<p>Joey Thurman: Brewery, coffee, food, comedy, banquets, everything that you need, literally, 78,000 square feet in a house that's round. Here is Two Brothers Roundhouse. Jim, where are we? Man, there this round building. There's a lot of history. This is pretty crazy. Jim Olson: Isn't this a pretty cool place? Isn't this a great place? Joey Thurman: what is happening here? Jim Olson: I mean, this is the Aurora Two Brothers Roundhouse. It's been around since 1856. This is where the roundhouse was at. See, back in the day, trains couldn't go backwards, so they would drive the train in here, and then they would rotate it on a turntable, and then they would drive it out. It is 78,000 square feet. This half of the building here is dedicated towards the banquet end. Joey Thurman: Okay. Jim Olson: There's a 250 seat ballroom on the bottom here, and then two party rooms upstairs, seat 50 or 60. Outdoor bar over here, outdoor seat over here. Walter built those and those, and those are the original bricks from this place. Joey Thurman: Oh wow. Jim Olson: And they work, and then this area here is ... What you see here is our concert area. It's our courtyard. Concerts on the gazebo. Joey Thurman: That's very cool. Jim Olson: Every Friday and Saturday night, and then all summer, we have weddings out here. So every Friday and Saturday night earlier, we do ceremonies right there. Joey Thurman: Wow. Jim Olson: It's killer. This place is awesome. [crosstalk 00:01:48]. Joey Thurman: Let's go take a tour. Jim Olson: Okay. So this area here is our cafe. So Two Brothers has a whole cafe line and a whole coffee line, and this is our brick and mortar part of it. There's coffee. There's different types of coffee. It's like a mini panera. It's like a little, mini Panera, or a Starbucks. Joey Thurman: Jim, what are these massive containers behind me, man? Jim Olson: Well, that is a mini brewery actually. So we're going to have our own small batch brewing. Only can get it here. Only served on premise here. Joey Thurman: All right. Jim Olson: It's cool for the beer aficionados, the beer snobs. They hang out here. It's really great to have a little brewing area for us here, and it's all in glass, so it's really cool. Joey Thurman: What's getting a tour of a brewery without a beer, right? Jim Olson: How about that? Joey Thurman: Cheers. Thank you, my friend. Jim Olson: Cheers. Very good. Joey Thurman: That's good. Cheers to you.</p>
Walter Payton Bought This for $1 – The Two Brother's Roundhouse Is Truly One of a Kind
Years ago, before trains could go in reverse, they needed to park in a roundhouse that literally turned them around and sent them back out engine first. This was when the Roundhouse in Aurora became a significant landmark in the city. Once trains could go in reverse again, there was no need for the roundhouse, which fell into disarray. Until football Hall of Famer Walter Payton came in and made it what it is today — beer, music, weddings, food, coffee, and a lot more in this massive round….house!
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