Yankee Brew News Archive

Connecticut Brewer Opens Brewpub in South Norwalk

Originally Published: 01/96

By: Gregg Glaser

Whew! It's finally completed. After three years of work, and several more of planning, the Brewhouse Restaurant, adjacent to Norwalk's New England Brewing Company, has opened in South Norwalk.

Brewhouse Restaurant owner Marcia King planned to open the restaurant as far back as 1989, when New England Brewing first began selling kegs of its Atlantic Amber (a 1993 Gold Medal Award winner at the Great American Beer Festival). "Food has always been a love of mine," says King, whose parents were in the restaurant business in Norwalk for many years. "When we started the Brewhouse Restaurant, it was an easy one for me because of my relationship with food. New England Brewing has always participated in every food event we could get our hands on, and we've taken the relationship with beer to food very seriously."

The new brewery and restaurant are located in a restored 1920, 22,000-square foot brick warehouse on Marshall Street in South Norwalk. Known locally as SoNo, the historic district has been transformed and gentrified over the past ten years into an area of boutiques, restaurants, art galleries and residents that have taken root in the well-restored old buildings of the district.

The main entrance to the Brewhouse Restaurant features a 65-foot clock tower that houses an original Seth Thomas clock from a church in Baltimore. The mechanism of the clock can be seen from the second floor mezzanine of the restaurant, and the Westminster chimes can be heard throughout SoNo on the hour and quarter hour.

Inside the 180-seat restaurant are two levels for dining, and a 35-foot bar. The main visual attraction, however, is New England Brewing's 45-barrel, gleaming copper brewhouse. The brew kettle/mash tun and the lauter tun are not just there for their beauty and visual appeal. These are the daily working vessels that produce all of New England Brewing's ales and lagers. The sights and smells of the brewing process are there for all diners to savor.

The brewhouse is a restored unit, originally built in 1957 by Germany's Huppmann Company. It was in daily use in a German brewery until 1988. Underneath the brewhouse, not visible to the public, is a complicated arrangement of heaters, coolers, whirlpools, pumps, hoses, pipes and valves. What diners and visitors to the restaurant can see are all the other stages of the brewing process. On the mezzanine level, behind glass, is the grain crusher. Downstairs on the way to the restrooms, you can see the refrigerated aging room's eight 100-barrel conditioning tanks. Off to the side of the bar is the fermentation, bottling and kegging room. The Italian bottling machine contains twenty-four heads and can fill one hundred-fifty bottles a minute.

Located throughout the Brewhouse Restaurant is a collection of breweriana from Connecticut's brewing past. By studying the old brewery equipment, signs, trays, labels and bottles, you can learn a great deal about the dozens of breweries that once made beer in Connecticut. Interspersed with this collection are three fully working mechanical musical instruments, dating back to the turn-of-the-century.

The Brewhouse Restaurant is technically, and legally, not a brewpub, although the distinction is a fine one. After all, the only beers sold are those from New England Brewing, and Marcia King has been New England Brewing's president since its incorporation in 1988. However, Connecticut law won't allow an individual to hold both a wholesaler's and a retailer's license for alcoholic beverages. Marcia King has taken ownership of the Brewhouse Restaurant and her husband, Dick, now owns New England Brewing.

The legal complications don't stop there, however. Connecticut law also stipulates that a brewery and a retail operation selling beer must be physically separated. How then, can the brewhouse exist on the floor of the restaurant? The State of Connecticut considers a 3 1/2-foot railing, with a locked gate, that completely surrounds the brewhouse to be equal to a wall between the brewery and restaurant. The rest of the brewery remains behind glass walls and in the basement, separate from the restaurant. Finally, the Brewhouse Restaurant must buy beer from New England Brewing, and the beer must be delivered to the restaurant just as any other supply is delivered, through the loading dock, and not internally within the building. New England Brewing transports kegs of beer out of its loading dock onto the parking lot and then delivers the kegs to the restaurant's separate loading dock. The beer then goes into the restaurant's own cold room--not too many feet away from where it aged and was kegged.

So, what about the beer and food? New England Brewing brews five bottled and kegged beers and a monthly special just for the Brewhouse Restaurant. All the beers are produced under the supervision of German-trained head brewer, Ralph Wittkopp, and assistant brewer Keith Symonds of Greenwich, a homebrewer turned pro. The bottled and kegged beers are: Atlantic Amber, New England Brewing's flagship product, a "steam-style," beer; Gold Stock Ale, a lighter, stronger and hoppier ale: Light Lager, just what the name says; Oatmeal Stout, brewed with eight malts, including oatmeal; and Holiday Ale, a seasonal, spiced ale.

Monthly specials from New England Brewing will also be available, but only on tap at the Brewhouse Restaurant. The first two of these were American Wheat and Raspberry Wheat. At the end of September, an Oktoberfest beer was added. Pints of beer range in price from $3.50-$4.00. For wine lovers, a list of twenty-one wines is also available. Bottle prices range from $14.00-$48.00.

Executive chef at the Brewhouse Restaurant is Joe Cizynski, former owner and chef of the Cafe du Bec Fin in Old Greenwich, a three-star New York Times-rated restaurant. What this means is that the Brewhouse is not serving plain-old pub grub. Entree items on the dinner menu include marinated roast duck, roast Maine cod with a stout and red wine sauce, braised lamb shanks with barley and stout, Provencale fish stew with saffron, osso bucco braised in Gold Stock Ale and roast suckling pig. Entrees range in price from $13.95-$19.95. Also available are lighter dinner choices such as salads, sandwiches and burgers, ranging in price from $5.95-$9.95.

For the truly adventurous, a $32.00 beer dinner is offered nightly. The meal includes assorted hams with buffalo's milk mozzarella served with American Wheat beer, grilled tuna with a black olive vinaigrette served with Atlantic Amber and for dessert, Stilton cheese with fresh pears and walnuts served with Oatmeal Stout.

The Brewhouse Restaurant also serves lunches with appetizers, salads, sandwiches, entrees and a beer lunch on the menu. Prices range from $5.95-$19.95.

Guided tours of the brewery are offered every day at 11:00 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. You can also take a self-guided tour. Printed explanations of the entire brewing process are placed throughout the brewery and restaurant. There is also a gift shop featuring items with a beer theme and the brewery and restaurant logos.

The Brewhouse Restaurant serves lunches and dinners seven days a week, and on Sundays they offer a lunch menu with brunch specials. The Brewhouse Restaurant is located at 13 Marshall Street in South Norwalk. Call (203) 853-9110 for more information.