One recent Sunday, my wife and I were looking to do lunch at some place new. Because we seem to eat out a lot in the Quad Cities, finding a place locally that is new is pretty tough. But there was a place up in Clinton that I had heard about, a brewpub that was in an old church they had taken over in 2022 and redesigned and rehabbed it into a microbrewery/restaurant. We were soon on our way up to have lunch and a few beers at Great Revivalist Brewing Company.
Actually, this is the offshoot of a place Road Tips went to in the fall of 2021 - the Great Revivalist Brew Lab in Geneseo, IL. (Click here to see the Road Tips entry on the Great Revivalist Brew Lab.)
Seattle native Richard Schwab literally grew up around beer. He had family members who were all home brewers and Schwab started to help brewing beer when he was in junior high. He continued his interest in home-brewing beers as he climbed up the corporate ladder in the telecommunications industry traveling across the nation.
His job brought him to the Quad Cities about 10 years ago and Schwab was impressed with the variety of breweries in the area. He became friendly with the brewers at Great River Brewery in downtown Davenport and Schwab became part of that group who experimented with different styles of beers.
Leaving the corporate life, Schwab took the leap to buy the Lionstone Brewery in Geneseo in early 2020 and was in the process of rebranding the brewery as the Great Revivalist Brew Lab. But a day before he was set to take over the Geneseo location on May 1, a tragic natural disaster took place that knocked out his friends at Great River Brewery in downtown Davenport. A Hesco barrier that was holding back the waters of a historic flood on the Mississippi River caved and the onrushing water inundated the Great River Brewery with up to 3 feet of water effectively knocking the place out of business.
After floodwaters subsided, the owners of the Great River Brewery decided not to carry on. In came Schwab to buy that location with plans to revamp the property that included the original brewing operation and a building across the street that he was planning on turning into a small brewpub. Plans were to have the Davenport location of the Great Revivalist Brewing Company up and going in late 2021, but that never came to be. (Great River Brewing Company re-opened in June of this year under new ownership.)
In the meantime, Schwab had his hands full with his Geneseo location. Located at the end of a strip mall, the facility had seating for over 250 people. But as the strip mall started to fill up with other businesses, the lack of parking for the brewpub began to rear its ugly head. The landlord could only give Great Revivalist up to just 20 spaces. And coupled with a high rent of about $8000 a month, they decided to find a new place.
After selling his interest in the Great River location in Davenport, Schwab turned to a property in Clinton that used to house a church. The church, itself, was originally constructed in 1898 as St. John's Episcopal Church. That church closed its doors in 2006 and was replaced by the congregation of the nearby Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church.
The building had become neglected as the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church congregation had dwindled over the years. When the pandemic hit in 2020, the church ceased operation. It sat empty for two years before Richard Schwab came across the property and offered to purchase the church. Working with a former member of St. John's Episcopal who was also a local historian, Schwab set about to bring the church back to life.
Plans included redoing the basement for storage and as an event space, renovations of the imported stained-glass windows, and a complete overhaul of a Byzantine mosaic tile on the back wall of the church that dated back to 1911. Tanks and brewing apparatus were brought in, and Schwab personally oversaw a work crew who repurposed old pews into tables and bars, and did general renovations to the main area of the old church.
Schwab had originally hoped to be open by October of 2022, but delays due to supply chain issues pushed the opening back to the Spring of 2023. In September of 2023, Schwab was able to get out of his lease in Geneseo and he shut down that location. However, he announced that he was purchasing the Karpeles Manuscript Museum in Rock Island. The museum had been a former church built in 1915 and had been a manuscript museum since 2012 - one of 12 Karpeles family manuscript museums across the nation. Schwab has said that he is hoping to keep many of the manuscripts on display with the restaurant on the main floor of the Palladian-style former church with its brewery in the basement.
Downtown Clinton is sort of weird. The main road into the city is U.S. Highways 30 and 67, but once we got to the downtown there were no street signs signifying the cross streets. We were looking for 4th Ave. S. as Great Revivalist is located on that street as it intersects with S. 3rd St. (see map) After going past 4th Ave. S. and finally figuring out where I was at, I pulled up in front of the church and parked just across the street. (Warning - the city of Clinton must think every one is driving small cars as the diagonal parking spots across the street from the old church are very narrow.)
There's no signage for the brewery other than printed vinyl sign that says, "Brewery" with an arrow pointing toward the front door. There is a "GRB" in glass tiles embedded in the dark brick above the front door.
Just inside the front door, it's quite the breathtaking sight. The mosaic tile on the back wall where the altar once was striking. The ornate supports across the top of the church gave it a gothic feel.
In the center of the floor space is a grand piano with a 3D rain drop chandelier suspended above it. Tables made from the old pews in the church were place throughout the main area of the brew pub.
To the left of the front door was a pool table with another 3D chandelier hanging about the table. I was quite enamored by the 3D chandeliers as it did sort of look like water droplets suspended about the table. But my wife said that even though they looked quite expensive, they can be found on Amazon for around $300. "I wouldn't know where on earth we would be able to put one," my wife said. "We don't have a high enough ceiling." Still, they were pretty cool.
The antique stained glass windows in the main part of the old church date back over 100 years old. They were refinished in 1978 and the framing was part of the renovation project to turn it from a church to the brew pub. The stained glass gave off a colorful effect from the sunlight coming through them with the afternoon sunlight.
In what was the altar area in the front of the old church, Great Revivalist has their main bar area. Flat screen televisions with the beer menu were situated on the wall on either side of an ornate wood-carved wall panel. Quite honestly, Schwab and his crews did a wonderful job maintaining the essence of the old church while working around some of the more elegant features the building had to offer.
Just in front of the steps up to the bar was another bar that was also made out of old pews. Inside that bar area was the large wood-fired pizza oven. My friend Neil was working on pizza dough that day and helping out the guy making the pizza. We chatted for a bit and I let him get back to work. The pizza seemed to be a popular item while we were there.
Off to the side where offices and meeting rooms used to be in the church was a hallway that also had tables and chairs for dining or hanging out. The windows of the hallway looked out into the large beer garden and the kitchen was located at the end of the hallway.
The Great Revivalist brewery was in a large room off to the side of the hall. It was an impressive operation - it looked much larger than their old brewery in Geneseo. And with a new setup, Great Revivalist is also able to provide keg beer to bars and canned beer to stores via a local distributor out of the Quad Cities.
In the hallway between the brewery operation and beer garden also has a number of items on display that preserves more of the history of the church. There was evidently a large pipe organ at the church and some of the wooden pipes were restored and hung on the wall as part of a display.
Some of the larger tables had parts of the old windchests from the pipe organ with a glass top showing the old spring valves that opened and closed when a note was played. It was pretty interesting to see the inner workings of an old pipe organ.
Outside the hall way was the beer garden. The centerpiece is a large fountain with a number of tables and chairs placed around the large garden. The beer garden was bordered on the south side by a small corn patch which I thought was a nice touch.
We saw people going up and down a set of stairs and we happened to ask our server Sophia what was going on downstairs. She said, "Oh, it's storage and an event area." She invited us to go down there after we finished our lunch to check it out. There was a fireplace along the long wall with chairs and sofas arranged around the ornate mantle. More heavy duty tables made from the old pews were scattered in the basement area. There was a small room for some private dining down in the basement, and there were a number of pallets with cases of canned beer down there, as well. An outbuilding that was part of the purchase of the church is currently being renovated into a storage facility.
As I said, our server was a young lady by the name of Sophia. We sat at a high top table along the bricked wall of the brew pub. After we got our menus, Sophia asked us if we wanted anything to drink. My wife wasn't up for a beer, but she did get a Tito's and cranberry to start out, while I got a pint of the Cloud Trippin' hazy IPA that I've had before at the Great Revivalist Brewery at their old Geneseo location.
It's a pretty full menu at Great Revivalist featured appetizers, salads, sandwiches, burgers, and - of course - pizza. House specialties on the menu include Nashville-hot chicken, chimichurri skirt steak, smoked brisket mac & cheese, and a sweet thai chili salmon filet served on a bed of tempura-fried asparagus. Breakfast is available on Friday and Saturday mornings from 8 to 11, and Great Revivalist also features a kids menu.
My wife wanted eat healthy and she got the blackened salmon Caesar salad. It featured a salmon filet with blackening seasonings (she got it light on the seasoning) on a bed of romaine lettuce and chopped cherry tomatoes with shaved parmesan cheese and house-made croutons. Keeping up with the healthy eating, she asked Sophia if she could get a side of steamed vegetables. She thought the salmon Caesar salad was outstanding.
I wasn't all that certain what I wanted. It was late enough in the day where if I had something, I might not have dinner that evening. But, then again, I wasn't hungry for a burger or a reuben sandwich. I decided upon the grilled mahi tacos. The two flour tortilla shells were filled with chunky mahi filets on a bed of cabbage slaw and topped with a cilantro lime ranch dressing and pico de gallo. I went the unhealthy route by getting a side of tots with my tacos. (Sides such as truffle fries, mandarin oranges, cottage cheese and a small salad were also available.
The grilled mahi taco were outstanding. They had a wonderful flavor and had a wonderful consistency. They were light enough that they didn't fill me up, but were substantial enough that I felt satiated after my last bite. The tots were a nice complement to the tacos. They were very crispy on the outside while having a nice flaky inner core. But there was a lot of them and I was able to finish up about half. My wife made a dent in the remaining number of tots I had left in the bowl.
Many old buildings go by the wayside when they become obsolete or no longer functional. But I love it when someone takes an old church and renovates into a useful and operational endeavor. And that's exactly what the Great Revivalist Brewery did with their Clinton location. I read where some townspeople - especially old parishioners - were not too happy that a brewery and restaurant was going into the old church, but Richard Schwab did a wonderful job in preserving much of the historical church's artifacts and decorations. The food was very good, carrying on that tradition from their Geneseo location. And their beers are also very good. While their location in Geneseo was a little closer for us to drive over for a lunch and a few beers, their Clinton location is definitely a destination that we'd be more than happy to make the 45 minute drive to visit once again in the coming months.