The New Project: St. Joseph's Brewery & Public House

After years in the wine business I have decided to return to the Restaurant business and Hospitably Industry. I was invited by a group of friends to become an investor and become the Managing Partner of St.Joseph's Brewery & Public House.

Mid April 2015 come and visit at 540 N College Ave. in Indiapolis

It is located in the old Catholic Church of St. Joseph's. The cornerstone to the building was laid in 1879 and the church, that was designed by D.A.Bohlen was open on July 4th, 1880. Unfortunately, the Parrish was relocated to the south side of Indianapolis in 1949 and the church was closed. It was used for a few years for some Church events before the doors completely shut down.

After taking possession of the building last year we started to renovate the inside. We installed a 15 barrel Micro Brewery and the Restaurant will have a seating capacity of almost 190 people.

Our Head brewer is Mr. Alan Simons formerly of Oaken Barrel in Greenwood and Scott Reifenberger is our Executive Chef who left the Skyline Club after 12 years there.

It was an interesting project and hopefully we will by open in just about 5 weeks.

Here some pictures of the original fresco and the way the church building had looked before and after

  The altar area where the brew house will be installed

The old ceilings

The Old Fresco

When the staples and bells were removed

Building the platform for the tanks, approx 16000 lbs of steel and almost 80.000 lbs of concrete

Blue lines outlined where things are going

renovation in progress

The tanks were designed so they could fit through the front door

 Precision work done by the guys from the rigging company, amazing

We are getting there, I can almost smell the food already and hear the laughter of the customers.

Seating plan with tables?

Looking towards the entrance

one of our future Vegetarian dishes

News and update

It's been a while since I updated this blog. Much has happened.
Patty and I went to Japan last year and while there visited Hakushia Sake in Nishinomiya City, Hyogo Prefecture), Japan. We took the Shikansen Bullet Train from Kyto down south.
My friend Derek Gray from Graybull Wines in Indianapolis (the local distributor of their Sake's) was kind enough to arrange a visit to their Sake Museum.
Mr Sato-San was a wonderful host and gave us a great tour of their Museum and invited us to lunch at their restaurant. If you ever visit Japan make sure ti visit this place.
This company was started in 1662. You can taste many different styles of sake at the restaurant. I loved the one with the cedar flavor.