Harmony Fest will be the first chance to sample Spent Grain Brewing, which plans to pour from a tent outside its future taproom on October 2-3. The owners are targeting a full indoor opening in late October or early November, after finishing work at the space.
The planned taproom is at 17 N. Vail Ave., and the festival setup will let the brewery serve the public before indoor service begins. Co-owners Eric Lamkins and Heather Henkel are opening what the Daily Herald describes as Arlington Heights' first brewery. Attorney Bob Holland, representing the owners, visited village hall to secure Spent Grain's Class A liquor license, which allows it to take part in Harmony Fest while interior punch-list work continues.
Harmony Fest, the village's signature fall street festival, features dozens of food vendors and mainstage acts including Rod Tuffcurls and The Bench Press and Mike & Joe, according to the Village of Arlington Heights. Spent Grain's planned taproom will occupy a 2,500-square-foot space that once housed the Bangkok Cafe.
A Multi-Year Path Through Village Zoning
The project depended on a change to downtown zoning. In September 2024, the Arlington Heights Village Board approved special zoning changes to allow microbreweries in the downtown commercial core, clearing the way to redevelop the vacant former restaurant space, according to the Daily Herald. Interior renovations have continued since then. ComEd extended additional electricity capacity to the building three weeks before the report's publication, Jon Ridler, executive director of the Arlington Heights Chamber of Commerce, said.
Spent Grain's brewing operation is built for a tight downtown footprint. The nano-brewery crafts beer in single-barrel, 30-gallon batches, and Journal & Topics Media Group reports the self-contained system requires no external building ventilation, letting full brewing operations run inside the former restaurant space without heavy industrial retrofitting. Once open, the brewpub plans 16 beer taps across 61 total seats, split among 30 dining-table seats, 14 at the bar, 10 on couches and 7 in lounge chairs.
Owners With Deep Local Roots
Lamkins and Henkel are not newcomers to Arlington Heights business. Lamkins is a home-brewer, beekeeper and the marketing and graphic design chief behind his firm, which the Arlington Heights Chamber of Commerce notes he has run locally since at least 2009; he also spent six years working at Tuscan Market & Wine Shop. Henkel owns Kilwins confectionery stores in Arlington Heights and Park Ridge. The pair could not attend the village board meeting approving the project because they were at a Kilwins conference in Florida at the time.
That local-business instinct carries into the menu. Spent Grain submitted plans for pretzels, bruschetta, soups, salads, flatbreads and sandwiches, and the brewery intends to bake homemade breads using its own spent brewing grains — the leftover material typically discarded after the brewing process. Once open, Spent Grain plans to serve drinks, lunch and dinner Monday through Thursday from 4 to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., with entry restricted to guests 21 and over.
Looser Kitchen Rules Reflect a Post-Pandemic Shift
Arlington Heights has long required food to be served alongside drinks at local establishments, but the village board recently gave bar and restaurant operators more breathing room. In July, village trustees agreed that liquor license holders may end food service at 8 p.m. instead of 11 p.m., a change Journal & Topics Media Group tied to post-pandemic staffing pressures facing local dining operators. The adjustment gives a small operation like Spent Grain more flexibility as it builds out its kitchen alongside its brewing operation.
Spent Grain also envisions itself as more than a place to drink. Lamkins plans a rotating quarterly showcase for local artists and camera clubs to display work on the brewpub's walls, while local homebrewers would get opportunities to feature their own recipes on tap, according to earlier reporting from the Daily Herald. The brewery has also built relationships with nearby small businesses, planning to source German sausages from Thuringer Meats, wines from Vintages Wine Shop, and Arlington Club soda from the Arlington Heights Historical Museum.
Spent Grain is joining a downtown corridor that already draws visitors for open-air dining. Arlington Alfresco, the village's seasonal pedestrian dining zone along Vail Avenue and Campbell Street, welcomed more than 360,000 visitors in 2025, according to Patch. That is a district-wide visitor figure, not a count of Spent Grain customers.
What Arlington Alfresco’s visitor count covers
The more-than-360,000 figure refers to Arlington Alfresco’s Vail Avenue and Campbell Street area during its May-through-September 2025 season, not to visitors at any one business.
The open-air program began in spring 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to village records.
A Tough Moment Nationally for Craft Beer
Spent Grain's hospitality-heavy approach — full kitchen, art displays, community ties — mirrors a broader industry pivot happening as the craft beer sector cools nationally. The Brewers Association reported that craft brewery closures nationwide outpaced openings for the first time in two decades in 2024, with 529 closures against 430 openings, as growth shifts toward brewpubs and taprooms built around food and hospitality rather than beer alone. Illinois itself had 288 operating craft breweries as of 2025, ranking 13th nationally and generating an estimated $2.82 billion in statewide economic impact, per the trade group's separate state-level data.
For now, Arlington Heights residents will get their first real taste of the project at Harmony Fest, sampling beer from a tent while the brewpub's interior finishing touches continue just a few steps away. If the late-October or early-November timeline holds, Spent Grain Brewing will become the first taproom of its kind to open in the heart of downtown Arlington Heights.
