Sometime early in the new year.
That’s about the best you’ll get out of Jeremy Hubbell, regarding the opening date for his Geaux Brewery on East Main Street.
Seems the vagaries of construction, which have since put the opening off from his original optimistic prediction of October to 2017, have taught Hubbell to steer clear of prognosticating.
“I’m not talking dates right now, I don’t want to commit to anything,” Hubbell said recently with a chuckle.
But when Geaux, which has offered its own tasty, home-brewed beers since 2012 on Bellevue’s Northrup Way, does open between Parker Paints and Cascade Beauty College on East Main Street, it will offer not only a brew house and a New Orleans-themed taproom but also a kitchen and a family-friendly restaurant.
“We’ve already ordered a lot of the equipment, the first equipment we got in here was the fryers for the kitchen,” Hubbell said, pointing to several large cardboard boxes on the bare floor. Save for those boxes and the three wooden barrels stamped “whiskey,” the building would be empty.
If a visitor struggles to see it, even under the present single light, Hubbell has it all in his head.
Starting with the section on the south side.
“When you walk in the front door here with its generous, west-facing windows, there’ll be seating along this front area here,” he said, indicating the future south edge of the bar, and the spot where he intends to put the 30-by-25-foot walk-in cooler that will house all the kegs. “So, basically, from the edge of this wall down here to all this way is all taproom and the bar seating area.
“And from there on, from the front to the back, this will all be brewery phase one,” Hubbell said, turning his attention to the north area.
Whereas the flagship brewery locale is rather small at 1,800 square feet, the Auburn digs will be about 7,000 square feet. Indeed, Hubbell said, entire brewery in Bellevue could fit inside the space along the north side wall where the brewery will be.
In the southwest corner, Hubbell said, will be an elevated stage for live bands, including groups that will provide the jazz Hubbell hopes to bring in on weekends. For sports aficionados, there will be a large projection screen. And there’ll be outdoor seating for those warm summer days and nights, and for people who want to bring their dogs with them.
Room to grow
With the move, the establishment’s barrel system will grow from four to 20, bumping up Geaux’s capacity to slightly more than 1,000 barrels in its first year, and, ultimately to a 40-barrel system.
Hubbell plans to keep the flagship brewery’s taproom but remodel it to seat more customers. And from the kitchen in Auburn, there’ll be food on an expanded menu.
“One of the things we did earlier this year is we flew the chefs to New Orleans and spent a few days there. I grew up there, so I took them to all the places that I grew up with and said, ‘OK, this is what we want to do in terms of the menu.’ So, we’re bringing a lot of authenticity to the menu, because they got to taste it. And then we’re developing a menu around a lot of their research when they were down there,” Hubbell said.
Bread and Circuses is helping to design the kitchen and develop the menu to offer New such classics as jambalaya, gumbo, po’ boys, shrimp boils, crawfish boils, pretty much anything Hubbell and his crew can get their hands on that will bring the tastes of southeast Louisiana to Auburn.
Founded in 2012 as “The Brewery for Homebrewers,” Geaux Brewing has since produced a number of award-winning beers, including its Wee Y’at Scotch Ale and Vanilla Mint Chai Satchmo Stout.
As part of the expansion, Hubbell plans to release a new brew, “Geauxin’ South,” a rye IPA evoking the spicy flavor of New Orleans. The IPA is now sippable at the Green River Cyclery on South Division Street in downtown Auburn.
