My wife and I had no plans on a recent Sunday and I suggested a "Sunday Fun-day!" that entailed bar-hopping to brew pubs and distilleries in the area around the Quad Cities. One of the places that I wanted to go to was the Geneseo Brewing Company in the small town of Geneseo, IL about 20 miles to the east of the Quad Cities. We had been there once before, but that was before they were serving food. I thought it would be nice to head over for lunch to start our "Sunday Fun-day!"
We had actually been to the Geneseo Brewing Company once before about 3 years ago. We had been down the road at the Lionstone Brewing Company for lunch and decided to stop in to GBC on the advice of a buddy of mine. (Click here to see the Road Tips entry on Lionstone Brewing.) I don't remember much about that visit other than they had a pretty good IPA and that they didn't serve food. Friends of ours also like to go to brewpubs around the Quad Cities and we met up with them one Sunday afternoon about a year after we had been to Geneseo Brewing Company and they told us that GBC started to serve food just a few months after we were there.
That was after owners Jerrod and Andrea Minnaert built a kitchen in the lower level of the brewpub and hired local chef Lisa Dixon to run the kitchen and come up with a menu that focused on "farm-to-fork" selections. And it was only natural that the Minnaerts wanted to only serve locally grown foods as Jerrod Minnaert runs his family's farm located just north of Geneseo. But it was Andrea Minnaert who got the family into the bar and restaurant business.
In early 2010, Andrea Minnaert was running into Geneseo to do an errand and she happened to drive by a recently closed bar by the name of Christy's and Cat's on the north end of downtown Geneseo. She saw that the building and its contents were up for auction and the next thing she knew the Minnaerts were in the bar business. It took about nine months of renovations and updates to the place before she got the place ready to open. Raelyn's Pub and Eatery opened for business over the Thanksgiving weekend later that year.
Raelyn's quickly became a popular place with the locals and the Minnaert's were forced to expand to a building next door for their kitchen creating more space in their small tavern. They opened up the backroom of the place for community groups to come in and have meetings.
One of the groups that took the Minnaert's up on their offer for a meeting space was a local home-brewing group. Jerrod Minnaert was in Raelyn's one evening and decided to sit in on the meeting. He found that he was very interested in becoming a home-brewer, so he ended up joining the group.
Over a short period of time, Jerrod Minnaert's interest in brewing beer heightened and he wondered about not just brewing beer at home, but having his own brewpub in Geneseo. He got to talking with one of the other members of the group, Scott Welch, who had a number of interesting brews that Minnaert really liked. Welch agreed to come on board if Minnaert started up his own brewpub.
In 2014, the Minnaert's took over a historical building in downtown Geneseo that had most recently housed a meat shop. Renovations started including a glass-enclosed brewing room in the back. Getting the brewing process up and running took some time and in August of 2015 Geneseo Brewing Company opened their doors. Scott Welch was instrumental in the early success of the brewery, but he ended up leaving the brewpub about two years later. But waiting in the wings was a young guy by the name of Glenn Cole who had worked part-time at Bent River Brewing Company in Moline. Minnaert hired Cole to take over the brewery at Geneseo Brewing Company in late 2017 and continues to be the head brewer today.
We timed it so we would pull up to the Geneseo Brewing Company right at noon when they open on Sundays. We found a parking spot in front of the place located on S. State Street in the heart of downtown Geneseo. (see map) As you come into the GBC, there's an area with chairs, couches and tables where people can congregate in a laid-back and casual area. Some evenings, they move the furniture around and they have live music performances. Beyond the lounge area up front is a line of high-backed booths opposite the small bar.
In the far back of the brewpub was the brewery operation situated behind glass walls. Antique tin ceilings were throughout the main floor of the building with tile walls in the brewery. Old maps and photos of the Geneseo area hung from the walls in the dining area of the brewpub. A framed article from a local newspaper gave information on the original Geneseo Brewing Company that started in the mid-1860's and grew to be a regional favorite in the early 1880's. A fire in December of 1884 destroyed the brewery and the owners decided not to rebuild. (Curiously, the Geneseo Brewing Company's website states that the original GBC started in 1884 and was in business for a little over 10 years.)
We took a seat at one of the booths opposite the bar. A young lady by the name of Tiffany came over to greet us. She brought us a couple of food menus and pointed out the current beer list which was on a flat-screen television in the corner behind the bar, as well as on a chalk board on a wall near the bar. They have three beers that they keep on tap most of the time - the Geneseo blonde ale, the Viking's Beard amber ale, and the Yep Yep pale ale.
They also had a handful of other beers available - most of them were fruit-based. They had a cherry ale - the Scarlet Witch; a sweet Orange ale - Orange You Glad; a hazy pineapple IPA; and the Bananarama, which was a banana and mixed fruit beer. We generally stay away from most fruit beers, but my wife was sort of intrigued about the Ope - an IPA made with Wisconsin-grown hops. She got a sampler of that along with a sampler of the hazy pineapple IPA. She thought the Ope was just OK and was not liking the hazy pineapple at all. I tried a bit of the hazy pineapple and I had to agree with her. I like pineapple and I like beer, but I didn't like GBC's pineapple beer.
But they do have a full bar at Geneseo Brewing Company, so my wife got her regular Tito's vodka and cranberry juice. I had enjoyed the Yep Yep IPA on my previous visit, so I got one of those. But I also got a bloody mary to go along with it. Tiffany asked me to let her know what I thought about the bloody mary when she served it to me. She came back later on to check on us before we ordered food. "How's that bloody mary," she asked. A spot hitter, I told her. In fact, the combination of the Yep Yep IPA and the bloody mary were a winning combination for me on that early Sunday afternoon.
The food menu at GBC features a number of sharable appetizers such as a stuffed portobello mushroom, spinach artichoke dip served with tortilla chips, and mussels sautéed in Geneseo Brewing Company's Chonky Boi imperial stout. They had a wide variety of sandwiches and wraps, as well as burgers and sliders, as well as flatbreads. Entrees such as spicy shrimp tacos, chicken cordon bleu, and macaroni with smoked gouda cheese were also available.
My wife was wanting to eat somewhat light this day and she ended up getting the Apple Pecan Chicken salad made with both romaine and iceberg lettuce. A vinaigrette dressing was supposed to come on the salad, but the first couple of bites pretty much told my wife that the salad was served dry. She got the attention of Tiffany who ran back to the kitchen to get some dressing for her. After the dressing was applied, my wife declared the salad as being very tasty.
I went with the cheddar bacon burger with a side of the home fries. I had a choice of mayo or chipotle mayo to go on the burger and I asked if I could get the spicy mayo on the side. I also asked for sautéed mushrooms on the burger - sautéed mushrooms were available on another burger, so I thought it would be no problem. Well, while Tiffany said that if would be no problem, the person making the burger got the message crossed up and put sautéed onions on the burger. Now, I like the taste of sautéed onions - and these were sweet from the sauce they used to sauté them in. But my stomach usually tells me later on that I'm not supposed to order sautéed onions. However, I wasn't going to complain. It would have taken too long for her to get sautéed mushrooms for me and I was hungry.
The burger was actually pretty good. It had a nice flavor to it (the beef came from a local farm) and was cooked to a nice pink inner core. The cheddar cheese was mild and didn't overpower the burger. The burger came on a pretzel bun that was soft, chewy and flavorful. I didn't put any of the chipotle mayo on the burger - instead, I dipped the home fries into it. That was a great combination in taste.
We lingered in Geneseo Brewing Company for another beer. My wife contemplated getting another drink until I reminded her that it was "Sunday-Funday!" and we were going to head to another place to get something to drink.
Within a 25 mile radius of our house, we have something like 15 different brewpubs/craft breweries to choose from around the Quad Cities. Some we like a lot - others not as much. However, one of our favorites has become Geneseo Brewing Company for a number of reasons. My wife and I were happy enough with the lunch items we had during this visit to the Geneseo Brewing Company. It was a comfortable setting and their beer was very good, as was the bloody mary that I had. Other than putting sautéed onions on my burger instead of sautéed mushrooms like I ordered, there wasn't anything wrong with our visit.
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