Worcester Business Journal

6 Worcester Business Journal | October 17, 2022 | wbjournal.com Playing by their own rules BY KEVIN KOCZWARA WBJ Staff Writer T he beat-up parking lot has an absence of de- marcations. e power lines nearby provide an air of disquiet. e only indication there's a restaurant inside the nondescript building on Knowlton Street in Worcester is a little, rectangular blue sign reminiscent of local dive bars across the country with the words "Wooden Bar" on it. Even that feels misleading because it's under a similar yellow sign for "PLAYOFF" games, a relic of a long- gone generation when arcades were a social spot. But, inside there's a dark basement restaurant where Christopher Ly and Spencer Mewherter have turned their handmade noodle pop-up into a little restaurant refusing to follow the tradi- tional rules. "ings happen organically, for better or for worse, in this space," Mewherter said. Wooden Bar is housed in the location of 3cross Fermentation Cooperative, which closed during the early waves of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Ly and Mewherter took over the lease in 2021 and began to transform the brew- ery into a restaurant, allowing them not only the chance to bring their pop-up Wooden Noodles to life, but gave them the opportunity to search for what's next. ere's endless opportunities for e new Worcester eatery Wooden Bar is embracing a minimalist approach as the restaurant industry adjusts to post-pandemic life projects like brewing sake and beer – they have a brewery license – as well as miso and soy sauce. ere's a printing press housed in the space for their own merchandise (don't ask, it's not ready yet) and menus. is Knowlton Street getaway is a place for Mewherter and Ly to explore their ambitions while focusing on keeping costs low on overhead, food, supplies, waste, and staffing. ey've been able to do all of that because of how they watch their bottom line and because the tradesmen community they come from is based around working together. "Our version of business-commerce is we offer what we have," Ly said. "We're more bartering with a lot of things we come into. It's not just strictly money and contracts." Relying on a community e connections Ly formed started when he arrived in Worcester, aer flunking out of college and following a girl to the city. He felt lost aer high school and going to college then was just what you did, even though that path didn't suit him. He worked in restaurants as a teenager but didn't know what he wanted to do or who he wanted to be. In Worcester, he found a community of crasmen. It gave him a purpose. "I reevaluated a lot of things in my life and tried to put in order my values and how I was going to create a living with those values. So I kind of floated around," Ly said. "I kind of got lucky: I got into a group of tradesmen right away and found a carpentry shop, a blacksmith shop, things that made sense to me. ings didn't make sense to me [then], but hammering something made sense to me. It was very tactile." When the BirchTree Bread Co. began its plans to open in Worcester, Ly got a job tiling, and then co-owner Robert Fecteau took a liking to him. Fermen- tation, like construction, made sense to Ly. He said yes and his journey into the Christopher Ly, co-owner of Wooden Bar One of the Wooden Bar's dishes, pulled pork sliders on steamed milk buns, with an Honest Weight Artisan beer PHOTO | KEVIN KOCZWARA PHOTO | COURTESY

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