Gloucester: Business slow as Brewery opens in Fort

By Michael Farrell
Staff writer
Gloucester Daily Times

It was wait-and-see for both sides yesterday as Cape Ann Brewery started serving customers on the first day of its three-day temporary license to sell beer during Fiesta.

Earlier this month, crowds of supporters and opponents showed up when the Licensing Board considered the request from Gloucester's only micro-brewery to serve its product to visitors during Fiesta. Fort neighbors and members of the Fiesta Committee were opposed, saying that drinking should not be part of Fiesta.

Brewery owner Michael Beaton said business was slow for the first few hours after the brewery, on Commercial Street near St. Peter's Square, opened at 4 p.m. yesterday.

There were about 20 customers in the first hour, but Beaton said things were going pretty well. Inside a handful of people were quietly sipping their brews, sitting in wicker rocking chairs or at the bar. Outside, Beaton hung out with police Sgt. Anthony Parisi, who was assigned to make sure all went well at the brewery. His presence was part of the conditions of the brewpub being open.

It was quiet. Which is what the aim was, said Beaton, "(A) casual, chill atmosphere. That's what we're going for."

If it can show the city that its business attracts a good clientele, that people do not emerge drunk, and they don't cause problems during Fiesta — a time not exactly known for discretion when drinking — Beaton is hopeful the city will consider giving the brewery a long-term license.

Inside, visitors were being educated about brewing as they sampled various beers and settled on which one they wanted for $4 a glass.

Among the people learning about beer were three sailors on liberty from the USS Whidbey Island, anchored in the harbor for Fiesta. "It was a really neat experience," said sailor Dustin Smith about the tour.

Later, Frank Luchart and his wife Joan, senior citizens from Magnolia, came in. After buying a glass, Luchart was coaxed to put his face in a hole that had been cut into the head of a large cutout of the fisherman's logo, based on the Man of the Wheel statue, and had his picture taken.

"It's like a winery," his wife exclaimed, talking about a vineyard they had visited near San Diego, Calif., with their children. But the cutout the California vineyard has people stick their face through is of a person stomping grapes. And like the brewery, the vineyard gave tours and tasting. Some comparisons could be made between a brew pub and a California vineyard, but Luchart's wife said, "I didn't see any trees, though."

Beaton may be optimistic about the brewery, but his neighbors in the Fort a more skeptical.

Annette Tarantino, who was enjoying the evening with her neighbors, the Demetris, on their porch across from the brewery, said, "So far, so good." It had only been an hour and a half.

Tarantino believes, like Beaton, that once the Friday and Saturday Fiesta crowds come around, that the brew pub will get busier. However, unlike Beaton, she expects it will contribute to the drunkenness, as already half-inebriated revellers go in and come out drunk.

"A bar doesn't belong in a residential neighborhood," she said.

The Fort community has lots of elderly people and 30 kids living in it.

Vito Demetri said later that right now the brew pub is not a problem because of the overall party atmosphere of Fiesta. But once the party ends, if the brewery has a long-term license, the party will continue, exposing the community to second-hand smoke and foul language.

Beaton, however, believes that more development of the Fort will help to reduce crime in the area. Currently, there are lots of warehouses in the area that provide a haven for the drug deals that he has seen happen there.

But as the streets are cleaned up, businesses such as the proposed Marriott hotel come in, and customers start to wander lighted streets, Beaton believes the brewpub will help improve the community.

Yesterday, though, the Brewery's account executive, T.J. Peckham, said, "we're just excited to have people in here."