Fossil Cove Brewing recently announced it will open a new location on South School Avenue. Ozarks at Large's Jack Travis spoke with co-founder Ben Mills and marketing director Andrew Blann in the Bruce and Ann Applegate News Studio One.
Mills says the move was planned for a while, but now that it's underway, he and his team are feeling a mix of emotions.
Ben Mills: Overwhelming and exciting at the same time.
Andrew Blann: Really, really great. Also, like, we're about to be really busy.
Jack Travis: Can you talk about some of that overwhelming nature? What are y'all doing right now?
Mills: The overwhelming part is going to be moving out of a brewery and building another brewery. This will be the third brewing space I've built. And if you count certain renovations, we're probably at four or five. The bulk of the overwhelming would be just the nuts and bolts of moving equipment and renovating a space. This will be the third building we've been a part of a renovation on, and it's just a lot of work. It's not as simple as just building a bar or a kitchen and moving into it. There's a lot that goes into it — a lot of utility work, a lot of moving parts and pieces, and a lot of loading tanks on trailers and unloading tanks on trailers. The work of building a brewery is a lot. Right now, I would say the most overwhelming thing is trying to communicate the message to everyone about what exactly is going on, what they should expect in the future, and how we're trying to accomplish it.
Travis: Let's talk a little bit about the why of this. What necessitated this move?
Mills: Our lease is up on our production facility at the end of May. We've known for a long time that this was coming, and we've been working on the solution for the past couple of years.
Blann: I feel like we've been talking about this for probably two years. Every small business experiences this. You've got to be flexible and come up with solutions when you don't necessarily own the space that you're in. We're moving our production facility at 535 Poplar down to South School. We've run down a lot of dead ends to get us to this point. It's something we're really excited about. I think it's probably one of the better solutions that has really come our way the last year and a half, two years, for the future of Fossil Cove.
Travis: What made this location specifically preferable?
Mills: I had actually driven by and seen the — it's the old Dollar General on South School Avenue — and I had driven by and seen the for-rent/for-sale sign up and had considered pursuing it. We ultimately purchased a piece of property on the west side of town that is a very long-term project at this point. Fortunately, one of our regulars ended up purchasing it. CJC Development — Cameron Clark — he purchased it and approached me last fall about potentially moving into it and utilizing one of the spaces. So he and I have been working together since October on how we can be included in that project as an anchor for him and the rest of the property. And it's worked out. We have decided to take the western half of the Dollar General building, about 4,500 square feet, and we're going to turn that into production in the back with a retail bar and tasting room in the front. This really is kind of a gift to us as far as solving the problems that we had. No. 1, we have to produce enough beer to maintain our current distribution model, as well as make enough beer for our current tasting room. And then it gave us the opportunity to add a second retail location. We basically consider it a neighborhood bar in that same facility, and so we'll be able to produce enough to maintain our current operation, as well as add the volume we need to service that local bar.
Travis: For that tasting room — the new one — is there going to be anything different? Can we expect anything too dissimilar from what we already have?
Blann: I think it'll feel like Fossil Cove. If you've been with us since the beginning, which is kind of crazy to think is coming on 14 years, the space we're in has really taken a life of its own. I think a lot of that has to do with just the people that come through there and the community itself. It's really just evolved in a really fun way. I think you'll experience similar things at the new place. It'll be more polished than day one of the original Fossil Cove location, but I think it'll still be this really welcoming community space where it's kind of weird and it's kind of funky — a reflection of things that we like, but also a reflection of the community that comes and experiences it.
Travis: So when can we expect to be sipping brews on South School?
Mills: That's a good question. We just signed the lease last week. The timeline for us is going to be kind of dictated by engineers and city permits at this point. All of us are trying to do it as fast as possible just to get it done. I would say hopefully by the fall we're producing in there, and hopefully as close to that as possible — before the end of the year — we're pouring beer and people are sitting in there enjoying themselves.
Travis: As I'm reading headlines about this new property that y'all got, there is a sentiment I keep seeing: that Fossil Cove kickstarted a local craft brewery renaissance in Northwest Arkansas. I've read that multiple times. Do you feel like that's true?
Mills: I think we were lucky. When we — I don't want to take away from some other people that were already operating when we opened. Core was operating; they were brewing in the old Hog Haus facility at the time. And Tanglewood Branch beat us to it — they were open before we were. West Mountain has been on the square and has been brewing beer since before us. So in Northwest Arkansas, those were the people that were operating before we opened. Credit where credit's due. And then a lot of people also just had plans in the works, and we just happened to be before them. Benton County had to go wet before they could have breweries up there. And Andy Coates from Ozark helped me build our current tasting room. He was very helpful because he was brewing at West Mountain while they were working on their business plan, and knowing things were in motion for Benton County to go wet. So it wasn't just us. We've been making beer here for a long time, and we're still here. I appreciate everyone including us in the conversation of the brewing industry and how much it's grown over the past 14 years. We love being a part of it and love supporting it and love supporting Fayetteville.
Blann: One thing we've been talking a lot about with this new location is you get this little brewery neighborhood starting to pop up and evolve. We'll be down there eventually. Mad Rooster is down there, Crisis is there. Those are three breweries you can just walk to very easily from our new location, which is pretty cool. We've kind of been an island over in our current part of town, so it'll be nice to have some neighbors we can go hang out with and drink a beer at.
Mills: The pedestrian nature of the future plans and the current neighborhood is going to facilitate a lot of fun. We mapped it — it's almost exactly a 5K from the current spot to the new spot, and there are five or six breweries now currently on the way. I think we're going to lean heavily into supporting our brewing friends that are between us and in town. There's just a lot of breweries in Fayetteville now, and being able to create a cohesive community around that is going to be a lot of fun.
Travis: Y'all already do so much of that. You just had Frost Fest. How did that go?
Blann: It was great. Could not beat the weather — honestly, a perfect February day. We had a beautiful day. Lots of fun with all of our beer friends and the vendors and everyone that came out. Seemed like everyone was in good spirits. No complaints.
Travis: On the flip side of my previous question — you're doing this at a time of national headlines spelling a tough time for alcohol manufacturers. However, you're expanding. Do you have any thoughts on that?
Mills: It's hard to say we're expanding. Our volume production is going to be about the same. We have felt the hurt of this whole alcohol trend right now. Our distribution model has taken a bit of a hit as far as how much volume we're putting out in the market. The goal with having the second retail location is to continue producing that same volume and then have another outlet to sell the beer through. From a production standpoint, we ought to be about the same as we've been on average the past three or four years — we're just selling the beer in a different way. We are still 100% supporting our distribution arm of things. That is a very important deal that had a lot of impact on choosing this facility. We had to be able to produce the same amount of beer we're producing now, and that is going to be able to happen down there. So we don't have to quit distributing — none of us were excited about having to consider a spot that was too small. We enjoy getting beer out in the market. It's easier for people to get to. We're going to have retail locations in Fayetteville, but Rogers, Springdale, Bentonville and the surrounding communities still have people who enjoy our beer and don't want to have to come all the way here to get it. We have a pretty strong presence along the Interstate 49 corridor, and we go to Eureka a couple times a month. We're doing our best to get the beer out there and accessible to people.
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