New Du Quoin Brew Pub within a month of opening

It was a leap of faith for the Gene Gross family to purchase the St. Nicholas Hotel building on Oak Street in 2009 for $777 in back taxes.

It was an Historic Preservation rescue effort of high stakes proportion.

Five years and nearly $1 million later the Gross family and their business partners are within a month of opening a signature brew pub and restaurant in downtown Du Quoin.

Attorney Patricia Gross said Thursday, "Hopefully, we will open the end of July.

The partners have hired independent Brewmaster James McCoy from Chicago to brew four or five custom beers from the micro-brewery, which will be sold in the restaurant.

Guests will be able to view the beer-making process through a window wall, in the same fashion you could watch Coca-Cola being bottled at the Du Quoin plant years ago.

Partners will think through the possibilities of selling the labels outside the restaurant in the coming months.

The beautiful bar and tables have been custom built using the hard rock maple from the original Fairview Bowling Alley lanes in Du Quoin. It took six men to carry the heavy sections of maple into the building where carpenter Terry Maxey of Du Quoin worked magic with the historic wood. In fact, Maxey is responsible for most of the interior work once contractor Fager-McGee was finished restoring the structural integrity to the building.

Barn wood accents come from a barn near some of the Knight Hawk Coal Co. property.

A carriage house lantern mounted to the original hotel brickwork is part of an inviting entrance. The staircase to the second floor has been rebuilt, but the upper floors are not being used at this time.

The work has been painstaking, but the result is stunning. Daughter Abby Ancell will manage the restaurant, which will be open for lunch and dinner. It will feature high quality pub items like burgers, pizza, salads and sandwiches.

"The kitchen was the big thing," said Gross.

The new kitchen equipment is shrink-wrapped and sitting on the floor of the kitchen.

The restaurant and brewery are expected to employ between 10 and 15 people.