Brockton Beer Company’s brand new dining room opens this week

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Beer

Here’s a look at the brewery’s first brick-and-mortar location.

The team behind Brockton Beer Company are preparing to open their bar. Courtesy

BROCKTON – On Thursday, June 2, the Brockton Beer Company is set to officially open the doors to its downtown Brockton dining room for the first time.

It’s a grand opening over two years in the making. And while there’s cause for celebration, during a visit with a reporter last week, the brewery’s co-founders are too busy putting the finishing touches on to be too thoughtful.

“P is finishing the plumbing,” says Eval Silvera, referring to another co-founder, Pierre Alexandre, who ran in and out of sight with a pencil tucked behind his ear.

The founders – Alexander, Silvera and his wife, LaTisha, Ed Cabellon and Rowan Olmstead – met when their children were all kindergarteners in Brockton schools. Mostly teenagers now, the kids stuck together through football, and the parent group turned those relationships into friendships in a way familiar to anyone whose kids grew up together in the same town.

“We’re super excited to bring all of our vibe as founders,” says LaTisha Silvera. “One of the reasons we started the brewery is to extend our Friday Family Game Nights to everyone.”

Board games are a star fixture of the new space, which takes up part of the ground floor of a mixed-use development at 121 Main Street in Brockton. Visitors will be able to pick up a game and play – Ticket to Ride is Silvera’s favorite – while sipping their beers. On the walls are posters of movies like Netflix’s “Don’t Look Up” and Annie Murphy’s show “Kevin Can F*** Himself,” both filmed in town. Older visitors will recognize that the brewery is on the site of the former Kresge’s department store.

Location is a big part of why Brockton Beer Co. decided to set up shop here.

“Some of the things we worked so hard for – like we might be able to employ people in Brockton to serve craft beer – now we do it in our house,” says Eval Silvera. “Our staff are mostly from Brockton or have ties to Brockton. Some of them live upstairs which is a really cool ride.

Several Brockton Beer employees actually live upstairs in the new apartments there. Nearly 750 new homes are planned downtown, according to Mayor Robert Sullivan. Brockton City Hall sits opposite the brewery, and on a recent visit Sullivan stopped to check on the brewery’s progress.

“I just had to take a look,” he said.

While housing is at the center of Brockton’s revitalization plans, Sullivan says “amenities” like the brewery are also crucial for the downtown area.

“As a mayor and a lifelong Brocktonian, and as a beer lover, I’m thrilled,” Sullivan said. “The downtown location is really a catalyst for more to come.”

Brockton Beer Co.’s new bar is located in the heart of downtown.

Two years ago, with the pandemic disrupting nearly every aspect of the beer and restaurant industries, the founders of Brockton Beer weren’t sure if they would ever open a brick-and-mortar brewery. At that time, in an interview with Boston.com, Alexander discussed how difficult it was to get financing and how he felt lenders were asking his group to prove more than others. The team that makes up the founders of Brockton Beer Co. is an exception in the state: Currently, the Massachusetts Brewers Guild lists nine of more than 200 breweries here as owned by people of color.

Funding eventually came, in the form of loans from MassDevelopment, Mainvest Investors, Neighborworks and the Brockton Redevelopment Authority.

“When you add in the personal contribution of our families, it’s taken a whole village to make this happen and we’re so grateful for everyone’s support,” says Cabellon, Brockton Beer’s Chief Financial Officer.

The ability to get the brewery off the ground also matters a lot to the other founders.

Co-founder Eval Silvera sits in the new dining room space.

“There was a article the Globe recently ran stories about people being deported from Boston,” says LaTisha Silvera. And people were buying houses here in Brockton and considering it a community because it’s a majority minority community. And be able to have businesses like ours, like JJ’s [Caffe]like Sodades [Barber Shop]like Luanda [Restaurant and Lounge].

” We are here. We are ready to expand the community. It’s good to know that there are places ready to welcome you and cool places to go.”

The beer must be good too. Brewer Julian Miller, formerly of Essex County Brewing, is now Brockton’s head brewer. And while the initial lineup of seven taps will feature standards like an IPA, a light lager and a porter, expect Miller to brew some really good beers in small batches for the venue.

For now, the Brockton Beer Co. dining room will only serve beer, but catering service is planned for later this summer. Early hours starting June 2 will be Thursdays and Fridays from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. and Saturdays from noon to 10 p.m.

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