They're still scouting for head chefs for the food end of the brewpub, with one front-runner that Schlabach hopes to lure home. "Our front runner is a Texas native and good friend who currently works as a chef and kitchen manager up north," he says. "But we're working to get him back to Texas by enticing him with beer."
When City Acre does open, it will be a sprawling concept not unlike the atmosphere at Moon Tower Inn's acreage in the Second Ward, where people came to party in the grassy lot and throw horseshoes between pitchers of beer and hot dogs. Moon Tower Inn is currently closed for renovations and -- coincidentally -- when it reopens this summer, will also open as a proper brewpub.
Instead of several outbuildings and a grassy lot, however, City Acre will offer its guests the first floor of a sprawling Victorian-style (not Victorian era; the house was built much more recently than that) manse and a backyard that's currently being renovated to resemble a modern American biergarten in which to enjoy the brews and food.
Neither Moon Tower Inn nor City Acre will be traditional brewpubs in any sense. After all, Borden and Schlabach plan to live above the common area in the second floor of the home. But that's just how Schlabach wants it; a traditional brewpub is never what he set out to accomplish.
Instead, he says, "We truly hope that it's a place where people will want to hang out -- somewhere between a friend's backyard and a beer garden."
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