"We hope this is not goodbye, but the beginning of a new chapter for Lake Bluff Brewing." The Lake Bluff Public Library said that in September, after the brewery announced it was leaving 16 East Scranton Avenue. The same statement called the business "an incredible community partner."
The library thanked the brewery as a partner, not a vendor, and that detail explains what actually changed downtown this fall. The town lost a room where public institutions held their more casual events. It kept the calendar those institutions run on ground they control.
Fifteen Years at 16 East Scranton
Lake Bluff Brewing Company opened at 16 East Scranton Avenue in March 2011. Its last day open was its annual Oktoberfest Block Party on September 12, 2026. Owners Mike and Megan Dorneker told the Lake and McHenry County Scanner that their 15-year lease ran out earlier this year and the space was rented to another tenant. "This was not our choice," they said. Patch confirmed the closure in a September 28 report.
The couple listed what the taproom had hosted over the years: weddings, graduations, baby showers, after-work gatherings and new-home celebrations. They also thanked a long list of partners, including the Lake Bluff Public Library, the Lake Bluff History Museum, Abbott, AbbVie, other local small businesses and charitable groups. According to the library, the brewery hosted its Trivia Nights and summer block parties and supported its Totally Booked beer series.
The final party fit that history. The band Käsekrainer played it, and lead singer Brett Kreiner met his wife, Kristen, when they were both bartending at Lake Bluff Brewing. They were among the brewery's first employees.
The One Program That Had to Leave Town
The clearest early sign of what the closure affects came within weeks. The library's Trivia Night was booked at the brewery for September 30. It moved to the downstairs Grotto at the Gorton Center in Lake Forest, still at 6 p.m., with concessions for sale.
Trivia Night is the case that shows the pattern. It was a library program, and it depended on a private room downtown. Once the room was gone, the event crossed the town line to find space. The bigger dates on Lake Bluff's fall calendar work differently. They're organized by public bodies and held on public ground, so a lease decision on Scranton Avenue can't move them.
The Calendar That Never Depended on a Lease
From now through the first week of December, every major Lake Bluff date belongs to the Park District, the Village, the library or the History Museum. Here's the run in order:
- Park District Fireworks Celebration, Saturday, October 10. The event was moved to this date after a forecast showed a 90% chance of heavy rain. It runs 3 to 10 p.m. at the Lake Bluff Recreation Center, 355 W. Washington Ave., with live music at 4 p.m. and fireworks at 6:30 p.m.
- Trunk or Treat and an outdoor movie, October 16. The library calendar pairs Trunk or Treat with a 7:30 p.m. screening of Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.
- Pumpkin Bash, Friday, October 23, 5:30 to 8 p.m., on the Village calendar.
- Pumpkin Chase, Saturday, October 24. The 5K starts at 8 a.m. and the fun run at 9:15 a.m. The listing gives the location as 31 E. Sheridan Place.
- Santa visit and pancake breakfast, December 5. Kiwanis of Lake Bluff/Lake Forest cooks the pancakes, according to the Park District calendar.
- "It's a Wonderful Life," Saturday, December 5, 1 to 5 p.m., on the Village Green.
- Lake Bluff History Museum Holiday Home Tour, Sunday, December 6, 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Two of those seven come from organizations the brewery thanked by name, the library and the History Museum. Both keep their seasonal events on their own calendars and at their own sites. The brewery added an informal gathering place for those partners between the bigger dates, and that's the piece missing this fall.
Same Blocks, Different Doors
16 East Scranton sits in a short row of storefronts that are still open. Source & Style, a vintage shop, is listed at 12 E. Scranton. In 2025 the Deer Path Art League held its members' show there. Maevery Public House posts meal hours at 20 E. Scranton. Hansa Coffee Roasters runs its Lake Bluff cafe at 24 E. Scranton and posted to its site as recently as October 1.
Farther east, Half and Half Pizza lists daily hours at 77 E. Scranton. Reverie Petit Cafe, at 91 E. Scranton, closed briefly for a renovation and reopened January 27, 2026.
On a fall Saturday, the walk from the Village Green past those addresses runs from a vintage shop to a public house to a coffee roaster in less than a block. The closed taproom sits in the middle of that stretch. The other storefronts around it are open.
"Businesses are open! Please Patronize!"
The Village used that line in its May 22 update on the East Scranton Avenue Block One streetscape. At the time, contractors were putting in new sidewalks, seatwalls and underground utilities while shops and roads stayed open. When the Village announced the project in April, it described wider sidewalks, festoon lighting and gathering areas. The schedule ran April 15 to June 4, with a goal of finishing before the first Farmers Market. The latest project notice we found is dated May 26. It said lighting poles, street furniture, planter pots and seatwall materials were still on order, with installation and plantings to follow. We haven't seen a Village completion notice since then, so we can't say whether every piece is in place this fall.
What the project shows is intent. In the same year the brewery's lease ended, the Village spent its construction season building public seating and gathering space on this block. That's the kind of space the taproom's block parties had borrowed from the street for years.
Getting Downtown This Month
If you're coming from the west side of town, plan around one more project. The Village's October 3 update on the Green Bay Road reconstruction said the work should be nearly finished within 30 days. Concrete for curbs, gutters, sidewalks and driveway aprons is scheduled on the west side between Center Avenue and Hawthorne Court from October 5 to 9, then on the east side the week of October 12. That window overlaps the fireworks weekend and the start of the Pumpkin Bash week.
What Isn't Settled
Two questions are still open as of early October. The new tenant at 16 East Scranton hasn't been publicly named. Lake Bluff Brewing hasn't announced a new location either. The Dornekers say they want to stay in Lake Bluff and have asked anyone who knows of available space to contact them.
For now, the library's evening programs are the ones looking for a home, and its September trivia night took place in Lake Forest. The fireworks, the pumpkin weekend, Santa's breakfast and the December dates on the Village Green and at the History Museum stay where they've been, on public ground in Lake Bluff.
When we tell the story of a Lake Bluff home, a walk from the front door to Scranton Avenue and the Village Green is part of it, and we keep up with what's open along the way. If you're thinking about selling and want that kind of detail in how your home is presented, Gina Shad can help. Request your complimentary home valuation & marketing plan.
