USA, NM: Nuckolls Brewing Co. to open its doors in Santa Fe on July 19
The fun continues at the Railyard with the long-awaited opening of Nuckolls Brewing Co., the Santa Fe New Mexican reported on July 3.
Nuckolls is within feet of three other Bill Banowsky venues for fun: Sky Coffee, the Sky Railway and Violet Crown Cinema.
“This is going to be super fun,” Banowsky said about Nuckolls, which he promises will be pet- and child-friendly. “I looked at the Railyard in 2013 and thought, ‘How can I make this a better place for the community, a fun place for the community?’ ”
What’s fun for a Banowsky brew pub?
How about the Jambo Bobcat Bite food truck and Tender Fire pizza on the vast outdoor lower level?
Or the Impact flying saucer and crescent-shaped 6061 UFO by artist Bob Davis, also on street level?
“Bob is a friend,” Banowsky said. “I love his art. He’s generous enough to let us display them here.”
Upstairs are the main bar and the 3,000-square-foot, pet-friendly outdoor patio made of fire-reclaimed wood. Downstairs is the Prohibition-era inspired speakeasy, “The Low End,” with the copper top bar from La Fonda on the Plaza.
Downstairs also is home to the unisex restroom, with Banowsky’s wife, Susan, dreaming up the “sit” and “stand” nomenclature for the cabinet doors.
“Do we want to put beach volleyball out there?” Banowsky mused. “This place is evolving.”
By the end of summer or early fall, Banowsky hopes to have a stage and movie screen in place.
“We can have a band on the deck, a band inside, a band on the stage,” he said. “We will have a lot of music going on at this place.”
Nuckolls has had soft opening events since mid-June and plans to open July 19 for the public. Hours for now will be 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Wednesday to Sunday.
Nuckolls has been a long time coming. Banowsky originally posted a “coming spring 2020” banner on a fence surrounding the site in fall 2019. Then he was confident the brewery would open by the end of each subsequent year.
“One of the reasons it’s taken so long is we are taking a 100-year-old building and rebuilding it in its original shape,” he said. “The nature of it, it just takes time to do right.”
He started with the 1920s Nuckolls Packing Co. building that was largely deconstructed down to the frame and side walls and then rebuilt. That plus supply chain challenges stretched the process into 2023.
“I met Alfonz Viszolay,” Banowsky said. “That changed everything. Everything is designed by him, built by him. With Alfonz, if you can dream it, he can do it.”
Viszolay, whose specialty is algae biofuels, also built and engineered much of the brewing system at Santa Fe Brewing Co. Along with the Nuckolls brewing system, Viszolay also built an on-site water treatment plant for the spent water from the brewery.
Banowsky has reinvented his passions throughout the 21st century. In 2001, he founded independent film distribution company Magnolia Pictures that he sold to Mark Cuban in 2003 but remained involved with until a couple of years ago.
He and author George R.R. Martin have been co-owners of Sky Railway since 2020. Banowsky opened his first Violet Crown in 2011 in Austin, Texas, where he was living at the time. The Violet Crown in Santa Fe followed in May 2015 and become the flagship, with more Violet Crowns opening in October 2015 in Charlottesville, Va., and in January 2023 in Dallas.
He opened Sky Coffee in fall 2018.
Bill and Susan Banowsky started to split time between Austin and Santa Fe in 2015. They moved here full time in 2022 and sold the Austin house.
“I’ve never done a brew pub,” Banowsky said. “I had never done a coffee house. I had never done a railroad. Everything is original to me.”
Banowsky was inspired to launch Nuckolls Brewing by friend and longtime home brewer Tom McMichael, who continues to dream up beer recipes for Nuckolls. Banowsky brought on David Ahern-Seronde, previously at Santa Fe Brewing, as his first head brewer, and Jenn Treu just became the next head brewer. She was previously head brewer at Rowley Farmhouse Ales.
Nuckolls will have 60 beers on tap — 40 upstairs and 20 in the speakeasy. So far, Nuckolls has a small-brewer’s license that allows for selling New Mexico beers, which will be offered on 20 taps.
Nuckolls also has four house brews: The Rail Ale, The Rattler (a pilsner), an India pale ale and a red chile porter.
Nuckolls has applied for a Restaurant B license that allows for beers from out of state and liquor.
“Our goal is to have the widest selection of New Mexico beers on tap and a very curated selection of beer from around the world,” Banowsky said.
He brought in David Pecorari as bar manager, also in charge of food.
“The food is a very smokehouse-driven program taking inspiration from around the world,” Pecorari said. “Japanese and Argentinian influences, that’s the starting program. We will have a limited menu, ever rotating.”
Let the fun begin.
“The idea was to create a place for families and their pets,” Banowsky said.
04 July, 2023
