Brewery Vivant gets a new summer look, just in time for a refreshing brewski on the deck

If your winter blues have given way to thoughts of quaffing a refreshing Farmhand Ale on the deck with friends, Brewery Vivant wants to make your day.

The East Hills craft brewery at 925 Cherry St. SE will soon complete a few changes to its outdoor spaces to make them the inviting, friendly gathering spaces owners Jason and Kris Spaulding had envisioned when the brewery first opened.

A new roof extending from the pub's east side will soon top off a small expansion with exterior walls that are actually glass garage doors. When opened, the doors will allow patrons to move freely between the outdoor deck and the pub. When closed, the cozy space can become a seating area for private gatherings of up to 30 people.

"On busy nights, we end up with too many people piled up at the bar, so we'll make the room have the ability to have tables and chairs for groups or if someday we want it to be a permanent extension of the pub," says Kris Spaulding. "On one side, the window that looks into the brewery will remain, so people will be able to sit there and look into the brewery from that space."

Another change is a long greenhouse-style permanent canopy over the deck between the brewery and Maru Sushi. The canopy, of translucent glass, will protect patrons from light rain showers and bright sun.

Spaulding remarks that the changes will make the outdoor spaces more inviting. "Our dream of the beer garden being a biergarten work right now, but it doesn't have quite the ambience we want it to have. We have the long picnic tables for the community feel. In a beer garden in Germany, that's what you'll find. When you have people sit next to each other, some people aren't comfortable, but can become comfortable and end up meeting their neighbor. We hear all these stories that people became friends with someone because they sat next to them at a community table."

Construction should be completed by early June.

Design: Lott3Metz Architecture
Construction manager: Pioneer Construction

Writer: Deborah Johnson Wood, Development News Editor
Images courtesy of Brewery Vivant