USA, ND: Goose River Brewing hopes to have a soft opening as early as this week

With the Hillsboro Cafe open under new ownership and a new coffee and ice cream shop on its way, Goose River Brewing will be one of a few new businesses this spring in downtown Hillsboro. Owner Terry Sando hopes his soon-to-open brewery will help make downtown a destination, the Grand Forks Herald reported on April 19.

“We think a brewpub will help do that,” said Sando. “With some of the beer apps and stuff that is available to help locate us, we’ll hopefully be able to draw some people off I-29.”

He hopes to hold a soft opening with a limited restaurant menu as early as this week.

“We’re going to hold off on the grand opening until we have our first batch of beer,” he said.

Once fully operational, Goose River Brewing will be a family-friendly brewpub establishment with food and drinks. Beer will be sold on and off sale, and the bar will have 24 taps. Sando says half of those will be Goose River Brewing beer that rotates with each season. Once the kitchen is open, the menu will include food that uses the brewery’s own beer — things like beer cheese soup, beer brats and different varieties of chili.

Over the last few weeks, the building has undergone health and safety inspections while Sando puts in the finishing touches and finalizes licensing. While work remains before the brewpub is fully operational, the project is inching closer to completion.

The business plan for Goose River Brewing was established before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the pandemic and related supply chain issues have slowed the process.

“Some of the pieces of kitchen equipment went six months before they got delivered, so it’s just been kind of a cascading effect of the pandemic, transportation and the lack of materials,” he said. “Unfortunately, the price of the project is probably about 28% higher than what we expected because of the cost of materials and equipment.”

It was important to Sando to work with local businesses for contractor services and materials, like flooring and lumber, but even local businesses were affected by supply chain delays and worker shortages.

“Staying with our local community, which I thought was important, probably extended another six months or so just simply because even though they’re working, they don’t have that big labor force they can fall back on,” he said.

Sando, the mayor of Hillsboro and a member of the Hillsboro Economic Development Corporation, has the community at the forefront of his mind while thinking about the future of Goose River Brewing.

“Supporting the community is a big part of what we want to do,” he said.

The Hillsboro EDC holds a charitable gaming license, and Goose River Brewing will rent space to the EDC for a few electronic games and a paper machine.

19 April, 2022