E-Malt.com News article: USA, TN: Cherry Street Brewery opening on Chattanooga's Cherokee Boulevard

If you go looking for the Cherry Street Brewery in downtown Chattanooga, you won't even be on the correct side of the river. You will, of course, find Cherry Street Tavern downtown, but the two are not connected in any way. If you go looking for the original Cherry Street brewery or the original restaurants and taprooms bearing the Cherry Street name, you won't even be in the right states, Yahoo News reported on December 24.

Cherry Street Brewery founder Nick Tanner started homebrewing while living in Fort Collins, Colorado, on Cherry Street. As he expanded his operation, he kept the name.

Almost a decade ago, he partnered with his sister Alisa Wall to open a Cherry Street Brewing Grille & Taproom in Cumming, Georgia, and the Cherry Street Brewpub in Alpharetta, Georgia.

The two have expanded the operation north to Chattanooga and will be opening a brewery and taproom in the old 11,000-square-foot Heaven & Ale brewery space on Cherokee Boulevard next month.

"Our father [Rick, owner of Tanner Chicken Rotisserie] has been in the restaurant business for 35 years, so this is not new to us," Nick Tanner said.

The turnkey space on Cherokee will become the business's primary brewing and canning space and will also house a restaurant and taproom serving a full menu of food and beer.

"We specialize in burgers, like everybody, but we do smash burgers as well as sandwiches and small bite items," Tanner said. "We will also have 20 beers including our two most popular, the Steppin' Razor [a double-dry hoppy IPA] and That Coconut Porter. That's what it's called because that's how people order it."

Tanner said the goal is to brew 5,000 barrels of beer per year for starters and expand from there. He said the two Georgia locations will supply some of the beer sold in the taproom in Chattanooga at the beginning, but eventually, most of the beer will originate on site.

Cherry Street Brewery beers are distributed across Georgia, and plans are to grow the Tennessee market this year, as well.

The Cherokee Boulevard location will seat about 100 people and will focus on lunch, dinner and brunch on the weekends. Tanner said five members of his Georgia staff have moved to Chattanooga, and he and his sister will alternate visiting here to oversee things.

"We love Chattanooga and see it as a growing market. It fits our growth plans and our ideals. It has great tourism and nature and it's just a cool city," he said. "We don't really consider Alpharetta as part of the city of Atlanta. People ask us all the time when we are moving into the city, and we don't want to. This is a better fit for us, and we can have the majority of our operation in one place."


27 December, 2021