Sly Fox Brewing opens new location in Berks
Wyomissing Taphouse is the first of four company will open this year
Sly Fox Brewing Co. continues its expansion June 16 with the opening of its third brick and mortar location — Sly Fox Taphouse — in Wyomissing, Berks County.
The more than 7,000-square foot Sly Fox Taphouse, 820 Knitting Mills Way, is located in the Knitting Mills development on the former site of the VF Outlets. Sly Fox Taphouse is in the former Dooney & Burke retail store at the outlet center.
“This is a family-friendly, warm, inviting space,” said Randy
McKinley, general manager of the Wyomissing location. “We made use of reclaimed woods and exposed brick, high top and traditional tables as well as German communal tables and a standing bar.”
Sly Fox Tap House also offers 20 beers on tap and a pub menu, as well as a pizza oven that can be seen from anywhere in the location.
“We call it the ‘show’ — guests can see the pizza guys in action,” McKinley added.
“We are so excited about where we are. It’s a great location,” John Giannopoulos, Sly Fox Brewing Co. managing partner said Wednesday during a private event. “It feels great — this has been a long time coming.”
It is a project that has officially been in the works since March 2018 — but Giannopoulos said it was an idea that formed nearly three years ago, as Sly Fox considered locations for its Berks County brick and mortar location.
Sly Fox Taphouse in Wyomissing has two levels. The 5,000-square foot main level includes the bar and dining area as well as a 1,200-square foot outside deck that features two fire pits and a canopy tree in the middle of the deck.
“It’s a beautiful spot,” McKinley said.
Two walls on the main level feature 100-year-old brick from the original building, exposed during renovation of the building.
The lower level of the Taphouse will open later this year, and will feature another bar area and some seating, as well as games — including giant Jenga, Connect Four and shuffleboard.
McKinley said the Sly Fox Wyomissing location hosted a series of soft openings in the days leading up to Sunday’s opening — including events for anyone that had worked on the building; invited guests from Pottstown, Wyomissing and West Reading; investors from Sly Fox’s crowdfunding initiative; culminating with a friends and family event on Saturday.
This weekend’s scheduled opening fell in what McKinley called “a perfect window” — West Reading’s annual Art on the Avenue — which attracts thousands of visitors. He added that Sly Fox decided to open for several hours on Saturday to accommodate visitors to that event.
In September 2018, Sly Fox kicked off a unique funding campaign in association with WeFunder, an online investment facilitator that offers contributors the opportunity for return on investment (ROI).
Participants were able to make an investment in Sly Fox’s new Wyomissing location — ranging from a minimum of $1,000 and up. The goal was to raise $250,000 as a way to build excitement in Sly Fox and expand the company’s community; Giannopolous said when the initiative was launched.
McKinley said that within two months, the effort reached $300,000 from 91 investors and was closed.
“Of the 91 investors, the majority are within a three mile radius of the new Sly Fox location,” McKinley added.
Based on the success of the Wyomissing crowdfunding campaign, McKinley said the company will be launching a similar effort in Pittsburgh, where Sly Fox is opening two locations this year. A small taphouse will open there in July, followed by a larger location that will include brewing, expected to open by the end of the year.
That Pittsburgh crowdfunding effort is in test mode, according to McKinley, and is expected to go live within the next 10 days.
Another new Sly Fox Taphouse will open in Malvern, Chester County, with an anticipated opening by the end of 2019, McKinley said, adding that design work on the location is underway.
Both McKinley and Giannopolous said that after those locations open, there are currently no additional expansions in the pipeline.
“I will never say never,” Giannopolous said of future expansion.
McKinley acknowledged that there has been an “explosion of brewers” opening brick and mortar locations, adding that there are more than 7,000 brew pubs in the U.S.
“We’re starting to see guys closing. They can’t make it — they didn’t do their homework,” he said. “It’s not about having googly eyes and thinking ‘people will want to buy my beer.’”
Sly Fox Brewing Co., he said, has “23 years of history behind us; 23 years of experience doing this.”
Sly Fox Taphouse in Wyomissing has 23 full- and part-time employees, including several that have transferred from the Pottstown location.
The 24-acre Knitting Mills property in Wyomissing is being developed by Philadelphia-based Equus Capital Partners as a mixeduse campus including retail outlets, McDonald’s, a new Wawa and corporate office users that includes UGI Services and Tower Health. Equus purchased the property from Vanity Fair Corp. at the end of 2016.
The Sly Fox Taphouse in Wyomissing will be open Monday and Tuesday 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Wednesday and Thursday 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m.; Friday and Saturday 11:30 a.m. to 12 a.m.; and Sunday 11:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. For more information visit www.slyfoxbeer.com/ wyomissing