Buzzy News
Popular Pearl restaurant taps out of brewing business for 2019
Since opening in 2012, The Granary ‘Cue and Brew has placed equal focus on the two parts of its name, pairing new-school smoked meats with creative beers such as rye saisons and coffee IPAs. But things are changing at the Pearl favorite. In mid-December, the restaurant scrapped its microbrewery to make room for a new direction.
“After six years of operating as a brewpub, we wanted to expand our offerings to include a full liquor program,” explains chef and owner Tim Rattray. “We feel like this will give us another avenue to explore using smoke, fire, housemade components, and our personality.”
Shortly after Rattray decided on the changes, a buyer quickly snapped up The Granary’s total brew setup, including serving tanks, grain mill, fermenters, mash tun, and kettle. Then, Rattray enlisted Olaf Harmel to build a brand-new house cocktail list.
The veteran barman, who founded hot spot The Modernist in 2017 after stints at Blue Box and Bar du Bon Ami, will be a sort of mixologist-at-large, available for training and consulting while Granary manages the bar. His menu is expected to debut in early 2019.
Beer fans shouldn’t worry, however. “Brew” will remain in Granary’s name and the bar will continue to rotate a number of craft beers. As with the liquor selection, San Antonio and Texas brews will be well represented, but the focus won’t be on regionality for regionality’s sake.
“Our entire beverage program, from day one, has emphasized pairing and quality over region specificity,” says Rattray. “That will continue. There are a lot of quality liquors and beers in Texas and we will use those when applicable. We want a synergy with what our guests are eating and drinking. We are already diversifying our tap wall offerings to appeal to a larger audience of craft beer drinkers, which is very exciting for us.”
In addition to the new full-service bar, Rattray shared some more developments to be launched in 2019, including some tweaks to lunch and dinner menus and an expansion of service hours. As for the details, fans will just have to wait. Rattray only offered a tantalizing hint. “The year 2019 is looking to be the year of The Granary 2.0,” he says.
