But by making it approachable, where you only have to buy one, then you can find out if you really like it and can come back and get more if you do. Maybe it was my humble beginnings, but I have no interest in buying that. For some breweries, if you look on the shelf at a regular store or the brewery, you have to be committed to spending $22 or $24 on a four-pack of a hazy IPA. Selling single cans … definitely makes it more approachable. And that’s a big part of this: learning what you don’t like. There’s just so much beer and so much noise, so by offering singles, we feel it allows people to go in and sample and figure out what they like and what they don’t like. And with our expansion to Arlington Heights, that became the thing. We have a website where we sell everything by the (single) can or bottle, and our pricing in the store is based on single beers. And from day one, I wanted to really embrace the single-can and single-bottle idea. The buildout wasn’t easy, but we put some shelves up, slapped some paint on the walls and got some beer sold. There were tumbleweeds blowing down the street. This part of Main Street in Park Ridge was dead at the time. And I started looking around and came across this dump (laughs) that’s coming up on its 100-year anniversary. And from day one, I wanted to really embrace the single-can and single-bottle idea.Ī year later, I was still spending a lot of money on four packs I didn’t really like, so I thought, let’s see if I can do this.
This part of Main Street in Park Ridge was dead at the time (we opened). And I thought, “If I do open a bottle shop, how would that work?” I have a business degree and an MBA in Entrepreneurship, so I started writing a business plan to see where it took me because you’re up at weird hours taking care of kids anyway.
#HOP BUTCHER GREENER TIMES FREE#
I was working corporate jobs up in Libertyville, which is a hell of a commute, and I had a lot of ideas floating around in my head and a lot of free time to think in that commute home. Then when I had a kid and we moved to the burbs, that part of me died (laughs). That was my routine for a lot of years, and then other friends would do the same thing and we would coordinate what we were buying. And I did this until I pretty much got all the way down to the bottom shelf. I had band practice down the street on Tuesdays, so I would stop in to Bottles and Cans and pick the first six things on the shelf, left to right, top to bottom, that I hadn’t had before. We sat down with Tracy earlier this summer to chat a bit about his humble beginnings, why he likes selling individual cans and which Illinois breweries have caught his eye of late.įinding his path: I was living in the city for 15 years, and I was a frequenter of Bottles of Cans and their “mix-six” option.
Safe to say owner Ryan Tracy’s vision was a good one because a second location opened in Arlington Heights in 2020, and an Elmhurst version opened earlier this summer. Combining of your favorite coffee shop vibe and the impressive selection of a specialty beer store, Beer on the Wall quickly became a local favorite since opening in Park Ridge in 2016, offering cozy seating, board games, a staff capable of talking and socializing about craft beer, and a constant rotation of 16 draft and 600 shelf options to keep everything fresh.
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