(by Edward Robert McClelland, Chicago, December 9, 2022)
The ERIS Brewery & Cider House occupies an imposing four-story red brick building at the corner of Irving Park Road and Tripp Avenue. Solid, sober, and bulky, it looks like an old elementary school or a police station. Look above the doors to see its actual provenance: a pair of compasses, enclosing the letter G. This was once the Myrtle Masonic Temple, built in 1910 and abandoned by the Freemasons in the early 1970s.
The old temple was occupied for decades by a Korean church, which allowed it to fall into disrepair. Some neighbors wanted to see it torn down, but ERIS’s managing partner, Michelle Foik, saw “a very good structure. The foundation of this building is amazing. You had experts building these. The Masons knew what…
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