Homewood's Rabid Brewing finds new opportunities after losing out on plaza

Chicago Tribune

11-07-2025

Abbas Jaffary said Rabid Brewing is a space of healing and compares it to the American sitcom 'Cheers,' where regular customers check in on each other, and Rabid owner Raiye Rosado encourages people from every walk of life to show up, even if they don't buy anything.
The brewery has become 'symbiotic' with the local roller derby league, said Jaffary, who has helped the league with administrative tasks for years.
He said he often drives more than 20 miles to be involved with the league and brewery, which both collaborate on events and aim to provide an affordable, inclusive community space for members to 'regain their sanity if they had a terrible day at work or stuff going on at home.'
Rosado said the hardest part about losing a bid in May to move her brewery into a village-owned space Park Plaza West was the potential loss of community space for the LGBTQ+ community and other 'folks that are othered in some other spaces.'
But after the Village Board decision, Rosado said opportunities popped up for other locations for her business to expand its inclusive outreach.
Rosado said in the next few months, Rabid Brewing will host more community events in potential new areas, essentially conducting a 'vibe check' to see if the business would fit in with the local customers.
The brewery may move within 6 miles of its location in the next year, Rosado said. She looked at a possible space Tuesday.
The derby league, called The Chicago Knockouts, is growing alongside the Brewery and has also found a few potential new spaces, Jaffary said.
'We've all just been coming together, just to look out for people and offer places to go,' Jaffary said. 'We need places to go just to have somewhere to center ourselves because people get isolated and when you find a community, you start to gain some sense of sanity and normalcy.'
Rosado said the journey to expand started in 2023, when village officials approached her about redeveloping Park Plaza West on 183rd Street after she said her business, at 17759 Bretz Drive, had outgrown its backstreet building.
But in May 2025, the village awarded the property to two commercial real estate groups instead.
Village Manager Napoleon Haney said the board's decision boiled down to the ability to generate the funding necessary to make improvements, not only on the space that Rabid intended to use, but the remaining parts of the plaza, at 183rd Street and Robin Lane, including the parking lot.
The village acquired the 183rd Street retail center in 2023 through Cook County's no-cash bid process.
'We worked with (Rabid) for a while trying to figure out ways for them to generate the financial wherewithal to be able to make all of that happen,' Haney said. 'But there are other spaces and places on that property that need desperate improvements as well, and that's heavy lifting for a smaller business.'
The village's evaluation, presented at a board meeting in late May, concluded a proposal from Caton Commercial Real Estate and Granite Realty partners would better ensure sustainable commercial development, improve property conditions and maximize yield.
Yet the village noted in its analysis that Rabid better responded to community needs than the real estate groups.
More than 80 community members attended the May Village Board meeting to support Rabid's expansion, which Rosado and Haney both said speaks to Rabid being a safe gathering space.
'It's a scary thing to do what we did, and it's very scary to have it not turn out the way you want, but I highly recommend if you're going to do scary things, you get a huge group like that with you,' Rosado said.
'These people, they're not just drinking beer all day, they get together outside of my space,' Rosado said.
She said she hung artwork instead of televisions in the bar to encourage the community members to engage with each other, which she said worked, noting that she's seen customers who met at the bar get married and even get tattoos of the business logo.
'They're really a part of each other's lives in a way that's different than I've seen at most other establishments,' she said.
Tobias Cichon, who also owns Rabid Brewing, said the community's support has 'driven extraordinary interest from half a dozen other municipalities.'
He looks forward with hope because he said the business has 'the greatest gift any business owner could hope for: a revelatory understanding of how much real love our people have for what we've built for them and with them.'
'We have only our people to thank for whatever good comes next,' Cichon said.
Rabid Brewing plans to host its sixth annual event called the Feast of the Goat Queen on July 26, and Rosado said she is already planning next year's feast.
Jaffary said he has fond memories of the festival, that it's 'just a good collection of people.'
Recently, he said, the derby league and Rabid business communities walked and skated in Homewood's Fourth of July parade with customers of all ages. Both businesses have opportunities for children to participate, such as Rabid's weekly Dungeon and Dragons tournaments for children ages between 8 through 13.