Citing timing and the demands of a growing family, Justin Aprahamian ― the James Beard Award-winning chef/co-owner of Sanford Restaurant ― has announced he’s pulled out of his other business, Like Minds Brewing Company, which he founded with “Best of the Beer Dinners” creator John Lavelle. This comes a few months after the opening of the Milwaukee brewery/taproom at 823 E. Hamilton St.
It’s a sad development especially considering the lengths to which the partners had to go to open their main production brewery. Because of a Wisconsin law prohibiting anyone who owns a restaurant (or tavern or retail liquor business) from also holding a brewery permit, the partners were forced them to look out-of-state for a place to brew their beers. They ended up finding a spot in Chicago. However, last year they found a way to bring Like Minds to Wisconsin after all.
The Chicago/Milwaukee restaurant and brewing operations will continue under Lavelle. (Like Minds has been building a reputation for specializing in sour beers.)
Read more about Like Minds MKE in the January issue of Milwaukee Magazine, due out on newsstands January 2.
