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Craft beer, healthier food in plan for Lake Zurich's Consume

Craft beer, healthier food and a small shop with packaged brews will be part of a bar-restaurant expected to open in Lake Zurich next month.

Five friends are behind Consume on Route 22, just east of Rand Road and across the street from the popular Copper Fiddle Distillery.

Co-owner Reed Bartuska of Inverness said a 150-square-foot bottle shop with an array of hand-picked craft beer will be part of Consume, hearkening to the days when taverns typically had refrigerators for packaged goods. The shop will serve customers who just want beer to go and Consume guests seeking something to buy on their way out.

Lake Zurich village board members in March granted two liquor licenses to Consume. One is for the retail sale of packaged alcohol from the store for consumption elsewhere, with the other governing the bar and restaurant.

“It's old school, but there's not a lot of those licenses around with the dual usage,” Bartuska said. “So, that's kind of a unique thing that's coming back.”

Consume — with a tagline of “Shop, Eat, Drink” — plans to offer one domestic beer and a rotating selection of 23 craft brews on tap when it opens in mid-July or so. Visitors can expect another 50 to 60 craft beer selections in bottles or cans, as well as eight wines on tap.

Local alcohol will be featured at Consume, said co-owner Dhiren Patel of Elk Grove Village. That means some of the spirits will come from Copper Fiddle Distillery.

“We're going to try to pick local beer and beers that are very interesting to us. Things that are unique and harder to find,” said Patel, who with relatives owned Foremost Liquors at Wilke and Algonquin roads in Arlington Heights until selling about a year ago.

Buffalo Grove resident Benjamin Karwoski will head Consume's kitchen. The executive chef, who previously worked at a couple of downtown Chicago restaurants, said he intends to have a seasonal menu with as much locally sourced food as possible that'll include small plates and a charcuterie board.

Karwoski said he's ready to fire up a seasonal hamburger made with grass-fed beef and topped with a strawberry-rhubarb-habanero sauce and goat cheese.

Bartuska, who has about 12 years of food-and-beverage industry experience, said Consume will serve a healthy version of bar food.

“We've done a half a dozen experiments with how to do chicken wings without putting them in a fryer,” he said. “Everybody puts them in the fryer.”

Artist's rendering of Consume, expected to open in July on Route 22 in Lake Zurich. Courtesy of DII Architecture of Prospect Heights
  Front entrance of Consume, expected to open next month on Route 22 in Lake Zurich. Bob Susnjara/bsusnjara@dailyherald.com
  Dhiren Patel, left, and Reed Bartuska work on the taps at their new establishment, Consume, in Lake Zurich. Consume will have a bar, restaurant and small store for beer to go. Steve Lundy/slundy@dailyherald.com
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