TAPPING
ALONG WILMINGTON BREWING KEEPS UP GROWTH by JENNY CALLISON
& VICKY JANOWSKI
photo by TERAH HOOBLER
12
WILMA
JANUARY 2022
I
t’s been a three-year journey, but Wilmington Brewing Company’s new event space at 800 South Kerr Avenue recently opened for business. Owners JOHN and MICHELLE SAVARD held a soft opening in mid-November in the roughly 5,000-square-foot space that opens on one side to a deck running the length of the building. Seating on this porch overlooks a wooded area with a stream. The 3-acre lot is adjacent to the brewery and taproom’s existing location at 842 South Kerr Avenue. The Venue’s sleek interior contains a bar stocked with fifteen of the company’s brews and a small shop with company-branded merchandise.
Patrons can sit at tables or in a corner conversation area furnished with sofas and chairs. Shuffle bowling and foosball games are available. The Venue, as it’s called, can accommodate more than 200 people, according to Michelle Savard. The new parking lot has 56 spaces. There are plans for food trucks to stop at The Venue each week from Wednesday through Sunday. Dogwood Architecture designed the space, and Christopher Building Company was the general contractor. The Coastal Manifest worked on all The Venue’s interior design. While The Venue is designed for special events, it will serve an additional purpose for the next year or so, Michelle Savard says. “We’re going to use it as our taproom while our old taproom next door is renovated,” she says. “This will give us a chance to love on our old business space.” Michelle Savard says she wasn’t sure exactly how long those renovations would take, but it could be “hopefully give or take one year, so we will operate Venue as taproom until renovations are complete.” The planned renovation at Wilmington Brewing Company’s space will include adding fermentation space, allowing the brewery to can and keg more beer. “The canning operation has really grown and is going great,” Michelle Savard says. The Savards launched their operations in 2012. It opened originally in the space at 4405A Wrightsville Avenue that’s now occupied by Hey! Beer Bottle Shop before moving to its current location. During Wilmington’s early days of the brewery boom – before there were multiple sprawling taprooms and a buffet of locally canned options – the couple started out catering to homebrewing aficionados. At the Wrightsville Avenue shop – less than a mile from their growing campus now – the Wilmington natives stocked the ingredients, equipment, and kits to cater to homebrewers, from
