By Laura Katauskas
Staff Reporter
The world of craft beer has fast become a phenomenon of its own and the new owners of Iron & Glass in Romeoville are carving out their own niche in it.
Neighbors, friends, and now business partners, Eric Schultz and Colt Snodgrass have a main goal in mind—to share their passion for craft beer while bringing a new, affordable experience to a community that has already begun to embrace them.
Iron & Glass, 632 S. Weber Road, a taproom and bottleshop, is a fairly new concept; one-part liquor store, one-part tasting room where patrons can purchase a unique craft beer, cider or mead of nearly 200 choice varieties; sample a new brew of the 10 to 12 latest and freshest on tap; or both, bottle sharing with those on premise is welcome.
Snodgrass said the pair had seen places in other states for such an “on premise/off premise” type of establishment, but nothing locally.
“With our passion for craft beer, we knew that this was a place we would like to visit and thought we could try to bring the experience here,” said Snodgrass.
Both dads of young children, they decided it was one of those “now or never” moments, opting to seize an opportunity to make their passion become their business about three years ago.
“We also saw how prices for craft beer began rising and we want to keep craft affordable for the consumer,” said Snodgrass.
But it wasn’t an immediate win. After approaching a few different towns and villages, they were met with skepticism over a new concept foreign to most.
“It was a bit discouraging—some just didn’t understand the business model and just thought we were going to be a rowdy bar,” explained Schultz.
The love for the project had them revisit the idea, both their wives, Maggie Schultz and Christine Snodgrass, also partners in the business continued to brainstorm.
With the open of Romeoville’s first brewery Metal Monkey last year and business connections to the village, the door was open for the idea of Iron & Glass.
“Metal Monkey just opened and Starbucks was selling beer at the time (not any longer); we started thinking this might actually happen; if we don’t do it now, we will never do it; our kids were getting older…so we went back to update our business plan and presented it,” said Schultz.
In December, the husband and wife teams opened Iron & Glass and have already established a following. As craft beer enthusiasts watch for the latest brew, odds are they will land on the bottleshop’s shelves. Schultz explains they are calling distributers daily to ensure they are well stocked in the latest and greatest—that’s what their passion lies—getting the right beer in the right hands.
“That’s what differentiates us from a brewery,” said Schultz. “A brewery is constantly brewing beer; we are constantly ordering beer. There are different challenges for each—a brewery is more labor intensive; for us we have a conversation every day with people to find the best beer; and what’s new.”
And when it’s hot, it’s gone. Once Iron & Glass posts on Facebook or the app Untappd that something is in stock; a particular batch can be gone in a few hours.
“We are here to educate the community on craft beer to show how much great beer there is available,” said Schultz. We try to be into as much Illinois beer as possible because there is such great local beer but we also want to spotlight everything else that is available in the country.”
In addition to craft beer, wine, cider and mead are also offered.
“All the local fresh harvests really bring up the flavor profiles. Freshness is what you get out of this and that is what matters. We are trying to stay local so that means you are going to get the freshest stuff possible,” said Snodgrass. “We are not pushing one style. There is a beer out there for everyone, if not, there’s a cider. Please come in and taste; find out what you like; we will help you along the way.”
Iron & Glass will always have 10 rotating beers on draft, one cider and one non-alcoholic ginger brew.
“We have it because we are family friendly; it’s important to us, we both have kids, we want to have a place where families can feel comfortable coming into the store,” said Schultz.
They also are BYOF—that is bring your own food. Bring what you like, take advantage of the WIFI and relax. Every Friday the taproom will also have a food truck onsite.
But what they don’t have—flat screen TVs—and that’s a good thing.
“Initially, we want to get a strong community feel out here; which we’ve seen; we’ve already got a lot of regulars,” said Snodgrass. Everyone pulls their chairs up around the bar, talking and sharing beer, talk about beer and that’s all without TVs. People are taking bottles off the shelf and passing them around so everyone can share. That’s what we like; we like people and we like talking about beer! We want to share that.”
The endeavor has been life-changing for both families.
“It’s the four of us; we’re still pushing mops around with the kids running all around while we get ready to open. We don’t have any big investors, this is us. It’s a little bit surreal. Success and failure is all on us now—but we like that pressure,” said Schultz.
“We both looking forward to coming to work–how many people can say that about their job—I know I couldn’t say that before. We get to do what we love,” said Snodgrass.
“Its weird to think that one of the beers we’ve chased after for years to have in our home, we are now serving in our own store—surreal.”