One very nice fall Sunday afternoon a couple months ago, my wife wanted to go for a little drive. I was up for our regular burger and bloody mary Sunday, so we drove over to Geneseo, IL via backroads. We tried to get into the Geneseo Brewing Company, but we found that they were closed until 3 p.m. on Sundays. I remembered that a new brewery had taken over the old Lionstone Brewery in Geneseo, so we ended up heading out there. Five minutes later, we pulled up in front of the Great Revivalist Brew Lab.
Not long after I did the original post on the Lionstone Brewing Company in 2017 (click here to see that post), I received an e-mail from Logan Hamilton who let me know that he was no longer the head brewer at the brewery. He never told me the reason why, other than he was going to get back into teaching.
Through the grapevine, I had heard that Lionstone owner Steve Fiers was looking for someone to take over the brewery/brewpub. In 2019, he was introduced to Seattle native Richard Schwab who began to negotiate the takeover of the Geneseo operation.
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 8 years ago and Schwab was impressed with the variety of breweries in the area. He became friendly with the brewers at Great Bend 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 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 Bend 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 Bend Brewery with up to 3 feet of water effectively knocking the place out of business.
After floodwaters subsided, the owners of the Great Bend 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 so far that plan has been pushed back into mid-2022.
We pulled into the parking lot of the Great Revivalist Brew Lab around 1:30 in the afternoon. Really not much had changed from when we were in to Lionstone Brewing a couple three previous times.
We initially sat at a table near one of the floor to ceiling windows in the front of the brewpub. However, I looked over at the bar and noticed a familiar face behind it. It was an old friend from working events for the City of Davenport over the years, Neil. Neil and I had lost contact for a handful of years, but for some reason we kept running into one another at different places around the Quad Cities where he was working for the now closed Crust pizza restaurant, and when he would help out with the Floyd's Burgers food truck when it was parked at various brew pubs around the Quad Cities. We decided to go up to the bar and have Neil wait on us.
After exchanging pleasantries with Neil - who told us he was wearing various hats for Great Revivalist Brew Lab - we took a look at the list of brews they had on their beer list. But, of course, I was there for a bloody mary, as well. Neil promised that he made a great bloody mary and I sent him away to start on that while we looked at the beer list to see if there was anything that caught our eye.
We wanted to try some samplers and we decided upon the Project Hazy IPA and the Mile 19 pale ale (Geneseo is Exit 19 on I-80 in Illinois). I was also sort of interested in trying the seasonal Pumpkin Eater pumpkin and yam spiced beer and Neil suggested his favorite beer they had at the time - the Ryevolution rye and red ale. The Ryevolution red ale was pretty good, the Pumpkin Eater was a little too strong on the taste buds, and we liked both the Project Hazy IPA a bit more than the Mile 19 pale ale.
Neil's bloody mary was more of an artisan bloody mary with a splash of beer added to the mix. It was a bit more thin in texture than I like for my bloody mary's, but it was still pretty good.
While we were enjoying our beers and the bloody mary, Neil had dropped off a couple food menus for us to look over. They still had the big wood fired pizza oven in the corner of the restaurant that was there when we would come out to the Lionstone Brewery. They still had a number of pizzas and flatbreads on the menu - something that we had said we were going to try at some point, but never did. Salads, sandwiches, and appetizers such as wings, a spicy tot poutine, and a combo basket of fried pickles and fried Wisconsin cheese curds were also on the menu.
While I had my heart set on a burger, my eyes wandered over to the mahi mahi grilled tacos - I'm always a sucker for good grilled fish tacos. Fresh cole slaw, pico-de-gallo, and a cilantro/lime ranch dressing came with the fish tacos that were also available deep fried. The fish tacos gave me pause, but I still ended up going the burger route.
They had three different types of burgers on the menu at Great Revivalist - a sharp cheddar and bacon burger; an avocado/queso burger with pico-de-gallo and a Creole aioli; and a traditional burger with a choice of cheddar, Swiss or pepper jack cheese. I went the traditional route with some pepper jack cheese. I had a choice of sides which included truffle fries, kettle chips, cottage cheese and a side Caesar's salad. But they also had tots and I had to go with those.
My wife saw the blackened grouper sandwich on the menu and she asked Neil if they could hold the bread on the sandwich. It came with lettuce, tomato, and an onion slice with the Creole aioli on the side. She got a choice of sides and she went with the house-made cole slaw.
My burger was on a pretzel bun that was, quite frankly, sort of dried out. In fact with the vegetable condiments and a little ketchup on the burger, the bun literally disintegrated. And that was a shame because the burger patty was very good. I ended up using a fork and knife to finish off the burger. The tots were excellent, however, especially with some Cholula splashed onto them. But, it's pretty tough to screw up tots.
My wife was more than impressed with the grouper. It was light, flaky and had just enough Cajun spices on it to give it a kick, but not too much where it was too spicy for my wife. I had a small bite of it and I have to say that it was better than my burger. And my wife let me share some of her Creole aioli for some of my tots. That had a wonderful flavor to it and I almost liked it better on the tots than the Cholula sauce.
After we finished our lunch, Neil invited us to take a look at their back patio where they put in individual greenhouse-style huts that they use for outdoor dining in the winter. They first started doing this in late 2020 to provide dining space when inside dining restrictions were still in place. With most restrictions now lifted, the little huts were such a hit with Great Revivalist patrons that they decided to bring them back again for the winter of 2021-22. The plexiglass huts will seat 4 to 6 people and each have their own heater. I understand there is a wait list for the huts on the weekends.
The top of a old silo had been fabricated on one end of the deck to provide another space for dining or drinking outside in the elements. While it wasn't as nice as the huts, it was kind of a neat rustic touch. The deck overlooked an open field with a creek and featured chairs and stools to relax on. It was a little cool that day - definitely cold in the shade - so there weren't many people hanging out on the deck.
Our first visit to the Great Revivalist Brew Lab was deemed a success with a very good hazy India pale ale, a delicious chunk of blackened grouper, a bloody mary that was pretty good, and a burger that even though the pretzel bun disintegrated, it was still edible. It was also good to see our friend Neil and to get caught up on the goings and doings of the Geneseo location and the upcoming Davenport location for Great Revivalist. We have a number of breweries and brewpubs within a 25 mile radius of our home and it's good that Great Revivalist Brew Lab continues on in Geneseo.
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