(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — A craft brewery in Northwest Indiana, where a cat is the star, is closing later this month.
The owners of Windmill Brewing in Dyer have decided to close their tap room on June 29, nearly nine years after it opened.
"With the impending, months-long road construction project that will affect our primary road access and will turn a pretty bad parking situation into a really bad one and other compounding factors, we’ve decided it’s time to close down for good," they wrote in a Facebook post announcing the closure.
Co-owner Justin Verburg says in addition to craft beer, many people went to Windmill to see Luther the cat.
Luther was adopted from a shelter to catch mice, but he prefers to snuggle with people.
Verburg says Luther's popularity grew with customers, as well as on social media and elsewhere.
"The way it blew up, we were not prepared for that at all," said Verburg.
"There's been lots of social media accounts that just solely focus on brewery cats that have featured him numerous times. Some people just come in to see him. They come and say they don't even like beer, they're just there to see the cat. So, yeah it was definitely not something we were prepared for."
Luther's picture also became a popular feature on some of the merchandise and beer sold by Windmill.
"Probably the most popular shirt, we just kind of call it the 'neon Luther shirt,' it's, you know, a black shirt with very vivid color, sort of very simplistic drawing of Luther's face, and he's kind of wearing you know cool Ray-Ban sunglasses. That's by far our best selling shirt. And then beer wise we have a series of lagers that we have him featured on," said Verburg.
Verburg says Luther will have a good home after Windmill Brewing closes, because the brother of one of the co-owners is adopting him.
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