MOUNT VERNON – As the five o’clock hour rolled around on Thursday afternoon, Mount Vernon’s newest taproom began to fill up. The after-work crowd trickled in, ordering glasses of wine and flights of craft beer and exchanging jovial well-wishes. It grew louder, drowning out the brewery’s four TVs, which serve largely as background noise to what has become the city’s daily conversation.
All of the sudden, things grew silent. The taps stopped flowing and the glasses stopped clinking. David Stein had something to say.
“This morning it kind of just hit me, how historic this actually is.”
Stein stood before the late-afternoon crowd alongside members of the Knox County Chamber of Commerce, Modern Builders and members of the Woodward Development Corporation’s Board of Trustees on Thursday, ready to cut the ribbon for his new business, Stein Brewing Company.
According to Stein’s research at the Knox County Historical Society, his brewery is the first in Knox County since 1878. That’s 140 years. ‘Historic’ is putting it mildly.
“It’s hard to believe it’s actually coming to life,” Stein told Knox Pages afterwards. “It was neat, I really woke up this morning and it just kind of hit me that this is a big deal. It’s a big deal for the town, it’s a big deal for the building, it’s a big deal for downtown.”
Thursday marked Stein’s third downtown ribbon-cutting in six months. He owns The Joint, located on Public Square, which opened in late March. Then he opened a ‘The Original Dave’s Cosmic Subs’ shop on S. Main Street in June. Now he’s pulled off the trifecta with Stein Brewing Company, which is positioned on the first floor of the revamped Woodward Opera House, located at 10 W. Vine Street.
But the timeline may be a bit misleading; the brewery was Stein’s baby.
He began the project back in February 2017, well before he thought of the diner or the sub shop. It wasn’t necessarily that he had a passion for beer – although he claims he “simply can’t avoid my last name being ‘Stein,’ being a big German beer mug” – it was more about hospitality.
Stein plans to add a restaurant to the back side of the brewery within the next month or so, which will feature American smokehouse items such as wings and barbecue, as well as a plethora of comfort food items (he mentioned meatloaf will be on the menu) and vegetarian/vegan options. Between the restaurant and the brewery, he hopes to provide something for everyone.
“I’ve always had a fascination with hospitality,” Stein said. “Almost every single job in one way or another has been in a service or hospitality manner, so that’s really near and dear to me. And when I found this beer system, it really just meshed with the idea of what we were going to do with the bar and the restaurant and everything. It really just seemed to scream out fitting here downtown.”
The brewery system Stein refers to is found on the back side of the taproom, visible to the public and curiously compact. All of the company’s beer is brewed on-site, although some of the preliminary steps in the brewing process are taken care of off-site to conserve space. The beer is then kegged and stored in coolers downstairs, ready to be piped up into the taps when Mount Vernon gets thirsty.
“We just don’t have the space to be the traditional-style, full-mash brewing system,” Stein said. “This is kind of the new wave of technology in beer-making.”
The brewery offers 24 taps of “anything a beer lover’s gonna want,” according to Stein, including 10 original craft beers and 14 selected from across the nation.
“I think we honestly have the most impressive beer list in the entire Knox County area,” Stein quipped.
But it’s not all craft beer; the taproom also serves the likes of Bud Light and Budweiser, as well as wine and an extensive variety of liquors. They also serve soda, water and other refreshments.
“We’re really a great in-between place for anything you want to do,” Stein said.
That motto coincides with the dress code, which is rather undefined. That was by design. Stein wanted a place that “wasn’t just your typical bar,” and this was part of that plan.
“You can either come in in a suit and tie if you feel like it, or you can come in in basketball shorts. It really doesn’t matter,” Stein said. “It’s got that real middle-of-the-road feel to it that I think our town is missing.”
Despite facing obstacles over the last two years due to the historic nature of the Woodward Opera House (Stein originally planned to open the brewery in November 2017), Stein was finally able to sign a lease on the space in August.
During that time span, however, Stein was able to craft a truly original environment for his taproom, with the help of design firms. The finished product is a versatile, clean interior with “SBC” trademarked on nearly everything – from the pint glasses to the wall decor.
Sitting at a table facing W. Vine Street following Thursday afternoon’s ribbon-cutting ceremony, three local women – Emily Stickel, Tina Heibert and Melanie Bolender – enjoyed glasses of Kalamazoo, a “smooth, full-bodied stout (that) offers a blend of aromas and flavors of dark chocolate and freshly roasted coffee, balanced with a significant hop presence,” according to the taproom’s menu. It was the trio’s first time at the new brewery.
“This is really important to the revitalization of our downtown,” Bolender said in between sips. “I mean, it’s huge.”
“It’s super cool,” Heibert added, looking around. “Like, it’s trendy. Mount Vernon has nothing like this.”
“Right,” Stickel replied. “It’s like we’re bringing Columbus up here.”
That’s the plan, according to Pat Crow, project manager at the Woodward Opera House. Stein Brewing Company is part of a much larger Woodward revitalization project that began in 1997 and is set to wrap up by early 2019. Along with the revamped theatre, there will also be an event and meeting center, as well as a local foods store. The brewing company is an essential touch to what Crow hopes will be a statewide attraction.
Ultimately, Crow said the goal is to make Woodward Opera House an “asset-producing part of the community,” meaning it is bringing money in from outside Knox County to help boost local economic growth.
“If a consumer comes in here and they go in the brewery or they go to an art thing upstairs or they come to a conference, that money they spend in this community is money that was not here yesterday,” Crow said.
“We want to bring enough people into this community, through tourism and other aspects, to create economic development – not just for the downtown, but also the whole community.”
Stein said that after four weeks of business, even with minimal advertising, people are already coming from the Columbus region to try his brewery.
As someone who used entirely local trade work to construct the taproom, however, Stein also wants it to have a local feel. He wants it to be Mount Vernon’s brewery, a casual stop after a long day that can bring the community together.
“It’s really just fun to see the social aspect of the people that come in. It’s neat to see the community, the downtown people, a lot of people come straight from after work,” Stein said. “It’s a nice feeling to know that we are providing something pretty special for Mount Vernon.”
While Stein is a Columbus native, he’s dedicated his last two years to becoming a passionate stakeholder in the revitalization of downtown Mount Vernon. He spends his days rushing back and forth between his three businesses, which are all located within a half-mile strip downtown, while also balancing family life – he has a wife and two children, a four-year old and a 10-year old.
“I can tell you, I’m sure somebody is maybe busier than me in the last nine months, but I’m not sure who,” said Stein, who noted that his only day-to-day scheduling mainstay is dropping off his kids at St. Vincent de Paul School every morning.
But for Stein, it’s worth it. He said that Mount Vernon “kind of adopted me, to some extent,” when he moved here almost 10 years ago. And when he saw the potential of the downtown scene, he felt compelled to be a part of it.
“There’s days where you scratch your head and you’re like, ‘Only an insane person opens three places in 10 months or whatever it’s going to be,’” Stein said, laughing. “But I think what we do and what we have is going to be so special for the community and downtown.”
After the restaurant opens, Stein hinted at the possibility of organizing a downtown beer festival, as well as a wine and cider festival once the brewery gets its cider license. Ever the dreamer, Stein is constantly thinking about ‘what’s next.’
For now, though, he is able to reflect. Stein woke up on Thursday morning and, before the hustle of another invigorating day, thought about what he’d done. It took him back to two years ago, and reminded him of why he started all this in the first place.
“I honestly believe we have the makings, pretty soon, to have one of the top downtown destinations around,” Stein said. “And I just felt a real connection to be a part of it.”
