Dexter Ellis works in the one-barrel brewing area at Howard Street Brewing on June 2, 2022. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune)

Howard Street Brewing likes to call itself Chicago’s northernmost brewery — and it’s true. The tiny taproom where beer is served from an even tinier adjoining brewery sits on Howard Street (naturally), beside the Red Line stop and a half-mile from Lake Michigan. Walk across the street and over a block and you’re in Evanston.

Just as notable, though, is the larger picture of where Howard Street Brewing is located: in a part of the Rogers Park neighborhood that has struggled to attract and retain businesses, especially community gathering spots. A half-dozen vacant storefronts are a short walk from the new brewery, whose founder Chuck Patella wants to bring both commerce and a community linchpin to the neighborhood.

“The area has a lot of potential for growth, and from being open the first weekend, I think the neighborhood appreciated having a local place to go,” Patella said.

Owner Chuck Patella at Howard Street Brewing, 1617 W. Howard St., on Chicago's border with Evanston. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune)

The space is a cozy shoebox of a brewery, just 37 seats gathered around a handsome square bar built of wood and metal. Howard Street Brewing doesn’t play music or have a TV. Patella said he’d rather foster conversation, and during its first weekend open at the end of May, he saw it happen.

“People who didn’t know each other wound up talking to each other all weekend and that was really cool,” he said. “One person says something about ‘Star Wars,’ and all of a sudden, there’s a bar debate: the old ones versus the new ones, the merits of Ewoks, things like that.”

Trudy Leong, administrator at Rogers Park Chamber of Commerce, said Howard Street Brewing is exactly the sort of business she wants to see opening in the area. The inability to foster sustainable businesses in the area has long been a frustration, she said.

“Breweries are community spots, and there’s a lot of potential for a brewery there,” she said. “It’s such a beautiful area being so close to the lake, and it could be filled out very, very well.”

In addition to the city’s northernmost brewery, Howard Street is quite likely Chicago smallest brewery. It makes beer on a wee one-barrel brewing system that brewer and co-owner Dexter Ellis called “a big home brew system, basically.” With the flexibility of such a small brewing operation, Howard Street Brewing is also pioneering a $1,200 wedding package, where a couple can help design a beer recipe of their choosing, be on hand for the brewing, then have it tapped on the big day.

Patella said such a small brewery is all he could afford after raising about $150,000, including $10,000 in crowdsourcing. Patella has dreams of growth, but after five years of planning and starts and stops, he’s mostly glad to be open.

“I knew I wanted to get into professional brewing, and I wanted to start small so I could learn how to do it — not only brew, but run the business on top of it,” Patella said. “It’s simple and cheap and it’s a delayed opening, but we finally got there.”

He initially hoped to be open within “a year or two,” though typical delays, such as permitting, became tangled in the unprecedented delay wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Howard Street Brewing finally opened for the long Memorial Day weekend with eight beers on tap, including a Pilsner named for the wait: Better Late Than Never. It’s a varied beer lineup with rock-solid classics — such as a deft porter and an old-school pale ale nicely balanced between bitterness, malt character and soft fruitiness — along with beers bearing the occasional twist, such as a sour mango India pale ale.

They’re mostly making lower-alcohol beers with a desire “to really explore all the styles,” Patella said. A saison is coming up, followed by a red rye pale ale. Most of the beers clock in between 4.6% and 6.4% alcohol. It’s part of building a brewery focused on socialization, Patella said.

“I want people to come in and have their session beers and have two or three without getting loaded, to keep it mild,” Patella said.

Howard Street Brewing is housed in a 104-year-old former theater, sandwiched between two businesses that have become bedrocks of the community: Sol Cafe (which makes a mean vegan breakfast sandwich) and The Factory Theater, where Patella’s wife, Shannon O’Neill, is co-artistic director.

“You could do dinner, drinks and a play all in one night — in one building,” Patella said.