Name: Waking from pandemic hibernation, Hopleaf bar sets reopening date after sinking $100,000 into new windows, 64 taps and refreshed menu
Brand: chicagotribune.com
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Waking from pandemic hibernation, Hopleaf bar sets reopening date after sinking $100,000 into new windows, 64 taps and refreshed menu

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AdvertisementBy Chicago TribuneMar 10, 2021 at 11:22 amThe legendary Hopleaf bar will reopen this spring as something different than what the COVID-19 pandemic closed last fall.Some changes will be out of view, such as the new ice machine or sales processing system. Others will be apparent to the eagle-eyed — new menu items and new dining room windows installed this week to improve ventilation for the next stage of pandemic living.AdvertisementFewer bottled beers will be available when the Andersonville bar reopens April 1, and kitchen staff will be more involved with delivering food to tables — new wrinkles rooted in a fresh approach made possible by a five-month closure that bar owner Michael Roper never wants to repeat, but which he used to his advantage.He described the process as “some clean-up, fix-up, reconcepting and curating.”Advertisement“There are a lot of things about how you run your place that are really hard to change when you’re open seven days a week, 14 to 15 hours a day,” Roper said. “Having this full stop allowed for those changes to happen.”Hopleaf served its last customer in early November, just after indoor dining was shut down in Chicago for a second time during the pandemic. Roper’s early bullishness about serving customers outdoors on Hopleaf’s back patio during winter quickly faded. It was too cold and it wasn’t what people wanted. He decided the only way for the bar to survive was to close until spring — .Even when Chicago allowed indoor dining again in late January, Roper worried about safety and virus transmission. He decided to wait until he could comfortably open Hopleaf’s windows and let in the spring air.All along he has targeted April 1 for reopening. He figured the city would allow indoor seating at 50% capacity by then, which is what he needs, along with outdoor dining, to make Hopleaf viable. It might get a little chilly, he said, but he expects customers to be excited to fill the place once more, even in its limited capacity. Especially in its limited capacity.“I don’t think we’re going to have a hard time filling the place that first week or two,” he said. “We’ve been getting a lot of requests for reservations.”Hopleaf will reopen with a full menu, plus a few new items. Among them will be a pork burger introduced last summer by necessity: an abundance of pork shoulder from the prepandemic days that Roper didn’t want to waste when reopening after a three-month industry shutdown in spring. It was such a hit, it’s sticking around.Hopleaf didn’t operate its wood-fired grill last summer due to labor and operating costs. On April 1, it will roar once more.“I think people really want normality, and we’ll give them normal,” Roper said.AdvertisementRoper wants normal, too. His excitement about reopening is audible. There’s a lilt in his voice as he talks about it.WeeklyWhat to eat. What to watch. What you need to live your best life ... now. &gt; “I’m dying for it,” he said. “To be in the hospitality industry and not be hospitable — it’s really depressing sitting in the bar night after night. Because I’ve been in there every day.”A neighboring bar owner, he said, shut down this winter and disappeared for several weeks. Roper said he couldn’t do such a thing. He has operated Hopleaf since 1992, nurturing it from a seedy dive of cheap beer and porno films — — to one of the nation’s great beer bars with a food menu to match.An empty Hopleaf became his office while navigating the mechanics of a five-month closure: hours on the phone with banks and utility companies, monitoring equipment, and just making sure the place never felt too empty. He kept 10 beers on draft to sip with friends and colleagues when they stopped by.Things have ramped up in recent weeks as a rotating cast of contractors and technicians have come by to get Hopleaf ready for its next act. Roper is spending about $100,000 to get the place open, but thinks it’ll keep the bar positioned for the long run.Getting fresh beer has been key. Roper has feverishly worked the phones in recent weeks to fill all 64 of Hopleaf’s beer and cider draft lines. Most breweries stopped filling kegs at some point during the pandemic, which means there’s a lot of old beer out there.AdvertisementRoper doesn’t want to serve any of it. Because, he said, no matter the tweaks that accompany the return of Hopleaf on April 1, serving beer in any less than ideal condition wouldn’t be Hopleaf. Advertisement

AdvertisementBy Chicago TribuneMar 10, 2021 at 11:22 amThe legendary Hopleaf bar will reopen this spring as something different than what the COVID-19 pandemic closed last fall.Some changes will be out of view, such as the new ice machine or sales processing system. Others will be apparent to the eagle-eyed — new menu items and new dining room windows installed this week to improve ventilation for the next stage of pandemic living.AdvertisementFewer bottled beers will be available when the Andersonville bar reopens April 1, and kitchen staff will be more involved with delivering food to...

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The Chicago Tribune is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television are named), it remains the most-read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region. It had the 6th highest circulation for American newspapers in 2017.

Waking from pandemic hibernation, Hopleaf bar sets reopening date after sinking $100,000 into new windows, 64 taps and refreshed menu

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