Zoning and the City Council

Vision of Peace at City Hall in downtown St. PaulIt’s been another busy week here at Burning Brothers, only this time it got political.

You see, there’s a somewhat obscure regulation in the city’s zoning policies regarding tap rooms. Specifically, if you are zoned in a true industrial area like our colleagues over at Summit, operating a tap room is no issue. However, if you are located in an area that is not-zoned for industrial (i.e., traditional neighborhood or commercial), a tap room is not permitted. Care to guess which zone we fall into?

Yep, it’s like that.

So, we’ve been talking with the St. Paul City Council and they have proposed reviewing and updating those zoning regulations for commercial breweries.  We were also interviewed by the Pioneer Press, Finance & Commerce and Minnesota Public Radio regarding our thoughts on the matter. At this point, we are waiting to hear back regarding next steps, but thought you all would appreciate hearing what it’s all about.

In the end, this is just another piece of the puzzle. If the tap room has to wait a little bit, it won’t slow down our larger purpose of bringing our gluten-free goodness to the masses.

Cheers,

Thom, Dane and Gabe

February Update and Happenings

BBB signing the lease for their gluten-free brewery

We’ve had a pretty kick ass week here at Burning Brothers. Let me outline the events that unfolded:

  1. The architect sent us the completed preliminary site plan. This means we can solicit bids and select a general contractor for the build out.
  2. We got a shout out in the StarTribune (Liquid Assets: Gluten-free beer? Several choices out there) for being the new up and comer in the local GF beer market.
  3. We signed the lease on our brewing space! That’s right, we’ve got a home. We just need to move some plumbing and electric, install equipment and complete the laundry list of other miscellaneous things and then we can start selling beer.

Cheers everyone, the end (or the beginning) is within sight.

Dane, Gabe and Thom