There's a brewpub in Springfield, IL that I've wanted to try since I read they had opened a second location in Peoria, IL last year. The original Obed & Isaacs Microbrewery and Eatery opened five years and I finally got around to being able to try the place a few weeks ago. Housed in a mid-1800's-era mansion near Springfield's downtown area, I stopped in for lunch on a recent trip home from St. Louis.
Obed & Isaacs is owned by the Conn Hospitality Group which also oversees a historic bed and breakfast in Springfield - Inn at 835 - and a coffee shop. Owners Court and Karen Conn are the heads of the Conn Hospitality Group. Court Conn's father, Roy Conn, started his first restaurant - Roy's Cafe - in Springfield in the 1940's. At one point in time, there were 4 Roy's Cafe locations around the Springfield area. The restaurant business slowed in the 1970's and Roy Conn changed his focus to catering. Court Conn joined his father in the business and that's where he met his wife-to-be who also worked in the catering company. Court and Karen Conn's two sons, Casey and Adam, work with their parents in the hospitality group.
It turned out that Court Conn was a brewing enthusiast who made five gallon batches of beer at his home. Springfield didn't have a brewpub and he thought that maybe a property that was in his family for over 150 years had the potential to be part of his dream. But at first he had a few hoops he had to jump through to pull it off.
What the Conn's hoped would be the building for their brew pub was built in the 1850's by Obed and Cordelia Lewis - the great-great grandfather of Court Conn. The house had passed through generations of the family before it became office space in the 1930's. In 2007, Court and Karen Conn bought the home hoping to be able to restore it to its original state. But too many renovations to the place over the years pretty much nixed any chance of them being able to fully restore the building.
Pictured at right - Karen and Court Conn. Photo courtesy Illinois Policy.org
The Conn's were forced to demolish the home, but at the same time they looked at preserving another mid-1800-era home that was located about six blocks away. With the help of various local agencies, the Conn's were able to move the former Issac Lindsey mansion - also known as the Maisenbacher house - to the spot where the former Lewis home once stood at Jackson and Seventh Streets near downtown Springfield.
It soon became obvious to the Conn family that the Lindsey/Maisenbacher house would be too small for their dream of operating a brew pub - even with the original Lewis carriage house off to the side of the property. They ended up buying the old Booth-Grunendike mansion on the same block at the corner of Jackson and Sixth and began work to renovate that space for the main part of the brew pub.
Still, more hoops had to be jumped through and the Conn's were finally able to build an annex between the two houses for their brewing equipment. They were finally able to open Obed & Isaac's in February of 2012. Their success was evident right off the bat and it wasn't long before the Conn's were thinking of expanding the Obed and Isaac name to other cities.
They scouted around other smaller Midwestern cities looking for an old house or building to renovate into a brewpub. They found a building in Peoria, an hour to the north, that was built in the late 1880's and used as a church over the years before being used as a reception hall in later years. After a series of renovations and leasing of land next to the building for a beer garden and bocci court, the Conn's opened the Peoria Obed & Isaac's Microbrewery and Eatery in September of last year.
There's a parking lot just to the south side of Obed and Isaac's and I was able to park there when I pulled up to the old stately house just after noon that particular day. (see map) The door to the place was around to the side through the beer garden full of wrought iron tables and chairs and into the tap room of the bar.
I ended up sitting at the bar in the tap room and it soon became a popular place with a number of workers from nearby state office buildings coming in for lunch. I was greeted by the bartender, a pleasant young lady by the name of Darcy who gave me a menu to look over. I ordered up an Isaac's IPA, a west-coast style double-hopped beer that had a bit of a bitter start with a smooth finish.
The menu was somewhat lengthy and rather interesting. It was definitely a step-up from most brewpubs I've visited in terms of food choices and featured a number of unique appetizers including onion rings dredged in a black & tan beer batter, rib tips, and pierogies filled with mashed potatoes and cheese and topped with sour cream, cheese, green onions and real bacon bits.
Sandwiches were a large part of the menu with a reuben, a oven-baked chicken parm sandwich, a house-smoked pulled pork barbecue sandwich, and a goat cheese/bacon/lettuce and tomato sandwich. They also had burgers, fish and chips, and the Springfield staple - the Horseshoe Sandwich - on the menu.
As I perused the menu, I made my way down to the entrees part of the menu and found exactly what I wanted - the open-faced roast beef sandwich. It was served on a bed of Texas toast with mashed potatoes and green beans on top of the bread. The roast beef was thinly sliced and laid on the potatoes and green beans. It was all topped off with a hearty mushroom and onion gravy. (I almost got the bacon wrapped meat loaf that was made with ground lamb and sirloin beef. Next time...)
I'd been needing a good stick-to-your-ribs meal after a long week on the road and the open-faced roast beef sandwich at Obed and Isaac's was a definite spot-hitter. It was a generous portion that was served to me and I knew that I wouldn't be able to eat the whole thing. But it was very good - the roast beef was lean and tender, the green beans weren't mushy or overcooked, the gravy was thick and savory with a great mushroom and onion flavor to it. I was more than happy with what I ordered for lunch, even if I couldn't finish the whole plate.
After settling up with Darcy, I walked around the main floor of the place. It featured four or five small to mid-sized rooms set up for dining. Most of the rooms were full of diners during the lunch hour. I took a couple pictures of two of the rooms, but they didn't turn out very well from the bright outside light coming in through the windows making everything in the foreground of the room turn out dark.
I'm certainly glad I finally made it to Obed and Isaac's a couple three years after first reading about the place. The 1800's era house is a perfect place for a unique brew pub, and I have to say the open-faced roast beef sandwich was very good and very filling. The Isaac's IPA I was also impressed with and the service I received while seated in the tap room was prompt and friendly. I'm going back for the lamb/sirloin meat loaf at some point, but there's other things on the menu that I wouldn't mind trying, as well.
Well, it looks like there are actually some people in Springfield don't have their head up their ass.
Posted by: Tom | July 03, 2017 at 12:40 PM