{"id":1670,"date":"2022-09-12T00:24:00","date_gmt":"2022-09-12T05:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thebeerreport.com\/mainblog\/?p=1670"},"modified":"2022-09-12T08:50:11","modified_gmt":"2022-09-12T13:50:11","slug":"kevin-myszkowski","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thebeerreport.com\/mainblog\/?p=1670","title":{"rendered":"Kevin Myszkowski"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week I was at work in the throws of another busy day managing the controlled chaos of a week shortened by a holiday Monday.\u00a0 It seems like we end up doing all the work that could not get into the shop over the next few days after a holiday like Labor Day.\u00a0 I literally was in a hair-pulling moment when I turned around to see my friend Kevin standing in the service department looking at me.\u00a0 This was odd.\u00a0 Kevin and I normally hang out after work or make plans to meet somewhere.\u00a0 He had called me last week when his car would not start.\u00a0 He was sure it was a starter or alternator… I told him to jump it and check the battery.\u00a0 He said no problem, I’ll let you know.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

When I saw him in the shop…\u00a0 We immediately started talking about the car and we went out to his Nissan and popped the hood.\u00a0 He told me something about Autozone and said clean the battery.\u00a0 Yadda yadda.\u00a0 In hindsight, it seems like a completely meaningless few minutes of talk.\u00a0 We DID spend some time talking about Aiden going to college and more about Summer and St. Jude.\u00a0 I wish I had a recording to remember what our last words were.\u00a0 They would be the last words we would ever speak to each other.<\/p>\n

Thursday night I got home from a dinner meeting with a friend and was very excited because I knew that Summer was coming home from St. Jude and had decided to ACTUALLY come home!\u00a0 I looked down at my phone while unloading the car and saw an Instagram message from Josh Lanning.\u00a0 He has been on top of Summer’s journey and I figured his message was something about that.\u00a0 I am not trying to make drama here…\u00a0 But I was not ready for what Josh sent.\u00a0 He said that Kevin was dead.\u00a0 He didn’t have any other details.<\/p>\n

I was (and am now as I think about it) overcome with confusion and horror.\u00a0 I looked at the message and leaned hard on my car.\u00a0 Should I just stay here and deal with this in the driveway?\u00a0 I could have, my knee about buckled and I started shaking.\u00a0 I decided to come inside and reached out to Kyle Wilkinson.\u00a0 Kevin and Kyle have been friends forever… I figured he could illuminate this.\u00a0 He did.\u00a0 He said he had been talking to Kevin’s ex-wife Amie and that Kevin had taken his life the night before.\u00a0 Kyle was super nice about talking me down off my “mental cliff” of missing an opportunity to talk and change Kevin’s mind.<\/p>\n

That’s a lot of setup for me to talk about my friend Kevin.<\/p>\n

\n

We met somehow via the Harvest Cafe.\u00a0 When Harvest Cafe was just getting started in Delavan…\u00a0 The Beer Report was really getting into local food.\u00a0 On top of the great local food they were pouring craft beers and the staff was very friendly.\u00a0 Over a lot of visits, I got to know Kevin.\u00a0 I visited often and tried about everything on the menu whether on the dinner, lunch or brunch menus.\u00a0 We had large get-togethers that brought family from all over central Illinois to our new favorite place.\u00a0 Kevin was always the amazing host and eventually got to know my whole family.\u00a0 I remember talking to my Uncle Joe about Kevin and the restaurant and we declared it to be our American “Pub”.\u00a0 After traveling overseas with Joe and hitting the small town pubs that supplied food and companionship in small hamlets in the Cotswolds…\u00a0 Harvest was an easy comparison to that overseas environment.<\/p>\n

Kevin loved having us come out and get involved with beer events and was happy to have us do some remote shows where we talked about the food and beers.\u00a0 I got to meet some amazing people and had a front-row seat to watch his command and presence with customers and staff.\u00a0 He WAS the ultimate host.\u00a0 He knew the food, beverages, and customers inside and out!\u00a0 There were very few surprises at the front of the house because he knew every inch of the restaurant and what was going on in it!<\/p>\n

This went on for years.\u00a0 We always had a blast.\u00a0 Eventually, I would make solo trips to Delavan on my early days off just to hang with my buddy and chat.\u00a0 Yeah, it was kind of a bartender thing, but we were friends now.\u00a0 Every once and a while we would find ourselves out together in Peoria or I would run into him in the Heights.\u00a0 We always had a laugh.<\/p>\n

Eventually, the drama of Harvest came to a full head.\u00a0 It was ironic that we did our Mr. Beer Challenge tasting event at Harvest when we did… Because Kevin told me that he had just been informed that they were shutting down the restaurant.\u00a0 We attempted to video and make a production out of that final judging with Kevin and Kyle, but the sting of the closure was not making it easy to celebrate.\u00a0 I was torn up.\u00a0 Eventually, The Exchange, a sister property to Harvest closed as well in a hasty fashion that deserves a whole dedicated story someday.<\/p>\n

It all worked out eventually.\u00a0 Kevin moved to the big new “foodie” restaurant in Morton…\u00a0 Seasons Gastropub.\u00a0 I was super excited…\u00a0 Seasons Menu had not changed in years and we had stopped going because of the lack of interest.\u00a0 Kevin was super pumped… As he always was about the opportunities to tune up the menu and bring some new ideas in.\u00a0 I was stoked as well!<\/p>\n

While he was there, he got Summer a job as a hostess and we made it an effort to go in almost weekly to embarrass her.\u00a0 I again made a point of stopping in and visiting him at Seasons whenever I slipped out early.\u00a0 Eventually, and it wasn’t that long after he had been at seasons, he told me that he had been talking to the Rassi family about a job running the food and beverage department at Hopedale Medical Complex.\u00a0 I was shocked.\u00a0 “You are going to get up and drive that every day from Peoria Heights?”\u00a0 He told me that this was going to be the best thing for having a family and he was never going to work in a bar again.\u00a0 (Seasons never let him change much on that menu BTW!)<\/p>\n

HMC (Hopedale Medical Complex) turned into a lot of fun.\u00a0 Kevin invited Mike Fort and me down for lunch in the cafe on burger day.\u00a0 He was so impressed with the food they were making and actually wanted locals to come in and eat there as well (That restaurant guy was hard to kill inside his head).\u00a0 It was good and I still remember how tickled he was that we came down and ate at his “cafe”.\u00a0 Kevin also brought food trucks to Hopedale for the staff and it was at one of these events that I got to meet his second wife Jennifer.\u00a0 I remember standing there talking outside the hospital eating some Mexican corn and marveling at his charisma with the staff and other friends he had invited to enjoy the outdoor dining that day.\u00a0 He was a marvel.<\/p>\n

Kevin got my son Aiden his first job.\u00a0 Aiden worked in the dish room at HMC from the time he got a license to till he left to go to college.\u00a0 Having that steady job has given him a great sense of responsibility and also made him several friends.\u00a0 Having this job also helped some of Aiden’s other friends get their first jobs as well.<\/p>\n

I do not know all the circumstances…\u00a0 But about 6 months ago everything came crashing down at HMC.\u00a0 Aiden told me that Kevin no longer worked there.\u00a0 I gave it a few days to see if he would let me know what was going on.\u00a0 I eventually texted him and he called me back.\u00a0 We talked for a long time.\u00a0 We have talked a lot since then and he has updated me on his job hunt ever since.<\/p>\n

I remember on a dark day of my own sending him a text and saying, “Let’s start a restaurant” because I was sure I was done with the car business a few years ago and he told me in no uncertain terms that he was not going back to that lifestyle.\u00a0 His daughter Avery was priority #1 at that time and a little later, he was sure that his goal was to move south with Jennifer and the girls.\u00a0 He did not want to be tied down to a business like Harvest again.<\/p>\n

Like I said when I started this, we had been talking a lot recently.\u00a0 He talked to me about his job at i3 Broadband.\u00a0 He (in his super pumped way) was telling me about what he was doing on the job and wanted to know if I could give him any insight into my rural broadband initiatives.\u00a0 I was really hoping he was liking this job… But I knew he was blowing smoke up my ass.\u00a0 He told me he was bartending in East Peoria on weekends as well.\u00a0 He confided in me that he was fighting for unemployment from HMC as well.\u00a0 Money was obviously tight and I know that because he swore he would never go back to that kind of work again.<\/p>\n

I did not know about any problems he was having… Because he would never tell you that stuff.\u00a0 He was absolutely going to ask me about the kids and Mr. Fort and my brother etc.\u00a0 We would tell stories about some of the mutual characters in our lives, but nothing ever got dark.\u00a0 Shame on me for that.\u00a0 I knew he smoked too much. I knew he drank too much.\u00a0 Many times when I would leave Harvest of any other soiree we were both at… I knew he wanst leaving for a while.\u00a0 I think back now about a few times when I had to head home, I left him at a bar talking to other friends we knew from our similar circles.\u00a0 I adult differently than he adults?\u00a0 Right?\u00a0 We are all different?\u00a0 Should I have been that guy who told him it was time to go home?\u00a0 We hung out every couple of months so I don’t think I was going to have that profound of an influence on his decision-making.\u00a0 And, did I think this was a sign of a problem?\u00a0 No, I just thought this was Kevin.<\/p>\n

How could I slow down my buddy and say “let’s just sit down and talk about life… for real”?\u00a0 When we got together it was happy fun time.\u00a0 That’s what I was looking forward to!\u00a0 Some laughs with a good guy who could appreciate a local tenderloin and a good IPA.<\/p>\n

I’m sorry we didn’t have any of those real conversations.\u00a0 So many people loved him that I have to believe nobody had a chance to ever to get the real Kevin or this tragedy would have never happened.<\/p>\n

I was very pissed at him earlier this weekend for what he did.\u00a0 I am still pissed at what he leaves for Avery, Amie and Jennifer her girls.\u00a0 This is nothing but a mess and will continue to be so for a long time.\u00a0 I don’t believe his daughter could ever be better off without him.\u00a0 I am sure his parents, ex-wife Amie and Jennifer feel the same way.\u00a0 My buddy Phil went through a similar event in his life when his wife killed herself two years ago.\u00a0 He said that everyone wants someone to blame.\u00a0 The finger-pointing is not easy because it requires everyone to look in a mirror and understand where their place is in this story.\u00a0 Myself included.\u00a0 Ultimately, after all the hand wringing and crying, Kevin is whos to blame and that’s the sad awful truth.<\/p>\n

\n

There is a Catholic Mass this Friday that I am planning on going to… There is also a get-together “wake” in Bartonville on Saturday.\u00a0 I initially thought about putting together a fundraiser for Avery with the beer nerds but I have to be completely honest in saying that a fundraiser with booze has a bad ring to it for me.\u00a0 This horrendous event is not going to stop me from having a drink ever again…\u00a0 But it’s going to make me more conscious of those who cant stop.\u00a0 I would be willing to “go dry” as a fundraiser as well.\u00a0 That has a better vibe to it for me.<\/p>\n

I would offer this…\u00a0 to anyone who is game.\u00a0 Who wants to sit down and tell Kevin stories on the Microphone while not drinking a drop of alcohol?\u00a0 I will travel with the microphone or host it here at my house in Tremont.\u00a0 But would anyone be up to that challenge?<\/p>\n

We could then box these stories up and share them with his family so that they can know of the legacy he left with all the people he affected.<\/p>\n

I assure you… Its a lot of people and I know they all hurt as I do right now.<\/p>\n

God bless you, Kevin. Thank you for everything you did for me, my kids, and my family.\u00a0 \u00a0I still hate you for what you did, but I will get past that someday.\u00a0 I will treasure your memory always.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Legacy Link:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.legacy.com\/obituaries\/name\/kevin-myszkowski-obituary?pid=202766498<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

9.12.22 Update<\/p>\n

I have made a few edits… I did not mean to exclude Avery’s Mom and Kevin’s Ex-wife from the blog.\u00a0 I just don’t really know her.\u00a0 When I say his “family” it should be assumed she is part of that.\u00a0 I have met his wife Jennifer a few times and obviously, she is who I think of first when thinking of those hurt most.<\/p>\n

This is not a news report… Its a blog post from my perspective and feelings.\u00a0 Not about anyone else’s.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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