Mauve Nosh & Libations: 'We Are Bringing A New Upcoming Style'

SHOREWOOD, IL —Are a lot of people in the Shorewood area excited about the opening of Mauve Nosh & Libations? Even though it has not even opened yet, Mauve has more than 1,800 Facebook likes and more than 2,100 Facebook followers.

In recent days, Patch visited with one of the co-owners of Mauve to learn about plans for the soon-to-be opening Shorewood business along Route 52. It's considered a crafted cocktail, wine and small plate bar. The new business will be owned by Nick Pena and Kala Bieniek Saunders.

Patch: Do you have a possible opening date?

Nick Pena: "We are still planned for beginning of August. We also sourced out two professional chefs from the northeast that are going to be on trend food. They’re very skilled and have worked for many farm to table and upscale cuisine."

Patch: What kinds of foods will be offered to your guests?

Pena: "We will be serving on trends from the East and the West. Midwest is five years behind in trends. So we are bringing a new upcoming style. We will be serving fondue, crafted small plates like duck rillette, charcuterie boards, and we are also making pup-chewturie boards and all proceeds of that will go to the local Shorewood animal shelter. One hundred percent of the proceeds for the pup-chewturie boards will go to Shorewood animal shelter."

Patch: Talk about some of the wines that will be offered at Mauve?

Pena: "We haven’t gone through distribution yet for wine, but we will be offering over 20 different varieties of wine. We will be focusing on crafted cocktails and bourbon. We will be offering bourbon flights from different regions of Kentucky."

Patch: Why did you choose to open in Shorewood and why this particular spot along Route 52?

Pena: "We have been dreaming of Shorewood for years. We both live in Shorewood, besides Will County Brewery, Shorewood doesn’t offer any kind of upscale atmosphere that people have been statistically wanting. We are planning on having a business where customers will be getting more of an experience than just your 'normal sports bar' with more knowledge and give an atmosphere that will make people comfortable with ... more on trend cocktails and small plates. We chose this location because the facade matches our vision."

Patch: Where did the name Mauve Nosh & Libations come from?

Pena: "So one night, we were both drinking red wine. And we were just coming up with names for a bar. At this point, the bar was just a dream and a thought and while brainstorming with different names, I started to look up different words for 'red' and then boom, Mauve was the name we both liked. It’s a color of wine, which we will carry, but just sounds a bit more elegant. But we wanted to stand out. And we both didn’t want the bar to say small plates and drinks. So we looked up words for a more trendy way for small plates, and we fell in love with Nosh, along with Libations. We thank the French Bordeaux for the creativity."