ShuBrew will open brewery’s first location as General Shu’s
COVID-19 has been killing and closing restaurants. But for ShuBrew brewery owner Zachary Shumaker, the beer glass might be partially full. He’s decided it’s a good time to open a takeout-heavy restaurant he’s been wanting to open for years.
On Wednesday, he’ll open the original building at 210 S. Main St. in Zelienople, where ShuBrew started in 2013, as General Shu’s Chinese Fare & Taproom.
The brewpub’s Asian fare — fried rice, bowls — goes well with beer and informs the new venture’s website: chinesefoodandbeer.com. There you can check out the new menu, which Mr. Shumaker describes as “authentic Chinese food, Chinese-American food, and some of our own creations using all Chinese ingredients.”
Chef (and co-owner) Patrick Wyman is overseeing the collection of soups and appetizers (egg rolls, fried wontons, for $3 to $6), noodle and rice dishes ($7 to $9 and up) and entrees built around beef, chicken, pork belly, shrimp and tofu and vegetables ($9 to $16). One of Mr. Shumaker’s favorites that he helped “test” is the General Shu’s Beef.
The first weekly special is to be braised oxtail over rice with pickled mustard greens. Wok ranges and other equipment were added to the kitchen to properly prepare it. One ingredient they use, and love, is gai lan, which the menu describes as the Cantonese name for thinner-stemmed Chinese broccoli. A gluten-free brown sauce is available.
Mr. Shumaker, who started ShuBrew with his wife, Erika, said they want to celebrate the cuisine without using Chinese characters or artwork or otherwise appropriating culture. The effort is “a love letter to a specific cuisine,” he says. “We just really love Chinese food.”
Eventually, they will have house beers specifically matched to the cuisine, which excites head brewer David Ieong, whose father is Chinese and mother is
Columbian. He also helped test the food and talk out the concept.
Mr. Shumaker says that he hopes to hire more staffers who can increase his team’s diversity, which is something ShuBrew warmly welcomes in its employees as well as its customers.
To start, the new restaurant will have limited indoor seating — nine guests under the 25% capacity rule — and two outdoor tables, but diners may take their orders to a nearby tent. General Shu’s is selling ShuBrews on draft and in growlers and cans to go as well as local wine, cider, mead, cocktails and soda. They’re also selling beer from a tent they are sharing with Burgh’ers.
They haven’t reconfigured the General Shu’s dining room and bar, but they have put up art featuring the restaurant’s mascot, a praying mantis. Mr. Shumaker says one wandered out of a basil plant he was trimming on his back porch, and both he and his wife knew this was it. His research confirmed that the mantis is, in Chinese culture, a symbol of mindfulnesss, thoughtfulness and creativity, and that “represented what we want to do with this project.”
“We’ve really tried to remain positive throughout the whole thing,” Mr. Shumaker says of the pandemic. “Deal with it and make the best of it.”
ShuBrew brews its beer in nearby Harmony (733 Spring St., 16036) but that taproom is not currently open to customers. On the other side of Main Street, ShuBrew has taken over the former Spring Street Cafe, which is a bigger space and has a bigger menu of sharables, salads, sandwiches and pizza. It also serves ShuBrew’s Original Fried Rice, ShuNodle Bowl and Goin’ Green Curry Bowl.
General Shu’s hours are 11 a.m.-8:30 p.m. Monday-Tuesday and Thursday (closed Wednesdays), 11 a.m.-10. p.m. Friday-Saturday and 11 a.m.-8:30 p.m. Sunday. Information: 724-473-4064, chinesefoodandbeer.com or www.shubrew.com.