It has been an exciting year for Tonality Brewing Company & Scratch Kitchen in Mundelein. Highlights have included winning a Silver Award in the World Beer Cup competition, promoting local artists through monthly exhibits, and building a following.
To commemorate its first anniversary, the three owners of the brewery and restaurant at 169 N. Seymour Avenue are hosting a festive weekend of events, Nov. 8-10.
MooNIE the Magnif’Cent, a favorite from the Bristol Renaissance Fair, will perform at 8 p.m. on Nov. 9. Tickets are $22.73. Visit the Event Calendar at tonalitybrewing.com for reservations.
That weekend, there will be an exclusive beer release, throwback Food Specials from the venue’s original menu, gift cards, and other prizes.
“The big thing is we’re going to give somebody a year’s worth of Tonality,” reported CEO Zach Gelfand. “That means a dinner for two and a four-pack every single month.”
Opening the brewery and restaurant was part of a longtime dream for Gelfand.
“I was 13 years old when I decided that I hated the idea of working for someone else and I wanted to work for myself,” Gelfand explained. “I didn’t know what to do with the concept of entrepreneurship until one day about eleven years ago, I had a friend who showed up at my front door unannounced and said, ‘My wife kicked out all of my brewing equipment from the house. We’re going to make some beer today.’”
As soon as the brew began boiling, Gelfand decided, “This is the thing I was going to be passionate about,” he said. His plan to use that passion as an entrepreneur took root when he met two men with similar passions.
He met Tony Bena and Don Phillips, who would be partners in his dream enterprise, through the North Urban Brewing Society, a home brewing club based in Libertyville. Phillips was the founding president of that club and Bena was the founding brewmaster.
The three men connected and planned their enterprise for four years before opening the brewery and restaurant.
Although Gelfand did home brewing for seven years, that’s not his role in the business because he knew that he wasn’t good enough, the CEO admitted.
The three partners brought different skills to the enterprise. Gelfand, who has a background in marketing and finance, handles those aspects of the business. Head Brewer Tony Bena had experience working at another brewery for around six years. COO Don Phillips, who attended culinary school and runs a food service operation out of Highland Park, is in charge of the restaurant operation.
“I fell in love with beer at an early age,” Bena said. “I was working at a very fine craft beer bar for about eleven years. My daughter got me a homebrew kit for either Christmas or my birthday one year and it spiraled from there.”
He said he enjoys the creativity of being a brewer, “coming up with a recipe and playing with the ingredients.”
Bena was the lead brewer at Tighthead Brewing Company in Mundelein for six years, before leaving to open Tonality.
The trio searched for locations in Libertyville, Vernon Hills, and Mundelein for their restaurant venture because Gelfand lives in Mundelein and his two partners live in Libertyville. They purchased the building they chose for their venture, which was built as the Village of Mundelein’s first stand-alone fire department in the mid-1950s. It served in that capacity until 2000 when it became a Public Works building. Public Works moved in 2020.
Tonality has three main dining areas. The main taproom, which includes the bar, has 75 seats. There are also two additions Tonality added. An outdoor patio seats 50 people; an event space, which is also used for overflow dining, seats 45 people.
“We make excellent beer,” Gelfand declared. “We also have a restaurant and our food is awesome.”
Brewer Bena praised Tonality’s “variety of beers and the quality of food that we serve.” Typically, twelve beers are available at any time. “They rotate constantly,” he said.
Bena’s latest achievement was earning a 2024 World Beer Cup Silver Award for his Dubbel Crit, a Belgian-style Dubbel that includes caramel, banana, clove, and a hint of black pepper.
His plans for the brewery include “hopefully continue to win awards,” Bena said.
“The one thing that the three of us agreed on is that we wanted it to be a place that supported local artists and local musicians,” Gelfand said. That includes a recent event at which the Mundelein High School art students visited Tonality to show off work that is being displayed at the brewery and restaurant through Nov. 3.
That’s part of the venue’s Artist of the Month program.
“We supported the Public Art Foundation with a fundraiser a few months ago,” Gelfand said. “We also hold fundraisers for other charitable foundations.”
Gelfand concluded, “Being able to provide the kind of product and service that we’re doing is very humbling.”
Myrna Petlicki is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
