great beer that’s true to style across many different styles,” Graves said. “We know there are many different craft beer drinkers and preferences and we think we have a lineup of beers that meets that.”
The owners also plan to collect data tracking which beers are most popular with customers, another aspect of the name.
“Part of it is staying in tune to what’s common and what’s up-and-coming in the craft beer industry, but part of it is also staying true to our roots at the same time: Providing good, quality beer that people can expect from us,” Poehlman said.
A rendering of what the interior of Analytical Brewing, an up-and-coming brewery in Lexington, will look like once renovations are complete. Co-owners Andy Arndt, Brian Graves and Nate Poehlman said they hope to be brewing by March 2022.
More recently came the approval of project from Lexington’s city council.
That came with the chance for the three friends to buy a building formerly occupied by Brandt Consolidating, a company specializing in fertilizer.
“The building we’re in the process of purchasing is going to need a lot of work — and the three of us have day jobs,” Poehlman said. “So it’s going to be a lot of nights, weekends and working with local, professional contracts to make it all happen.”
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When it does happen, the taproom will have “an industrial … open-air feel,” Graves said, along with a “really good outdoor space.”
“Our timeline — I don’t know if it will be aggressive or not,” Poehlman said. “Time will tell. But we’re hoping to be brewing beer by March 2022. Out of that, we hope there’s enough interest that we can put kegs in local restaurants and eateries and have our taproom open in May 2022.”
And while there are three public faces of ownership to Analytical Brewing, at this point, the co-owners said they wouldn’t have come this far without the backing of their wives.
“Our three spouses have been nothing but supportive and eager to help out and jump in,” Graves said. “With six of us doing this, that and the other, it really helps them divide and conquer and you get ideas that maybe one person wouldn’t have thought up.”
Should everything go as planned, the establishment will end up reflecting the co-owners and their families’ values.
“We want to bring together our family, our friends and the community to enjoy a good beer a great beer,” Poehlman said. “We know that the community, our family, our friends all like something different… so we hope to make good beer true to style, across different styles that will do that and help us bring family, friends and community together.”
Bloomington-Normal business openings and closings
Sugar Mama Bakery
Nearly six years after a local bakery moved its ovens from downtown Bloomington to Uptown Normal, the business is prepping to open its kitchen again from a new downtown storefront.
I caught owner Susie Tod on Tuesday as she and employees were unloading and moving baking supplies into the space, which features exposed brick, natural materials and plenty of natural light.
“It’s not going to be a cookie-cutter design,” Tod joked with me as she moved a stand-mixer off a counter.
Tod closed her previous downtown Bloomington location, 405 N. Main St., in 2015 to focus her efforts on the Normal location.
The bakery, which specializes in artisan and custom-order baked goods, was first started around 2010 when Tod and then-partner Krista Gaff began baking out of Gaff’s home.
Tod’s plan had been to open the new Bloomington store on July 2, but that date will likely be pushed back, she said. She’s been met with some construction delays caused by the weekend’s storms and still needs to install some equipment.
Other than adding another option for coffee and baked goods to downtown Bloomington, the business will fill a storefront that has sat vacant since mid-2019.
— Timothy Eggert
On Track Car Wash
The site of a former car wash on the city’s northeast side is set to feature a new car wash facility, to be built sometime this year.
Developers Jeremy and Jeffrey Schoenherr want to build at 1509 E. Vernon Avenue a new automated On Track Car Wash, largely replacing the 10-bay do-it-yourself Car Wash Express that occupied the site between 1988 and 2010.
The 0.92-acre lot sits on the corner of one of Bloomington’s busiest intersections and within one of the city’s major commercial corridors. It has remained vacant for the last 11 years, after the last facility was demolished.
The proposed car wash facility follows a design to house a franchise model of the Tommy Car Wash Systems, including a 110-foot tunnel for the automatic wash equipment and 15 outdoor vacuum bays.
City planning officials approved the new facility’s site plan in May, and the Bloomington City Council OK’d the plan in June.
— Timothy Eggert
Panda Express restaurant
In addition to nearly every other staple fast-food chain, the city’s westside commercial stretch will soon host a Panda Express drive-thru and restaurant.
CFT NV Developments LLC, based in Las-Vegas, Nev., wants to construct the 2,381-square-foot Chinese-American fast food restaurant at 1901 W. Market St.
The property was previously used for a gas station from 1978 to the early 2010’s. It has sat vacant since 2017, after the Citgo station was demolished.
The Bloomington Planning Commission approved the restaurant’s site plan earlier this month. It will be before the city council on July 26.
The restaurant’s construction would mark the second new fast-food business added to West Market Street in 2021.
A site plan for a new 3,900-square-foot structure commercial structure at 1514 W. Market St. — replacing the old Grand Café West Side restaurant —was approved by the city council in April. A Domino’s Pizza restaurant will occupy one half of the new building.
— Timothy Eggert
Jersey Mike’s Subs
The build-out of a new sandwich shop on the city’s far eastside is progressing, with construction expected to be complete sometime in August.
Crews are altering the interior of unit 103 at the Eastland Commons, 305 N. Veterans Pkwy, to accommodate a Jersey Mike’s Subs restaurant. The space was previously occupied by a TD Ameritrade office.
A $130,000 commercial building permit for the conversion was issued in late May, and when I dropped in this week a contractor on-site said most of the rough-in was complete.
The sandwich chain offers east coast-style subs and competes directly with Jimmy John’s and Subway. Its Bloomington location will be the first in McLean County.
— Timothy Eggert
Texas Roadhouse restaurant construction
Construction of the new Texas Roadhouse restaurant on Bloomington’s far east side is progressing, with the location set to open at the end of August.
Amanda Norton, spokeswoman for the Louisville, Kentucky-based restaurant chain, said that construction crews faced some delays because of last month’s extreme rain events, but that they’re still on track to open before fall.
The restaurant is being erected between the former Toys R Us store and Olive Garden in the Bloomington Commons shopping center, 1701 E. Empire St., where Barnes & Noble, H&R Block and Schnucks also are located.
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