Foreign Exchange opens brewpub, restaurant in downtown Aurora
While the company's beer is of course for sale on-site at the new location, and patrons can see the brewing area through windows in the seating area, the brewpub also serves food that fuses Mexican and Indian cuisine. But beyond that, owner Ricky Cervantes said he wants the newly-opened space to first and foremost be a community hub, a place where people can come with their family and friends.
'The reason we were able to succeed these last five years is by building community, and we hope to build a community here within Aurora, within downtown Aurora, and be a beacon for Aurora,' Cervantes said during an official grand opening ceremony on Wednesday.
After the ceremony, Cervantes told The Beacon-News that it is exciting to be able to open up a brewery within a historic building in the town he grew up in. Plus, being able to contribute to the revitalization of downtown Aurora 'means the most to us,' he said.
Ald. Jonathan Nunez, 4th Ward, said in a speech at the grand opening that he is glad to see someone who also grew up in Aurora stick around, reinvest in the community and 'offer to us what we have now in Foreign Exchange.' Those who haven't tried their products, Nunez said, are in for a treat.
Foreign Exchange hopes to use its existing fan-base and following to bring more people from outside Aurora to discover or rediscover its downtown since it has changed so dramatically over the past decade, Cervantes said after the ceremony.
And he is no stranger to downtown Aurora. In fact, Cervantes said it was at his apartment in Leland Tower where he first started brewing beer.
What originally got Cervantes into brewing, he said, is just that he had a lot of fun ideas.
He started brewing and bottling beer to share with friends, and then he started going to beer releases and sharing with other beer drinkers in the Chicago region. That built him a following, he said.
But it wasn't until he did a large-scale batch with the help of the former Oswego Brewing Company, and 450 people lined up to get some, that he realized, 'maybe I've got something here,' according to Cervantes. Foreign Exchange commercially launched the next year, he said, with distribution starting in February 2020.
The company's beer is now distributed across Illinois, he said.
'I want to just thank everyone that's followed us over the years,' Cervantes said. 'People who have bought our beers off the shelf are the reason why we now have a brick and mortar, and we hope to continue growing for years to come.'
Foreign Exchange's new physical location in Aurora currently serves 15 beers, according to the menu on the company's website. Of those, one is a 'guest tap' from Blind Corner Brewery and one, the Gratification, is the company's first from the new downtown brewery.
Alongside the grand opening ribbon-cutting, the company also released its newest beer: the Barrel-aged Between Two Parallels. According to a Facebook post, it is made with a blend of imperial stouts that were aged between 25 and 31 months in Four Roses and Wild Turkey Distillery casks and conditioned on Madagascar vanilla and marshmallow.
The restaurant and brewpub is located at 110 Cross St. in Aurora and is open 3 to 9 p.m. Monday to Wednesday, noon to 9 p.m. on Thursday, noon to 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and noon to 7 p.m. on Sunday.
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