Worcester Business Journal

10 Worcester Business Journal | October 1, 2018 | wbjournal.com F O C U S T H E F O O D & D R I N K I S S U E B.Y.O.F. Local breweries and restaurants have created a symbiotic relationship to keep customers fed while drinking W hen Brian Diste- fano was opening Purgatory Beer in Northbridge around this time last year, one of the first things he did was go around to nearby restaurants. He wanted to introduce himself and take their take-out menus, he said. Distefano knew his small brewery, which doesn't have a kitchen, would have to rely on close-by restaurants in order to keep his customers well fed. "We told them, 'We hope we can help your business, too,'" Distefano said. As more breweries open in Central Massachusetts – just in Worcester, two are likely to open this year, while Marl - borough anticipates three – certain owners either don't want to or can't af- ford to have full-service kitchens. ey oen just want to focus on beer, leav- ing nearby restaurants to benefit and lending a community feel to breweries where patrons are encouraged to bring their own take-out pizza, barbecue, Chinese food or even brought-from- home cheese plates. "We never thought for a second that we would have a kitchen," said Distefa- no, who opened Purgatory with busi- ness partner Kevin Mulvehill. "It's a different skill and different in terms of Board of Health certification. It would have been way more expensive to start up, and it wasn't what we wanted to get in the business for." BYOB, too at same singular focus is what brought Marc Felicio to open Dacosta's Pizza Bakery in Worcester in 2016. e restaurant is BYOB, and happens to be just across the street from where Greater Good Imperial Brew Co. opened this spring. Felicio said he sees Greater Good cans all the time in Dacosta's and will inevitably see someone walking toward the restaurant from Greater Good any time he walks outside. e relationship between the two places has benefited Dacosta's. "I just wanted to focus on making really good pizza," Felicio said of opening the pizzeria without a liquor license. "I didn't want any other dis - tractions. at's how I envisioned this place to be." One unsung benefit of having small breweries pop up is the way businesses that would once compete with one another now see the benefit of sticking to what they do best. Purgatory and Fitchburg's River Styx Brewing have space for food trucks outside, for example. "We've talked about it a lot," said Steve Clark, the vice president for gov - ernment affairs at the Massachusetts Restaurant Association. "In a statewide perspective, you're giving people more options for where to go." Spiritually aligned e arrangement benefits the restau- rant industry when people take food to a brewery or tack on a visit to drink a pint before or aer dinner, Clark said. One example Clark gave was in downtown Hudson, where Medusa Brewing Co. and Rail Trail Flatbread Co. are just one-tenth of a mile from each other on Main Street. Rail Trail's beer menu is heavy on local offerings, and with Medusa and other new businesses in downtown Hudson, it has helped revitalize the neighborhood. Rail Trail pizza boxes can be seen scattered across table tops at Medusa, and customers waiting for a table at Rail Trail will oen go grab a beer in the meantime. Clark called the pairing between the two establishments a symbiotic rela - tionship. Jason Kleinerman, an opera- tional partner at Rail Trail, described it as creating a communal atmosphere. "Even though we're not technically aligned," Kleinerman said of Rail Trail and Medusa, "spiritually we're very much in the same alignment with that business model." So, too, are places like B.T.'s Smoke- house in Sturbridge and Tree House Brewing Co., which is about a 10-min- BY GRANT WELKER Worcester Business Journal Staff Writer Altruist Brewing Co. in Sturbridge (left), River Styx Brewing in Fitchburg (above) and Tree House Brewing Co. in Charlton (below) are among the newer additions to the Central Massachusetts craft brewing scene. PHOTO/GRANT WELKER PHOTO/ZACHARY COMEAU PHOTO/COURTESY

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