Kindred Gastropub
By Naperville Magazine
August 2026 View more Table for Two
By Phil Vettel
Global flavors with a neighborhood vibe
Pivoting to the restaurant game after a 30-year-career elsewhere is hardly a guarantee of success, especially considering how many new restaurants fail to celebrate even their first anniversary, let alone a second.
But the owners of Kindred Gastropub (6460 College Road) in Lisle, three years old and counting, have already surpassed those odds.
Jeff Brown—with his wife, Sarah—went from decades in the hotel industry to buying a strip-mall restaurant in Lisle. “I tried a couple of times over the years for a restaurant of my own,” Jeff Brown says. “This time, we were able to pull the trigger.”
With a little “help” from a company that decided to lay off Brown’s entire division. After the bad news, Brown went for a beer at a nearby bar, which just happened to have a “For Sale” sign. Three months later, Jeff and Sarah were owners of the Galewood Pub. “We left the original name for a few months, deciding what we wanted to do,” Brown says. “Then we renovated over 11 days, and everybody—friends and family—helped. So we named it after them, as in kindred spirits, like-minded people who enjoy good company.”
The Browns refer to Kindred Gastropub as a neighborhood place, even though the menu features dishes from around the globe. In fact, using a globe (people still have globes, right?) would be a fun way of choosing your meal.
Spin and point: Korea? There are two entrées featuring Korean spices. Middle East? Hit the brunch menu (Friday to Sunday) for shakshuka, a traditional dish of poached eggs in a spicy tomato sauce. A little Italian here, a taste of Mexico there, Wisconsin cheese curds, Nashville hot chicken—you get the idea.
“We got a one-star review two years ago that said, ‘The menu is all over the place,’ ” Brown says. “I wrote back and said, ‘You didn’t intend it, but that’s the best compliment you could have given us.’ ”
The kitchen even offers Spam musubi, a very popular Hawaiian staple. In Oahu, you’d find the dish presented as a massively oversize nigiri; Kindred offers a deconstructed version, in which a bed of crispy rice is topped with cubes of smoked Spam, a lightly fried egg, and sweet soy and spicy Sriracha sauces. The layout makes it easy to gather all the flavors in a single forkful and also very easy to share.
I also like the presentation of the ahi tuna ceviche, in which the lightly dressed tuna, drizzled with ponzu aïoli, sits in a nest of fried wonton chips. Caesar salad arrives as two large hunks of charred romaine lettuce, topped by stripes of housemade dressing, a visual cross between a Caesar and a wedge salad.
A recent menu addition, Korean-style short ribs, are given a bento-box look with its components—thick-cut beef, kimchi, fragrant rice, lettuce, gochujang mayo—sequestered in discrete compartments. (I liked looking at this dish as much as eating it.) Cacio e pepe bucatini is mixed with cubes of guanciale; the inclusion of crispy pork cheek doesn’t really belong in a traditional cacio e pepe, but I don’t suppose Kindred hears many complaints.
On the less-fancy side, the menu offers a few wraps, a couple of street-style tacos (the mojo pork with grilled pineapple and spicy salsa is excellent), two sliders (two or four to the portion), and a half-dozen sandwiches, including two burgers. The signature Kindred Burger is a straightforward half-pounder with lettuce, onion, and tomato, while the wagyu smokehouse burger includes so many additional elements (braised pork, bacon, onion crisps, cheddar, barbecue sauce, and a fried egg) that it defies polite eating. Ask for extra napkins; you’ll need them.
There are but two desserts on the menu, one of them a very good brioche bread pudding with caramel anglaise, whipped cream, and ice cream. “It’s one of our cooks’ grandmother’s recipe,” Brown says. “He made it for us once, and we put it right on the menu.”
The beverage options are plentiful, with good wine and cocktail choices. The bar features 20 beers on tap, about half of which are always available while the other 10 rotate. This explains the chalkboard tap handles, which allow for easy relabeling.
Having launched one successful concept, the Browns are looking to create another. And another. And…
By the time you read this, the pair will have announced a second location, in the southwest suburbs (within 15 to 20 miles of the original, is all they’d say at the time), and also have their eyes on a space in downtown Aurora that will accommodate a rooftop bar and basement speakeasy.
Photos: Kindred Gastropub
