Have a great Thanksgiving!
Sean

Fullsteam Brewery is located in Durham’s Central Park District — a block away from the historic Durham Athletic Park, the backdrop for the movie “Bull Durham.” The 15-hectoliter brewery specializes in seasonal “plow-to-pint” beers that incorporate Southern farmed ingredients, heirloom grains, and local botanicals. Think sweet potato, scuppernong, Carolina grits, rhubarb, even kudzu. Fullsteam will brew a smoky beer called Hogwash designed to go with North Carolina barbecue. And in addition to these unusual “Southern Ag” offerings, Fullsteam will brew a number of classic beer styles: India Pale Ale, stout, and the brewery’s flagship “Carolina Common.”

You’ll find special “one-off” beers and experimental test batches at the brewery’s on-premises tavern, Fullsteam R&D. In total, Fullsteam will serve around eight to 12 beers on-tap at R&D. And while not a full-service brewpub restaurant, R&D will serve “bullies,” small savory pies with seasonal ingredients. Bullies and beer make for an affordable and fun outing.

R&D also has a sizable event space which will feature a constantly-rotating schedule: local music, notoriously bad movies (think “The Room” and “Battlefield Earth”), and community-focused entertainment. The event space will be available for rent for private functions, non-profit gatherings, and community events.

Fullsteam’s guiding philosophy centers on optimism, creativity, and fun. The visionaries of a century past dreamed of a future of flying machines. Utopian societies. Unparalleled peace and prosperity. Frankly, society’s vision of the future has little in common with the hope of a hundred years ago.

What’s that have to do with beer?

Beer is the beverage of the common man and woman, and when they gather at the tavern — the social hub for the community — it oft is the impetus of social change; the birthplace of bright ideas.

Durham is one of the most socially-minded, civically-engaged cities in the United States. Great things are happening in Durham, and Fullsteam is excited to be a small part of it all.

All are welcome at Fullsteam. Hipsters: $5 cover.

Fullsteam Brewery
726 Rigsbee Avenue
Google voice is what we’ve got for now: (620) HOGWASH

We have leased a building!

Our new home is in the heart of the Central Park warehouse district, at the corner of Geer and Rigsbee. 726 Rigsbee (see it on Google Maps) has just about everything we were looking for:

• 8,000 square feet of open warehouse space
• high ceilings and concrete floors
• great location in a up-and-coming area of town
• affordable — breweries need a lot of space at warehouse prices!
• zoned industrial, so we can focus on brewing
• a bit o’ history
• room to expand, if our concept of “Southern experimental beers” proves successful over time

As Kevin mentions over at Bull City Rising, it was a heckuva long search for a home. But I’d like to think that the in this year-long process, we learned a heckuva lot about 1) what we want to do, 2) what Durhamites wanted, and 3) what makes us different.

1) What we want to do. We want to run a brewery and tavern. In that order. 32 and I love brewpubs (restaurant/breweries), but the key takeaway here is that brewpubs are restaurants first, breweries second. With ten years in the restaurant biz — including 2.5 at Durham’s Magnolia Grill — I know just how demanding and tough the restaurant world is. More importantly, we looked around at all the great restaurants in the Triangle area and realized that we’d much rather serve these establishments than compete with them.

That said, we’re very excited about the plans for our on-premises tavern, which we’re calling Fullsteam R&D. Equal parts mad science lab, steampunk bar, and event space, we hope R&D will quickly evolve into a comfortable and affordable “regular.” And who knows how Fullsteam will change over time.

Which brings us to…

2) What Durhamites wanted. Over the year-long search, we did a lot of listening — both in-person and online. It become pretty clear that, these days, Durhamites seemed much more interested in a brewery-and-tavern than a restaurant/brewpub. That an affordable place to grab a pint and a pie was resonating more than a sit-down restaurant that specialized in great food matched with great beer. That’s not to take anything away from the “gastropub” concept; in fact, it’s more a testament to the fact that there are already great places like this out there. But a hometown brewery with a comfortable, lively on-site tavern was clearly more appealing to you, our customer base.

3) What makes us different. This time of planning and preparation has allowed 32 and me to nail down Fullsteam’s  ”plow-to-pint” concept. We’re super-excited to create experimental “Southern ag” beers. To develop a distinctly Southern beer style using local farmed ingredients and heirloom grains. And to support local farmers in our beer-making venture. Over the past year, we’ve vetted concepts, tested out beers, and held a dozen or so tastings. We’re discovering what our big sellers might be (Hogwash, Common, Sweet Potato, Scuppernong) and what might not sell so well (concepts unnamed to protect our innocence). Those of you who’ve tried out our beers: thank you for your feedback and insights. You may think you’re just getting free beer, but you’re really helping Fullsteam grow into a successful venture. Thank you so much…and be on the lookout for more tasting/volunteering opportunities in the weeks ahead.

We’ll have an official press release tomorrow (Monday, June 15th) to announce our location. Keep in mind that we’ve got a long road ahead, full of potential pitfalls and blunders. But finding a space is often the hardest part of making a brewery succesful. The next huge challenge is bringing it in on-time and within budget!

We’re excited to join the diverse community of successful ventures in Durham’s most electic district, Central Park. We’re proud that we’re already working with several businesses in the district, including Ellen Cassilly Architect and Dave Wofford, resident genius at Horse & Buggy Press.

In the months and years ahead, we pledge to continue to solicit your insights to help make Fullsteam — the brewery and the tavern — a peerless mix of our ideas and your interests.

726 Rigsbee Avenue! Target opening date: late 2009!

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]]> http://www.fullsteam.ag/blog/2009/06/726-rigsbee/feed/ 11 http://www.fullsteam.ag/blog/2008/07/36/ http://www.fullsteam.ag/blog/2008/07/36/#comments Sat, 05 Jul 2008 17:26:28 +0000 Sean http://www.fullsteambeer.com/?p=36 When we tell people we’re starting up a brewery, one of the most common questions is about food: “So…will you be a brewpub?” “Will you be open for lunch?”

“How’s the restaurant project coming along?”

Which is all very interesting, because if I told someone that I was opening up a winery, I doubt many people would respond with, “What kind of cuisine will you be serving?”

Perhaps that’s good, in a way. People strongly associate beer with food. Usually bar food. Fun times. Community. Small “d” democracy and political action.

When I first envisioned bringing a brewery and tavern to Durham, the concept was admittedly more high-brow: high-end food paired with great beer. There’s tons of opportunity out there for high-end beer and food. One of the best executions is right here in North Carolina. It’s a concept that’s still exciting to me, probably in large part because some of the most memorable meals I’ve ever had were beer dinners. (Charlotte’s Table: Braised Wild Boar with Gnocchi and Cocoa, paired with Natty Greene’s Old Town Brown; Chapel Hill’s Jujube: Coffee and Ice Cream Bombe with Duck-Rabbit Milk Stout)

But 32 and I did a little “listening tour” (remember that phrase?) of Durhamites and found that, while there was a decent amount of interest in the great-beer-meets-great-food concept, we were losing our brewery persona. We were turning into a restaurant that happened to brew beer, and it was going to be quite the battle to get people to think of us as a brewery that happened to have a restaurant.

Meanwhile, Durham was in a (continued) renaissance of higher-end restaurants. We decided we wanted to serve these restaurants rather than compete against them.

But what to do about food? We still wanted to have a unique food concept to complement our beers.

Enter the pie.

Yep, pie. It’s a little odd — pie and beer, no? Ha, just odd enough! I don’t recall how I got hooked on the pie concept (besides just fundamentally loving pie). It may have been the movie Waitress. Actually, I’m pretty sure that’s it. Sorry that I don’t have a better story for you about how we decided on pie. Like a lot of things, it was a result of staring at a screen. Not too romantic.

Anyway, before too long, I was finding all kinds of inspiration…mostly in the UK. Pieminister and Pure Pie in particular. Locally in Phoebe Lawless’ amazing offerings.

Alas, a concept was born: seasonal pies using fresh, local ingredients…paired with local, handcrafted beer. Not sweet pies, mind you (though we may offer a few of them). But hand pies in the style of English pasties. Decidedly not upscale. A simple concept that requires just enough explanation to interest people. Food you can hold in your hand while you drink a beer. And something certainly unique for the region. We’re on to something here, this whole “pie and beer” thing. So much so that I’ve reserved the URL pieandbeer.com.

photo courtesy of Ella Mullins on Flickr

How we end up preparing our pies will depend on the size of our kitchen, which all comes back to our location. I wish I could tell you more about the pie menu, our baker, and what pie pairs best with which Fullsteam beer. We’ll get there before too long. For now, I wanted to share with you a bit about our food plans, since  — at long last coming full circle in this long-arse post — we get this food question all the time.