Yankee Brew News Archive

Future Looking Bright for More Connecticut Brewpubs

Originally Published: 07/95

By: Gregg Glaser

If you're a regular reader of Yankee Brew News, you may have read a story in the January-February 1995 issue titled, "Brewer Planning Another Nutmeg State Brewpub." The article discussed the plans of Blair Potts, a founding partner and the former brewer at the Elm City-New Haven (Connecticut) Brewing Company, to open a new brewpub in New Haven by May or June of this year. Well, it didn't happen. And it's not going to happen -- in New Haven, at least.

"We were just about to close the real estate deal for our space when it all fell apart," Potts said recently. Two factors botched the deal for Potts and his partners. First, they had decided to house their brewpub in New Haven's Ninth Square Project. This is an old industrial and shopping area that is undergoing renovation into a shopping, business and residential center with funding from the State of Connecticut. "Because of the State funding for the overall project, we would have been required to use a fully licensed building contractor instead of a less expensive construction manager. Also, we would have had to purchase a 100% completion bond. Both of these items would have raised our costs $100,000.00, and that was prohibitive," said Potts.

Second, Potts explained that he and his partners had unexpected trouble obtaining financing from local banks. It wasn't the concept of a brewpub that turned off the money lenders, it was the location. "No New Haven bank would finance a project in the Ninth Square Project, and no other area banks would finance a project in downtown New Haven," said Potts.

Potts and his partners haven't given up, though. They are now looking for locations in either the shoreline towns north of New Haven (Branford, Guilford or Madison) or in wealthy Fairfield County.

In the meantime, Potts is keeping busy as a consultant to two Connecticut brewpub start-ups, and as a brewer-for-hire. Of the two consulting projects, the most promising and most certain to succeed is, believe it or not, someone else's New Haven brewpub. For the past four years, "Bar" has been a wildly popular and design award-winning nightclub on Crown Street in downtown New Haven. Randy Horder, owner of the 600-person capacity club, hired Potts recently to put together a plan to expand "Bar" into a nightclub/brewpub. A 10-barrel brewing system, most probably from JV Northwest, will be installed, along with a brick oven for making pizzas. "Bar," which currently serves no food, will be open daily for lunch and dinner before turning over to the late night club goers. At all times, they'll be serving their own, not yet announced, beers. Look for an opening in December.

The second brewpub consulting project Potts has taken on is for restauranteur David Wolner, owner of the Main Street Cafe in Willimantic, Connecticut. Wolner hopes to open a brewpub in Willimantic in 1996.

Besides searching out a location for his own brewpub and working as a consultant, at the end of May Potts began brewing two days a week at the Cape Cod Brewhouse. The former brewer at the Hyannis, Massachusetts brewpub, Richard Young, formerly of the Seabright Brewery in Santa Cruz, California, left to open his own brewpub on Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire. Potts expects to remain at Cape Cod until at least November of this year.

In unrelated Connecticut brewpub news, the New England Brewing Company has pushed back the date for the opening of their long-awaited brewpub to August 1.