Bellevue gets brewery and warm place for community to gather
The region’s latest brewery and taproom, Lincoln Avenue Brewery, is open on the main drag of Bellevue, which until 2015 was a town that was “dry” in more ways than not allowing the sale of alcohol.
It’s only been “soft” open for a week, but it’s being warmly welcomed by residents and visitors, who have thirsted for such a gathering spot in Bellevue. The families that run the brewery are warmly welcoming everyone to come in.
The brewery is in a corner building that was a bank when it was built in 1905. It was renovated back to some of that old exposedbrick and tin- ceilinged charm, through layers of wallboard and dropped ceilings, with the help of scores of volunteers who agreed to work for future beer.
“I show everyone who walks in here this photo,” says head brewer and co- owner Grant Saylor, calling up on his phone a shot of the nondescript interior of what was a shuttered dentist office. The volunteers, starting on a January 2018 day that was 4 degrees below zero, uncovered the big arched windows that now let evening light stream in across the reclaimed wood bar and tables in a space with 18- feet- high ceilings and room for 66 customers.
The brewery recently had a party with food and drinks for volunteers, including 45 of them who by logging 20 hours of work received stainless steel 64- ounce “Founders Club” growlers that they can get filled with beer once a month for the next year and a half.
“Now they come in here and say, ‘ I painted that wall,’ ‘ I scraped that brick,’ ‘ I hung that whatever,’ “Mr. Saylor says. “They OWN it.”
Mr. Saylor literally owns the brewery with his wife, Lisa, and Joel and Amy Haldeman. Both couples live in the 1- milesquare borough, where the Saylors grew up and were high school sweethearts who vowed to open a restaurant one day. But, “Kids happen,” he says. “House payments happen.”
The two couples didn’t know each other until the Haldemans bought the building in November 2017 and a mutual friend introduced them to Mr. Saylor, a longtime Starbucks district manager and hospitality industry veteran who happened to home brew. He told them they couldn’t legally open a place where home brewers make beer and then sell it to the public, but they could open their own brewery.
He says, “The stars kinda aligned.” The Saylors — he’s 53, she’s 51 — found the 2- barrel brewhouse at Backward Flag Brewing in Forked River, N. J., and hauled it back here in a rented trailer. “We’re the third brewery to start up with it,” she says. They put it in back where a tailor shop used to be ( volunteers rebuilt Jesse the Tailor’s counter and moved Mr. Pietropaolo’s sewing machines to an adjacent storefront).
Mr. Saylor is head brewer and his son, Shane, is assistant brewer, which is good, because they’ll have to brew often. Grant Saylor is an old- school West Coast pale ale guy, so he likes his Bulldog double India pale ale. But they make a variety and also have been serving, to start, 511 New England IPA ( named for the date this year that his daughter Bethany got married), Just A Porter, Blind Pig Rye, Sa’ Wheat, I Don’t Get It blonde ale and That’s Deep Amber. All are $ 6.50 a pint and are available in half pours ($ 3.50), 5- ounce tasters ($ 2.50) and flights of four tasters ($ 9). They’ll have as many as 10 of their own beers on at a time.
Shane also helps out in the small kitchen, which makes a small menu of starters, panini and salads. ( His dad wanted that instead of food trucks.) And they serve some cocktails and Pennsylvania wines and ciders as well as soft drinks and gluten- free beer from nearby Aurochs Brewing Co.
The five 2- barrel fermenters line one exposedbrick wall in the taproom, just as Grant Saylor wanted it. “I think that adds a degree of ambiance to the space.”
But the real ambiance comes from the
customers, like a group of 17 — eight adults and nine young children — who this past Sunday squeezed into pushed together tables in the middle of the space.
“This is awesome,” said Mr. Saylor with a big smile, as he got up to help his wife, his son and his girlfriend, and some of the other family members including his two daughters and their partners who have been “on call” to get the brewery on its feet until they hire more people.
“Being integrated into the community was really important to us,” he says. In fact, later this year, he plans to start a program where home brewers can come in and brew their vetted recipes with him and have these “community” brews served at the brewery, with a portion of proceeds going to charity.
“This is what we want,” says Mrs. Saylor, who’s keeping her day job as a nurse. She does everything but work behind the bar because, she says, “I don’t feel comfortable charging people!” She’s used to her house being the place where their family and friends gather. And that’s the feeling she says they want to replicate here for a town they worried was going nowhere.
She and her husband helped push the referendum allowing liquor sales, knowing that the business district was going to have a hard time attracting restaurants. Mr. Saylor got elected to borough council for a term that ends in January. They both like how things are going now that people are moving in and staying. As she puts it, “I’m so excited for Bellevue. I can’t wait to see what stores pop up.”
The brewery’s starting hours are 11 a. m. to 11 p. m. Saturday; 11 a. m. to 6 p. m. Sunday; closed Monday; 4 to 10 p. m. Tuesday- Thursday; and 4 to 11 p. m. Friday.
The grand opening party is coming together for July 27.
The brewery is at 538 Lincoln Ave. Learn more on its Facebook page.