North Siders will see Crust Tap Room replace Leader Bar | Eater Chicago

"An Irving Park corner space that closed in December and long operated as Leader Liquors/Leader Bar will be reimagined as a neighborhood pizza pub by the owners of a suburban brewery based in Rosemont. The brewery "specializes in lagers made from a 2,000-liter Kaspar-Schulz brewery that was designed, engineered, and manufactured in Bamberg, Germany." Its Vienna amber lager, aptly called Dough Roller, "features a malty, sweet, and hoppy flavor profile — a nod to the spot’s practice of using its own beer to make its pizza dough, according to Block Club Chicago." Bradley Cool, director of operations for the Rosemont brewery, tells Block Club that "about half of the beer and food offerings available at the Rosemont locations will be on offer at the new neighborhood spot." The new spot occupies a roughly 3,500-square-foot space where minor renovations have been completed; it will serve tavern-style pizza (rather than Neapolitan pies), and beer will continue to be brewed in Rosemont with the goal of eventually carrying several styles on tap. The brewery behind the project opened in 2022 in Rosemont’s Parkway Bank Park entertainment district, set within the former Hofbräuhaus (which closed in 2021). Historically, the property was a quintessential neighborhood corner dive bar known as Leader Liquors before being recast as Leader Bar in 2011 by father-and-son operators Josef Matuschka and Michael Matuschka (the team behind the shuttered Max Bar and Nikki, formerly Crobar). A March opening is planned." - Serena Maria Daniels