Taking it outside
Outdoor areas beckon brewery customers as we go green
As Western Pennsylvania eating and drinking places open to customers Friday, some establishments are getting creative to meet rules for mitigating COVID-19 risks and also mitigate safety concerns.
In North Huntingdon, Westmoreland County, Quinn Brewing Co. is telling customers to take it outside.
The brewery, which opened 3½ years ago in Banco Business Park, announced, starting Friday, when the weather is nice, customers can drink in a park around a pond at one end of that property, across the parking lot. Its social media posts about the previously unused space were marked #finallygreen and #safelysocializing, alluding to the county entering Gov. Tom Wolf’s green phase.
“For once, we’re really lucky that we are where we are,” says co-owner Alan Quinn, who has been told the brewery should be in a more dense, higher-traffic neighborhood such as Lawrenceville.
But then he wouldn’t have all this private property where customers can spread out. He credits his “wonderful landlords.”
Quinn Brewing had never used the parklet, but it’s perfect, with concrete, umbrella-ready tables and benches on a concrete walkway around the water. A six-tap draft system has been installed under one cabana, and there is seating under another. The plan is to add more tables, games such as cornhole and a tent with even more tables on a patch of grass. In all, the space should have room for 100 people when it opens this weekend — more than twice as many as they would have been able to fit indoors. They plan to be open inside, too.
“Everybody seems a bit more comfortable outside than inside” at this point, says Mr. Quinn, who held test runs for friends and family at the
pond.
The brewery is buying daily exposition permits to license the parklet; 100 permits are allowed per year, which he jokes should be enough to cover good-weather days. “This is Pittsburgh.”
Quinn Brewing Co., 3000 Commerce Loop, North Huntingdon (15642) is open 4-10 p.m. Fridays, 2-10 p.m. Saturdays and 1-6 p.m. Sundays.
Also to open Friday is its new neighbor, ChillAxe axe throwing.
Older neighbors include the Italian Cenacolo Restaurant, which is closed through June 17 as it, too, adds permanent outdoor seating in the parking lot out front.
Other breweries
Outdoor seating is popular even without COVID-19 concerns, and lots of places are working to expand their offerings.
The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board’s guidance for licensees in this green phase limits bars and restaurants to allow less than 50% of the stated fire capacity or 12 people per 1,000 square feet, indoors or out. If the outside area of a restaurant, retail dispenser and hotel licensees is licensed, alcohol may be served there. If that outdoor space is not licensed, customers still may buy beer, wine and even mixed drinks on the licensed premises and consume them outside.
On Wednesday, the PLCB announced it is loosening the rules for licensing adjacent outdoor areas by doing away with a $220 application fee and 30-day waiting period for licensees.
“Our team has been working on ways to expedite the process and help businesses looking to safely resume operations in these challenging times,” PLCB press secretary Shawn M. Kelly says.
Voodoo Brewery’s “Compound” — its production brewery in a former lumber yard in Meadville — opens for regular hours starting Thursday with both an outdoor and an indoor bar, outdoor and indoor seating and explicit rules for maintaining social distancing and sanitation.
But it’s hard to beat Sprague Farm & Brew Works in nearby Venango, Crawford County, where customers can buy a “silo” (crowler) of beer and/or a slushy and take it for a walk on trails on the 65-acre spread. It’s open now noon-6 p.m. Saturdays. Crawford County went into the green phase of the statewide reopening plan on May 29, and both of these breweries opened for guests last weekend.
So did Riverside Brewing Co. in Cambridge Springs, which offered a “social distance picnic area” in a big grassy area outside its reconstructed barn, which also has an outdoor bar. They already had indoor and patio seating.
“The big hit was outside,” says co-owner Jason Howles, noting they served about 70% of usual business. “Our outside dining and silo bar is saving us.”
Another place that reopened last weekend was Nova Wine Cellars and Brew 32 brewery, which had lots of guests sitting outside around what was once a swimming pool near Pulaski, Lawrence County.
Ambridge’s new Altered Genius Brewing Co. is opening to customers for the first time this weekend, but only allowing them to sit on its patio for starters per state rules. (Beaver County still is in the yellow phase.)
Beaver Brewing Co. in Beaver Falls put up a tent for outdoor drinking this Friday and Saturday and noted on Facebook: “Working on adding some amenities to outdoor seating. We plan on having more room for outdoor seating in the future ... baby steps.”
In Adams, Dented Keg Brewing Co. also added a tented patio to the front walk of the shopping plaza where it’s located.
Devout Brewing in Export added “socially distanced outdoor seating” — picnic tables in the grass outside the brewery, which is in a small industrial park.
Near Grove City, Big Rail Brewing is still working on its brewery space. In the meantime, it’s inviting people up for “Pints on the Property” on June 13-14. The outdoor gathering started preCOVID-19.
In Jeannette, Sobel’s Obscure Brewery plans to open a Pop-up Tap Garden in the grass outside a warehouse it owns at 108 S. 4th St. Work continues on the brewery taproom in a separate building. Customers also will be able to sit inside the warehouse.
Other breweries that don’t have much room are choosing to not open to guests yet. Dancing Gnome in Sharpsburg is continuing to sell beer to go and is back to hosting food trucks outside this weekend. Other breweries are opening inside tables with spacing and sanitation to comply with state and federal guidance.
Wherever you go, it seems like a good idea to heed what was posted by Roundabout Brewery, which has a popup beer garden on the Ohio River on the North Side in addition to its Lawrenceville location: “Please remember that small business owners opening up this weekend are navigating new social distancing restrictions for food and beverage service,” punctuated by an emoji of two clinking beer mugs.