Step into Homewood Brewing, which opened Friday in Homewood, and there are touches of Jarad Higgins all around.
In the entry, floor tiles say “Be perfectly imperfect,” a snippet of lyrics from a song by Higgins, the rapper known as Juice Wrld. There is a wall-size mural on a second-floor patio of him.
As she welcomed customers Friday to the brewery, Higgins’ mother, Carmella Wallace, said “it’s been a long journey but we persevered.”
The brewery and restaurant, 18225 Dixie Highway, has been under construction for nearly two years at the site of the former Bogart’s Charhouse.
“We’ve come a long way to arrive at this moment,” Homewood Mayor Rich Hofeld said at Friday’s ribbon cutting.
“What a beautiful tribute to your son,” Hofeld said, calling the project a “testament to a mother’s love for her family.”
Higgins grew up in Homewood and attended Homewood-Flossmoor High School. He died Dec. 8, 2019, six days after his 21st birthday. An autopsy showed he died accidentally from an overdose of oxycodone and codeine.
Members of Homewood-Flossmoor High School marching band performed several numbers during the opening ceremony and, just after the ceremonial oversize scissors snipped clean the blue ribbon, the marching band launched into “Lucid Dreams,” one of Higgins’ first hits.
Wallace said her son had been part of the marching band while at H-F and she was a band mom.
Sarah Whitlock, director of bands at H-F, said she talked to Wallace prior to the grand opening about music members of the band might perform.
“She asked me to do whatever we wanted,” Whitlock said, but “Lucid Dreams” had previously been performed by the band during halftime at H-F games.
After cutting the ribbon with Hofeld, brewery employees and other Homewood officials, Wallace swayed and danced to the song while standing outside the building she said was a project in honor of Jared.
Wallace said she was a longtime supporter of the H-F marching band, and “to have them here playing was an honor.”
Homewood “was special to him and I,” Wallace said, sitting in an upstairs area of the brewery and restaurant,.
“We do things to put touches of him throughout,” she said.
Jarad Higgins suffered convulsions and went into cardiac arrest as Chicago police and federal agents searched his and his entourage’s luggage for guns and drugs at a private hangar at Midway Airport.
Higgins, his girlfriend and other members of his group had flown on a private jet from Los Angeles to Chicago.
Higgins’ music career took off after he gained support from freestyling on his high school’s radio show, according to a 2018 Chicago Tribune profile.
He landed a $3 million deal with Interscope Records, according to the article, and in 2019 was one of two artists chosen by fast-food chain McDonald’s to be part of a philanthropic campaign, representing their hometowns by partnering with a local charity and performing concerts.
His posthumously released final album, “Legends Never Die,” was the No. 1 album in the United States for two consecutive weeks, according to an August 2020 Tribune article.
Following her son’s death, Wallace established Live Free 999, a nonprofit intended to “support programs that provide preventive measures and positive avenues to address mental health challenges and substance dependency,” according to its website.
Homewood Brewing said it will support Live Free 999 by donating a percentage of all proceeds from an always-on-tap benefit beer.
Wallace said Friday the beer will switch out each quarter, and what’s currently on tap is “Wishing Well.” She said that 10% of net proceeds from sales of the specific beer will flow to Live Free.
She was still soaking in the feeling of the opening, delayed a bit, several minutes after the ribbon cutting.
Wallace acknowledged “normal construction delays,” including delays in getting a needed elevator installed to pass occupancy, pushed back the planned opening.
When ground was broken in December 2022, the hope had been to be open by spring of this year.
Still, Wallace said seeing the project open its doors “is surreal, it’s an honor and a blessing.”
Homewood Brewing was scheduled to be open from 5-11 p.m. Saturday before starting regular operating hours.
It will be open 3-10 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday. It will be closed on Mondays.
