Wine and Dine With Ken Stemke, '83
By Lia Kizilbash Gillet
Ken Stemke '83 (left) stands with fellow Huskie and business partner Patrick Pipp, M.B.A. '91, outside Main Street Social. Stemke owns Main Street Social and co-owns Bright Angel Wines with Pipp. (Photo: Main Street Social)
After spending years in high-end restaurants—from bussing tables to earn money for college to entertaining clients during a 30-plus-year career in banking—Ken Stemke, ’83, fulfilled his dream of opening a restaurant. In 2024, it received the Open Table Diners’ Choice Award.
Stemke opened Main Street Social in 2017 after finding the perfect location in downtown Libertyville, Illinois.
“Good spots are hard to get in what is a very successful downtown dining destination,” Stemke said. “When the ideal spot opened in the heart of downtown Libertyville, we pounced and brought in some Chicago restaurant folks to help us build and run the restaurant.”
Since then, Main Street Social has hosted an NIU Alumni Association Huskie Hour event, enabling alumni and friends to experience the blend of service, ambiance and culinary delights that make it a top choice for diners. In addition to welcoming Huskies, Main Street Social offers wine and bourbon dinners, lobster boils, and dinners where guests bring their favorite wines from their collections, and Stemke brings a few standouts from his cellar.
Main Street Social employs several restaurant staff that have been with Stemke since the restaurant’s opening, and guests count on seeing familiar, welcoming faces when they visit. While he is honored to be recognized with the award from Open Table, he said they have maintained high expectations from the start.
“Consistency in food and service are critical,” he said. “Guests desire the same outstanding experience every time they visit. Then, like any business, nailing the details allows a business to go from good to great. That takes focus, attention and passion.”
Before opening Main Street Social’s doors, Stemke joined friend and fellow Huskie, Patrick “Pat” Pipp, M.B.A. ’91, in his passion for wine. As co-owner of Bright Angel Wines, Stemke focuses on sales and growth strategies for the brand. He described the evolution of Bright Angel Wines.
“It didn’t really seem like more than a crazy expensive hobby at the time,” Stemke said. “Pat was a recent convert to fine wines and embraced the project to make premium single vineyard wines from Napa and Sonoma, primarily. I figured, ‘Why not?’ and invested a small amount to help him bring the wine to market. We started doing wine tastings in Libertyville for friends and contacts, and combined with a couple of good ratings from Wine Enthusiast, we started to move the wine and gain a following.”
Today, Bright Angel Wines is integral to Main Street Social’s customer experience and branding. Select Chicagoland area country clubs also serve Bright Angel Wines. Stemke and Pipp have hosted two wine-tasting events with the NIU Alumni Association and are regular hole sponsors for the NIUAA Golf Outing and the Huskie Athletics Brigham-Novak Golf Outing. They hope to expand the micro-winery into the California market and partner with a small wine label like theirs to have a tasting room and a wine club in Napa or Sonoma.
Stemke credits his business education and background as significant factors in his success. He studied finance and international relations at NIU and worked part-time for the Office of Campus Recreation. After a memorable first year, having what he described as “too much fun” and a blizzard to start the winter semester, which closed the university for an entire week, Stemke said he focused on his education.
“NIU prepared me well for pushing my limits and fed my desire to always have a couple of projects going on,” he said. “I think that’s true for the NIU grads I have met or worked with over the years. Huskies have a street fighter mentality. They were not given anything and, as a result, make great entrepreneurs!”
Ken Stemke, '83, at Bright Angel Wines winery in Napa, CA. (Photo: The Wine Foundry team)
After graduating, Stemke entered commercial banking and worked as a credit analyst for a small bank in Libertyville. With the desire to have varied skills, he earned a master’s in accounting from DePaul University and passed his CPA exam. He worked at a CPA firm for two years only to return to commercial banking; however, Stemke maintained a handful of clients and held a side CPA practice for ten years. He continued in commercial banking for over 30 years, and his accounting knowledge was a key asset.
“The key turning point in my banking career was joining and investing in American Chartered Bank in 2003,” Stemke said. “I was itching to do something entrepreneurial and joined an incredibly unique and entrepreneurial commercial bank. We went on to be a major player in the Chicago area small business and lower-middle market. The bank was sold in 2016 and that provided me with some play money to build the restaurant that was already in the planning stages.”
Then, in 2019, Stemke invested in a small bank in which a few former American Chartered Bank partners bought a controlling interest.
“Since I was not interested in a job, I negotiated bringing in 10-15 old clients or new client opportunities and working solely with those clients,” he said. “This has enabled me to keep a toe in the industry and help build the bank.”
Stemke offers three words of advice for success in any industry, particularly entrepreneurship.
“Listen, listen and listen,” he said. “Entrepreneurship can lead you to great things that you might not think are possible, but you must keenly listen to get there.”