Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Brewery Dreams

I have a ton of work that I could be doing right now, but I keep having this dream...

There is this vacant property down the road from my place in East Lansing. It's on Park Lake Road and it used to be a golf course. I see this building and I start getting all kinds of ideas. For example, there used to be this restaurant down by the airport in Cleveland, Ohio. Or was it Toledo? Any way, it was called 57th Fighter Squadron or something like that. The front of the building was laid out like a 40's European street with brick sidewalks, phone booth, bare bulb lights strung across the walkway. They had a lovely Willys jeep in the drive among other vehicles and weaponry. The inside of the restaurant looked like an Enlisted club, right down to the jackets hanging on the coat racks. The music was WWII vintage. The outdoor pub was built inside the burned out hulk of a barn that had a fighter jet hanging down from the roof as if it crashed through the barn and burned out. Example: HERE

The place was AWESOME. It was designed to look like a French countryside farm. So what if that theme was coupled with a brewpub and it was plopped down on this vacant property?

What does it take to start a brew pub? Where do you find good brewmaster's? Now, a few entrepreneurial spirits could really market a great restaurant, but you know, most restaurants fail within a year. I suspect themed restaurants rank higher yet. But if the theme is well received and you diversify your attractions (brew and a badass restaurant) and you have all this property out back,... hmm. This gets better. What if you allowed those military war re-enactor groups to use your property to do their thing and you had a pavilion for spectators and etc? You could really draw crowds. The interest in war hasn't faded. If anything, it's increased what with Band of Brothers, Flags of Iwo Jima, Saving Private Ryan, etc.

So who wants to get in on this with me? I have about $14.00 to use as starting capital which should buy 500 napkins.

4 comments:

Noah said...

It's funny you mention this because I'm already on the case to starting a brewery started, and not at that property. That property is bad bad bad luck. Everything that starts there dies.

Looking at downtown Lansing. Our brewer is currently entering into apprenticeships. I'm getting some funders together and may be working with Gillespie development.

Christian said...

It's a nice piece of property though. Like 20 acres of nice ranch countryside. Maybe a paintball gallery. Build some bunkers, some urban settings. Yeaaaaa.

Noah said...

Maybe a paintball gallery. Build some bunkers, some urban settings. Yeaaaaa.

I love paintball. I do. Just not with a brewery. Trust me on this one.

Christian said...

Beer + paintball = worst fuckin' nightmare.

That would be sweet. Too sweet.