Brewery with bar, restaurant planned

A home brewer in her early 20s is planning to open a microbrewery in Oakmont, laying the groundwork for what would become the first such establishment in the Pittsburgh suburb.

Mia Tedesco, a 23-year-old professional drag racer with a do-ityourself spirit, has begun putting together a formal business plan for Oakmont Brewing Co.

“It’s in the very beginning stages,” she said of the plan, which came up for discussion at a borough planning commission meeting late last month.

The brewery would occupy a single-story building on Allegheny Avenue, a few blocks from Riverside Park.

It would include a bar and a restaurant that would seat about 100 people, borough council president Thomas Briney said, citing preliminary plans. An application for a conditional use permit for the brewery has been submitted for review, he said.

The building used to house an antique lighting store called the Guiding Light, which was run by Ms. Tedesco’s father, Michael. Ms. Tedesco said a friend of her father’s suggested using the building for a brewery.

Considering the idea, she started looking into the brewing world. She was taught how to make beer by her father’s friends.

Some months later, she ordered her own brewing system, setting it up in the basement of her parents’ home in Murrysville. The smallscale system was configured at one of her drag races.

“She wanted to take it to another level,” Mr. Tedesco said of his daughter’s wish to brew beer.

Ms. Tedesco isn’t certain when the brewery might open, but preparations are underway, such as figuring out how much beer the brewery could produce and how to handle drainage. An older house next door has been demolished and turned into a parking lot.