Next Draft

THE NEXT DRAFT

Changes giving Gardner brewpub early taste of spring

Matthew Tota

Special to Worcester Magazine USA TODAY NETWORK

Mired in winter, still a month from the start of spring, I try to escape the doldrums by searching for signs of rebirth and renewal.

I found one in downtown Gardner last week, across two cold, gray days. Outside the Gardner Ale House and its brewery, Moon Hill Brewing Co., staff in sweatshirts and jackets needed a dolly to drag a giant fermenter into the brewhouse. When up and running, the tank will allow Moon Hill to gradually increase production from about 700 barrels a year to 1,200.

A day later, owner Rick Walton closed the brewpub and helped unload a truck of new chairs and barstools, capping a spree of recent changes at the Ale House, including a new menu.

Reopening last Thursday, Walton felt a little like he did in the spring of 2006 when the brewpub first opened, then as an important piece of the downtown’s revival.

“The place is just looking really marvelous,” he said. “We’re trying to do a regrand opening after 15 years of being in business. We revamped the menu, reconfigured the kitchen. It’s been an early spring cleaning.”

The overhaul has been long overdue.

The past two years have not been easy for the brewpub. Like other breweries and restaurants, Walton has had to change things up to adapt to the pandemic.

One of the few true brewpubs remaining in the state, Moon Hill was better suited than most to weather the storm. The two elements of the business – food and beer – worked together to keep the whole operation afloat.

“We were forced into a position where we had to make changes or call it a day,” he said. “We decided to make some changes – huge changes. We had to tighten our belt incredibly, change up the kitchen, reduce the size of the menu. And we had to get to canning.”

To offset slower draft sales, Walton added a canning line in the fall of 2020 and started distributing through Berkshire Brewing Co.

“That was too much fun,” he said of Moon Hill’s foray into canning. “We started designing labels, because before we didn’t really need labels for our beer. All of a sudden, we’re designing labels left and right for 10 or 12 different beers that we’re now distributing through Berkshire – 30 to 40 cases a week.”

Head brewer Chad Warner has been on a tear, Walton said, putting out new styles for Moon Hill such as sour while upping production of its staples like the American IPA “Pufnstuf.”

Last year, Moon Hill brewed around 700 barrels. Now with the additional fermenter, Walton expects to finish the year right around 1,000 barrels, which is close to about all the brewery can make at its size.

“If we want to do any more, we’re looking at opening a second brewery or moving to a new location,” he said.

It’s unlikely Moon Hill would ever move, though, based on the success of the Ale House. The restaurant remains the biggest piece of the business and running it, especially recently, consumes much of Walton’s time. Still he can feel his attention starting to shift more to the brewery.

“It’s hard to separate the brewery from the restaurant,” Walton said. Almost as if to reinforce that point, among the changes to the restaurant has been the addition of a new sign hanging outside that better advertises Moon Hill.

“Brewing was my first love. But because I loved the people in this community so much, I had to have a restaurant,” he said. “The restaurant just took over my life. But now it’s the other way around. The beer gets so much of my attention.”

In the spring, Walton will revamp the Ale House’s restaurant again and prepare for the rush that follows the onset of warmer days.

Meanwhile he’ll enjoy this early taste of the vernal equinox happening around the brewpub.

“I feel like I’m starting all over again,” he said.

Rick Walton is the owner of the Gardner Ale House. RICK CINCLAIR/TELEGRAM & GAZETTE

CONNELL SANDERS

Paradise at risk — Can someone put my nana in touch with Joni Mitchell?

Sarah Connell Sanders

Special to Worcester Magazine USA TODAY NETWORK

My nana wants to take down a multi-million dollar Cape Cod resort, and she thinks Joni Mitchell is the only one who can help.

Nana raised six kids in a single-income household, weathered a messy divorce as soon as they were all grown, and pieced together a late-inlife career to become financially independent. By the 1980s, she had saved enough money to buy a rustic cottage in the town where she spent childhood summers selling pies at the local fish shack with her mother. Not long after she moved in, real estate developer Corcoran Jennison purchased a seminary on the adjacent property and opened a luxury resort and golf club.

For a long time, they were cordial. Sure, her golden retriever got loose and crashed the occasional wedding reception, but the staff learned to wrangle him back through the patch of pine forest that led to Nana’s house and most of the brides laughed it off. Occasionally, she even spent a summer season hostessing at the waterfront terrace to earn some extra cash. Things remained amicable, that is, until she got wind the resort intended to bulldoze her beloved backwoods to make way for a parking lot.

On a visit five years ago, my eighty-something Nana suggested a “recognizance” mission. I suspected she just wanted to indulge in a sunset cocktail by the ocean, but she proved me wrong on the moonlight trek home through the woods where we discovered a clearing marked by the deep tracks of heavy machinery. “For heaven’s sakes!” she cried beneath the shimmer of her beloved Cape Cod sky.

So began the long campaign to put a stop to Special Permit and Site Plan Review Application #2022-01 which requests approval to construct a parking facility for use by club members and their guests adjacent to a private recreational facility in a residential medium density zoning district. Put simply, Nana can’t stand the idea of getting an eyeful of asphalt every time she looks out her window.

First, she rallied the support of her neighbors and friends. Then, came the virtual meeting notice. I got a panicked call asking me how to change her display name to include the word “opposed” so she could prepare her full-frontal attack for the big event which was held on Jan. 26th, after the deadline for this article. Finally, just days before the meeting I got an email from her with the subject line, “CRAZY IDEA?” It read:

“You’ll probably think I’m losing my mind, but here goes! You are the one family member that might appreciate my latest idea. How can I get in touch with Joni Mitchell?

“Listen to the above attachment [“Big Yellow Taxi”]; it captures the essence of our neighborhood challenge against a global corporation.

“Maybe she would write a letter in opposition for us to be published in the local Cape Cod Times or maybe the Boston Globe. I’m a risk-taker and will do anything at this point to beat the resort.

“Is your Nana gone wild or let me know what you think? I always say … ‘What have I got to lose?’ If the resort wins and I didn’t give it my best … the rest is history!”

If you’re not familiar with the lyrics of Mitchell’s preeminent track, “Big Yellow Taxi” she sings: “Don’t it always seem to go/That you don’t know what you got til it’s gone/They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.” My Nana has always had fine taste.

I can coach a wily crew of senior citizens in the nuances of Zoom. I can plead with my friends who spent teenage summers camping out in Nana’s old barn. But, for the life of me, I’m not sure how to capture the attention of the greatest folk singer of all time.

And so, I will leave it at this — if you’re out there, Ms. Mitchell, an old woman needs your help. I can promise there’s a delicious pie and a hell of a story in it for you. There’s no one quite like my Nana.

No one is going to pave paradise to put up a parking lot on

Nana's watch. PHOTO COURTESY SARAH CONNELL SANDERS

Salem

Continued from Page 20

The chef ’s Valentine’s Day Specials 2022 will be offered Feb. 12-14, by reservation only. Call (508) 867-2345 or visit www.salemcrossinn.com.

The menu: Rosé Buttered Roasted Oysters; Kumquat Salad Lyonnaise; Pink Peppercorn Crusted Lamb Lollipops. Entrees: Drover Roasted Prime Rib Au Jus; Atlantic Swordfish “Oscar”; Surf and Turfy (with filet mignon and grilled butterflied jumbo shrimp); Champagne and Asparagus Risotto. Sweet Endings: Chocolate Seduction (flourless walnut crusted chocolate terrine with crème anglaise); Strawberry White Chocolate Tiramisu; and Love Bird Cream Puffs.

Salem Cross Inn, 260 W. Main St. (Route 9), West Brookfield currently is not open for lunch. Dining room hours are from 4 to 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday; noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. Special COVID 19 notes can be found on the website. Call about booking weddings, etc. Note: The Hexmark Tavern at Salem Cross Inn is not open at this time. The Salem family plans to resume outdoor dining on the lawn this summer.

The picturesque, awardwinning Salem Cross Inn has built a solid reputation on good food, ambience and family. The new chef helps continue the tradition.

If you have a tidbit for the column, call (508) 868-5282. Send email tobhoulefood@gmail.com.