I came to 2 Fools Cider for its last night on November 22. While I wanted, once again, to pay my respects to another establishment on its final days in business, I also wanted to finally have an evening playing trivia. For most of the past 7 years, I had been working a split shift, 12 – 8:30 pm, so my weeknights were pretty booked.
When I got there, I saw that the line to the bar was backed out the front door.
2 Fools has been close enough to me that I’ve been able to visit before. They had started out in a brewery and taproom space across the parking lot from Solemn Oath in Naperville. That made them easy to check out. Just a few years ago, they moved to a larger space in a building sort of around the corners, as industrial parks go. The N/A-focused Go Brewing took up the original space.
I managed to find an open spot at a table, and one of the MCs for K-Zone Trivia. I thought to play by myself and dazzle the assembled teams as a solo phenom, but, um, it just wasn’t meant to be.
This crew’s format for trivia meant reading a trivia question, and giving players 3 minutes to write their answers on a slip of paper and drop it in a bucket at the MC’s stand. Ideally that was to be done without consulting the browsers on our phones. During the answer period, they played a song that may or may not have been a further clue to the answer. You know, a song about two well-known sisters named Jenna and Barbara was played out with “Running Up That Hill” by Kate… Bush.
I kind of managed to stay in the hunt until the half-time round, in which we were asked to match named to 12 photos. All of them were photos of the staff at 2 Fools. Oh well. At least the line to the bar had gone down enough that I could get a Short Stack cider, made with blueberries and maple syrup.
For the second half of the game, I found some fellow players to share their table with, and we just started chatting. This was the kind of atmosphere 2 Fools engendered, even on their last day open. We shared a couple of Tepaches, their cider with pineapple. And tried to offer each other hints about the questions for the second half of the game. But, at the end of the game, I was, well, nowhere to be found in qualifying for prizes.
The evening was still rather bittersweet. Rather than the drop in customer traffic caused by COVID, or perhaps alongside of it, 2 Fools was being forced to shut down because their building’s new owner was forcing out all of its tenants. I asked the server whether they might try to resettle elsewhere. She said they had been looking at Oswego, but their ouster came too swiftly, and the bank owned their brewing equipment.
And I regret not having run more information on this place. Like many cideries, they run the usual sparkling or dry apple ciders, and they try out some interesting variations. I brought a growler to fill, and they recommended their Tart Cherry, one of their flagships, since almost every other tap they put out had kicked. I also brought home some cans of Pinehopple, another pineapple enhanced cider, but this time with hops added. I’d already discovered their I Can’t Believe It’s Not a Stout, made with coffee and hops; one of the special brews I save for company.
I’m afraid I’ll be trying to visit more establishments before they close down. As a family guy, I just couldn’t go out to hit all the interesting spots in this area.
In the meantime, some other little birds have suggested that 2 Fools might try to contract brew their ciders at another location. Hoping they can manage to keep the name and their interesting ciders going.