USA, OH: Rockmill Brewery plans to expand into Columbus

Rockmill Brewery plans to expand into Columbus with two locations in the near future, co-owner Matthew Barbee was quoted as saying by Lancaster Eagle Gazette.

The move comes after the Greefield Township trustees last month approved an expansion at his 5707 Lithopolis Road location. Barbee owns the business with his mother, Judy Jones.

One Columbus location will be at the former World or Beer location at 503 S. Front St., Columbus, also known as the Worly Building, in the Brewery District.

The other is at 525 S. Fourth St. in German Village, a space he plans to share with Juergens German Bakery.

The South Front Street business will be called the Rockmill Tavern, and Barbee said he signed the lease on the building last week. He said he hopes to open by September in the 3,800-square-foot building. The seating capacity of the building was 200 and he will shrink that to about 120 people.

"It's basically going to be a tasting room in Columbus, essentially," Barbee said. "So the aesthetics, we're going to try to recreate the nooks and crannies of the tasting room here. We're going to have a nice, warm, cozy aesthetic. We're installing a kitchen, so we're going to have a small, focused tavern menu as well."

He said the entire Rockmill portfolio of draft beer will be available.

"The building (at South Front Street) is actually in wonderful shape," Barbee said. "So there's not actually a whole to do outside of the kitchen and then changing the aesthetic in the building. What's interesting with the Worly Building is it's the original horse livery of Hoster Brewing Company, which founded the Brewery District. So it's kind of fun tie-in with the horse farm down here."

The Rockmill Brewery in Greenfield Township sits on farmland, and Barbee and Jones want to build a new production area, restaurant, catering kitchen and event space.

Barbee said he made the decision to move into Columbus because people were coming to the original business, which opened in 2010, from Columbus.

"A lot people have been commenting that as much as they love to make the drive, it would be nice to have an option up there," he said. "So I started thinking about what that would look like and then I got really excited to make it more accessible up there in Columbus."

Barbee said the move into Columbus will not affect the local expansion plans, which he wants to finish by the end of next year.

The German Village project will be more of a "chef-driven concept," or restaurant, he said. He said it will open after the Brewery District business. But Barbee first must go in front of the German Village Commission and the Columbus Board of Zoning Adjustment next month with his final plans for the building.

Besides all of the local activity, Rockmill Brewery products are available in New York, Chicago and California. Barbee said they also will be available in England, via BrewDog, a Scottish company that is moving its U.S. headquarters to Canal Winchester.

"So we'll be going international for the first time," Barbee said. "Not in a big scale. More of in a novel way. But they're excited to connect their production in Scotland with here and share the breweries they know and love in this area with their friends back home."

He said he was confident his product would work well when he opened the business six years ago. Barbee said the company has enjoyed slow and steady growth since then.

"It is pretty exciting how far we've come," he said. "We've had a lot to learn along the way, so it's been necessary for us to grow slow."

23 June, 2016