Well hey there! We're back at it with more fun times and good beer and tasty eats and also some "news" that you've "probably already heard about" (it's about our upcoming/ongoing taproom expansion) but we'll get to that bit after all the stuff in the here and/or now, so read up and check out all the cool stuff we're doin' this week!
And first on the list of cool and/or tasty stuff is cask! This time around we took a pin of Shut Up Kelly! and we goosed it with some oak chips that we'd been soaking in some maple liqueur and that's gonna bring some toasty oaky goodness along with the maple sweetness and it's gonna be tasty as hell (and also on tap Thursday) so come getcha some!
And first on the list of cool and/or tasty stuff is cask! This time around we took a pin of Shut Up Kelly! and we goosed it with some oak chips that we'd been soaking in some maple liqueur and that's gonna bring some toasty oaky goodness along with the maple sweetness and it's gonna be tasty as hell (and also on tap Thursday) so come getcha some!
And speaking of Thursday, that's the day that Light of Day Records starts their residency in our taproom! You can think of it like a "permanent popup" - they've got a shelf o' records in our main taproom (which has displaced one of the pinball machines, at least for now) and you'll be able to peruse at your leisure and pick up some records whenever the taproom is open!
And to "sweeten the deal" on this, the day that LOD is opening up shop in our taproom, they're gonna be hangin' in the taproom and/or collabbin' on this month's Audio Triviality (which is on Thursday, natch) and the theme is "Music of the 1960s" which is... suspiciously straightforward for this trivia night, so we'll see what happens!
Oh! And! Also! We apparently wanted to just completely load up our calendar for Thursday so we're also havin' Birria Gordita Street Tacos in the house with their tasty-ass tacos (and hopefully more of that birria ramen, that stuff is so good), so really there's no reason not to come out on Thursday!
Oh! And! Also! We apparently wanted to just completely load up our calendar for Thursday so we're also havin' Birria Gordita Street Tacos in the house with their tasty-ass tacos (and hopefully more of that birria ramen, that stuff is so good), so really there's no reason not to come out on Thursday!
And speaking of food, we've got new-to-us Tasty BBQ comin' by on Friday with some, uh, Tasty BBQ and then Sekali is swingin' by with some Malaysian street food on Saturday and of course we've got our regularly-scheduled sushi class on Sunday and it's gonna be a weekend full of tasty times!
And then looking into the slightly farther future, next Tuesday we have InebriArt comin' by for a beer mug painting class, and then our recurring free-to-join Fiddle Jam Session is next Wednesday (in short: grab an instrument and come on by!), followed by Simpsons Trivia next Thursday (the theme is "Season of Love" which is probably more accurately described as "season of heartbreak" given how that show handles romance subplots) and anyway we've got a buncha cool stuff happening so you should come hang out!
And then looking into the slightly farther future, next Tuesday we have InebriArt comin' by for a beer mug painting class, and then our recurring free-to-join Fiddle Jam Session is next Wednesday (in short: grab an instrument and come on by!), followed by Simpsons Trivia next Thursday (the theme is "Season of Love" which is probably more accurately described as "season of heartbreak" given how that show handles romance subplots) and anyway we've got a buncha cool stuff happening so you should come hang out!
And speaking of cool stuff, as you may have heard recently (and/or seen from the partial wall that's been up in our lobby for the past week), we're working on expanding the taproom! We usually try to keep things like this "close to the vest" because (among other things) the timelines we're working with are... uncertain, and usually frustratingly long. For instance: when we first met with our landlords about this, they told us that they'd have their buildout completed and have a lease drafted within 2-3 months. That conversation was in June 2021, and we still don't have a lease on the space (there's been a fair bit done on the buildout, but it's fairly telling that we've had the studs up for that wall in the lobby for over a week and no sign of activity since they went up). Anyway, we'll try and lay out the full skinny here in handy-dandy (read: easy to write) Q&A format.
So what's the deal with this expansion, anyway?
This all started because our landlords said they were going to turn the now-former Crossfit space in the building into a "function room" for The Village, which meant we'd be losing access to the lobby bathrooms, so they asked if we wanted to take over the empty unit next to ours (which would have bathrooms installed in it). Unsurprisingly, we were very keen on the idea of not making people cross our weird creepy lobby, plus we'd already begun ramping up music-related events and stuff in the taproom, so we figured we'd take on some extra space so we could fit in a small stage at some point.
What's the taproom going to look like when buildout is done?
The main/original taproom will be staying the same, but we'll be knocking down pretty much the rest of the walls (including the walls between our current space and new space, plus at least most of the wall between our current side rooms). In the end, that should create a space that's roughly twice the size of our original/main taproom.
Any other big plans for the expansion?
Other than bathrooms and eventually a stage? We've got some things on our wishlist (and yes, air conditioning is at the top of that list), but those are limited by boring practicalities like "will we be able to afford it" or "can we put an AC unit on the roof without the roof collapsing" so we can't make any promises yet.
What's your timeline?
If you ask Liz or Jared this in person, you're likely to be met with a heavy sigh, followed by an answer that can best be summed up as "we don't know." We'd love to know the timeline, but there are a lot of interdependent moving pieces, and most of them are out of our hands from a time standpoint. Here's a rough list of the steps that still need to be completed: our landlords need to finish the buildout they agreed to do (which, as we discussed, isn't exactly flying along), we need to sign a lease on the new space, then acquire funding for our own buildout (turns out you need money to do things. Who knew?), then complete said buildout (which is to some extent dependent on the timelines of the contractors we'll be hiring), then we can start applying for permits (which need to go through federal, state, and local levels because we're an alcohol manufacturer) and only once that's complete can we start really planning to use the space. And that's assuming things go smoothly (which they won't). So in short, we don't know, but we're trying our damnedest to make this happen.
This all started because our landlords said they were going to turn the now-former Crossfit space in the building into a "function room" for The Village, which meant we'd be losing access to the lobby bathrooms, so they asked if we wanted to take over the empty unit next to ours (which would have bathrooms installed in it). Unsurprisingly, we were very keen on the idea of not making people cross our weird creepy lobby, plus we'd already begun ramping up music-related events and stuff in the taproom, so we figured we'd take on some extra space so we could fit in a small stage at some point.
What's the taproom going to look like when buildout is done?
The main/original taproom will be staying the same, but we'll be knocking down pretty much the rest of the walls (including the walls between our current space and new space, plus at least most of the wall between our current side rooms). In the end, that should create a space that's roughly twice the size of our original/main taproom.
Any other big plans for the expansion?
Other than bathrooms and eventually a stage? We've got some things on our wishlist (and yes, air conditioning is at the top of that list), but those are limited by boring practicalities like "will we be able to afford it" or "can we put an AC unit on the roof without the roof collapsing" so we can't make any promises yet.
What's your timeline?
If you ask Liz or Jared this in person, you're likely to be met with a heavy sigh, followed by an answer that can best be summed up as "we don't know." We'd love to know the timeline, but there are a lot of interdependent moving pieces, and most of them are out of our hands from a time standpoint. Here's a rough list of the steps that still need to be completed: our landlords need to finish the buildout they agreed to do (which, as we discussed, isn't exactly flying along), we need to sign a lease on the new space, then acquire funding for our own buildout (turns out you need money to do things. Who knew?), then complete said buildout (which is to some extent dependent on the timelines of the contractors we'll be hiring), then we can start applying for permits (which need to go through federal, state, and local levels because we're an alcohol manufacturer) and only once that's complete can we start really planning to use the space. And that's assuming things go smoothly (which they won't). So in short, we don't know, but we're trying our damnedest to make this happen.
But what about the creepy walk to the bathroom?
If you're a fan of the weird/confusing trek out to our lobby bathrooms, then we have some exciting news for you: it's about to get weirder! For you see, while buildout is happening (which, as we mentioned, is on a "permanently unknown" timeline) we'll hit a point where the walk to the lobby bathrooms becomes even more weird/confusing/sketchy. More to the point, we need a fire exit door through what will be our new west wall (i.e. the one that's currently under construction), and that door will be a little ways down that weird hallway* through the middle of the building. All in all, this means you'll need to take a detour through the unfinished space and then back up the weird hallway full of junk (or step outside for a minute) in order to visit the loo. It's gonna be an adventure!
If you're a fan of the weird/confusing trek out to our lobby bathrooms, then we have some exciting news for you: it's about to get weirder! For you see, while buildout is happening (which, as we mentioned, is on a "permanently unknown" timeline) we'll hit a point where the walk to the lobby bathrooms becomes even more weird/confusing/sketchy. More to the point, we need a fire exit door through what will be our new west wall (i.e. the one that's currently under construction), and that door will be a little ways down that weird hallway* through the middle of the building. All in all, this means you'll need to take a detour through the unfinished space and then back up the weird hallway full of junk (or step outside for a minute) in order to visit the loo. It's gonna be an adventure!
* Affectionately known as the "murder hallway" by our staff.
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