Mayor D'Arcy Reacts To MyGrain Brewing's Closure

JOLIET, IL — Joliet Mayor Terry D'Arcy said he's saddened by the recent news that downtown Joliet's MyGrain Brewing, one of two operating microbreweries in Joliet, has gone out of business. MyGrain had a lease agreement with the city of Joliet to use the historic Union Station since September 2017.

According to Google Reviews, MyGrain had an impressive 848 Google Reviews, averaging 4.5 stars out of 5 stars. Saturday, Aug. 19 was its last day of business.

Mayor D'Arcy does not expect the MyGrain Brewing property will remain vacant for a long period of time. He believes somebody with an established restaurant-brewery, ideally in multiple locations, would want to fill the vacancy.

"We hope to have somebody as soon as possible," D'Arcy told Joliet Patch during last week's interview. "By the end of the year would be good."

MyGrain operated on the first level of the historic Union Train Station, and its owners were Vincent Turrise and Grezgorz Lesiak.

MyGrain also sold its beers at several area liquor stores, restaurants and supermarkets.

"I feel bad that he's been struggling down there," D'Arcy said of Lesiak. "I think Gregory is a great guy. I would like to find somebody else to use the (brewery) equipment in the space."

One of the challenges for MyGrain, D'Arcy said, was that the downtown brewery often experienced "feast or famine" type crowds depending on whether the Joliet Slammers independent baseball team had its home baseball games a block away.

D'Arcy said MyGrain often drew a tremendous crowd when the Slammers were playing in town, but when the team was on the road, it was often difficult to draw a packed crowd to the brewery.

"We didn't see it coming," D'Arcy said of MyGrain's sudden closure. "I will miss it, and I'm hopeful that some other restaurant owner, maybe a restaurant-brewery with several other locations, can take it over. It's a great space, and it doesn't need anything."

Despite the closure of MyGrain, Joliet has one remaining microbrewery, Elder Brewing Company operates at 218 East Cass Street.