Craft Breweries Night Markets

BREWERY NIGHT MARKETS

WHERE LOCAL FLAVORS, ITEMS AND CRAFT BREWS COME TOGETHER

by James Coulter

When he started making pottery, Luke Wilson started on the back patio of his old apartment. There, he would manually propel the pottery wheel with his foot in the Florida heat. Even now that he has his own house, he still pays homage to his humble origins with the name of his business: Patio Pottery

Luke considers his hobby to be a meditative one, something that allows him to unwind and escape the world around him. Though he does not have a kiln, he loves every step of the process, from molding the clay to decorating it and finally firing it up. Being able to see his work from start to finish makes him feel accomplished, he said.

“Honestly, the satisfaction comes whenever you open that kiln on the final firing where it has been glazed and you can see all of your hundreds of hours of work finished,” he explained. “You are working with, for lack of a better term, dirt and mud, and you are creating something that seems to be out of nothing. It is the constant refinement and making it the best it can be and seeing that improvement each time you do it. It is a tangible improvement on your skills, the thing you keep trying to do, you can see each batch getting better. And to see people appreciate that and be willing to spend money on that to support you, it is really satisfying.”

Luke makes all sorts of pottery like mugs, plates, and bowls. He sells his wares at Brew Hub during their monthly Night Markets. He had been working at the brewery for seven years when he first started. Even when he no longer works there, he still frequents the market as a vendor. Attending these markets allows for a more personable experience with customers, especially since he can network with many of them there.

“The thing I like most about it has been social. People are there to have a good time, and there are [plenty of] cool artists selling stuff,” he said. “I find that, at the breweries, people are most generous. They are more willing to spend than at other places I have been.”

Patio Pottery is one of the many vendors that attend the Night Markets in Brew Hub in Lakeland. The monthly markets are hosted on the third Friday from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. From pottery to soaps, to baked goods and custom signs, visitors can find a little bit of anything and everything at these night markets, where local artists and craftsman sell their wares.

Michaela Gannon is a graphic designer by trade. So when she was looking to expand her services, she decided to start making custom-designed pieces through Millie’s Place Boutique. Whether you like Disney, Harry Potter, or any other popular media, she can create home decor custom to your tastes. Millie’s Place Boutique can also create custom signs, logos, and deck boxes. “I take a lot of my inspiration from the pop culture side and spin it to sell to other people like myself who want one-of-a-kind things they cannot find in the world,” she explained. “I also get a lot of help from my partner, my mom, she is the talent behind the painting, gluing, and assembly of products.” She loves attending Brew Hub’s night market. She has been attending it for more than a year after being invited by one of the bartenders. Rather than offering her the same clientele at the same location, she finds that she has had new customers every time she attends. The regular customers she does attract often book sign parties with her. “Overall, it’s a good location,” she said. “You get a lot of people in who are not local to the area that are traveling between Tampa and Orlando, so I have been able to expand my customer base...It is always a lot of people there. It is never the same people over and over. So, I get a lot of interaction with a lot of different vendors [and customers].”

Whether they want to peruse the wares of local artisans and craftsmen, enjoy live music and hot meals from food trucks, or simply take a sip of craft beer and wine, the Brew Hub Night Market offers something for everyone—

including dogs! These regular markets have proven quite popular, drawing in 400 to 500 attendees monthly, said Angie Klein, the coordinator for the Night Markets.

Angie has been coordinating these events for nearly two years. She is a local artist, and both she and her husband love breweries. They love visiting new locations and seeing what they have to offer. When they stumbled upon Brew Hub, she was inspired to drum up a conversation with the manager to start a regular market there.

“The brewery is a great venue with a huge tasting room and an awesome outdoor patio and yard, so it is a great environment,” she said. “In this day and time, it is so important to shop local and support small businesses. And I think the customers at brew house get that. The brewery clientele gets that. The type of people who go to breweries gets that.”

She recently re-started the Night Markets in April of this year following downtime brought about by COVID-19. Plenty of attendees still come out in the summer weather, and business and attendance are expected to ramp up as the weather cools down in autumn.

“I expect the market to explode in the autumn,” she said. “We have that gorgeous Florida weather with more people from up north, so I see big things happening in the market once the weather cools off and it stops raining.”

The Union Taproom in Winter Haven hosts a similar Night Market on the first Thursday from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. For the past two years, they have hosted local artisans and craftsmen as vendors free of charge, allowing them the opportunity to attract a larger clientele, explained owner Colin Wells. Regular vendors include Cookie Catastrophe, The CBD Store, and Taylor Layne Boutique.

Union Taproom opened in Sep. 2019. The brewery sells craft beer, wine, and oven-baked pizzas. While their Night Market experienced a ten-month hiatus due to the ongoing COVID19 pandemic, their attendance has been decent, and they hope things pick up with the cooler autumn weather.

“It is something we thought would be nice to try and create opportunities for small businesses in the area and introduce them to our customer base and introduce our customer base to some of these other businesses,” he said. “These night markets, we are not the only ones, but it gives the community a place to see and touch and feel and interact with business owners, they give them an opportunity to our customer base or someone who may not have been aware of them and make a sale to someone in front of them. That is why these things do so well, and why it has done well for us.”

Here is a list of night markets hosted at local breweries. Please contact these locations for updates on exact times and dates:

Night Market @ Union Taproom

3rd Thursday, 6 pm - 9 pm 245 West Central Avenue, Suite 102 Winter Haven, Fl. 33881 https://uniontaproomwh.com/ (863) 268-4921

Night Market @ Brew Hub

3rd Friday, 6 pm - 9 pm 3900 S Frontage Rd Lakeland, FL 33815 http://brewhub.com/ (863) 698-7600

Moonlight Market @ Grove Roots Brewing Co.

TBA 302 3rd St SW Winter Haven, 33880 http://groveroots.com/ 863-291-0700

The Market @ Front Page Brewing

TBA 190 S Florida Ave Bartow, FL 33830 http://www.frontpagebrewing.com/ (863) 537-7249