Plans proceeding for downtown brewpub in former police
station
In anticipation of an early fall 2005 grand opening, El Toro Brewing Company has received beer-making equipment for its downtown brewpub.
A gleaming copper clad three-barrel Pub Brewing Systems brewhouse that will be able to produce a batch of 100 gallons of beer, or six kegs, every 15 days, arrived last week at El Toro’s production facility on Hill Road. It will be moved this summer to the former Police Department site at the northwest corner of Main and Monterey.
El Toro will continue to produce its usual complement of beer, but co-owner Cindy Acevedo said her husband and brewmaster Geno Acevedo would like to experiment with several varieties of ales at the downtown brewpub. At El Toro, a current batch size is approximately 550 gallons or the equivalent of 35 full kegs of beer every 15 days.
“Its scale is small enough to allow me to experiment and craft unique specialty beers in smaller batches,” El Toro Brewmaster Geno Acevedo said. “I would like play around with some lagers as well as Imperial Stout, Belgians and maybe some fruit beer concoctions.”
Acevedo said he expects renovation of the building to begin this month and the pub and restaurant will open four to five months later.
“I say this is taking the normal amount of time,” Acevedo said. “This is actually going quicker than anything else that is happening in this town. It hasn’t even been a year since the police moved out of the building.”
An exact date has not been set because details are still being worked out with the city.
“Once we get the (disposition and development agreement) from the city, we can close escrow,” Acevedo said. “Once we close escrow, we can break ground. Then it should be four to five months before we open.”
Garrett Toy, director of city Business Assistance and Housing, said he thought it was a little too optimistic to expect renovations to begin this month, but he added if everything goes right, renovations can begin soon.
El Toro was granted an “exclusive right to negotiate” that included a requirement that certain milestones including completing construction drawings, submitting for building permits, obtaining loan approval and pulling building permits be met.
Right now Toy said El Toro Brewing Company has submitted construction drawings and has submitted applications to pull building permits.
Acevedo estimated the project will cost an estimated $3 million.
“This will be one of the largest projects ever to happen in downtown,” Acevedo said.
Toy said Acevedo will buy the property, which originally housed a Bank of America branch, from the city $650,000.
The bank’s 15 foot by 25 foot vault is still there. Cindy Acevedo said it will be converted into a party room. There will be other banquet/party rooms will be on the second floor.
Acevedo said they are already receiving calls to reserve the rooms for holiday and company parties.
Over spring break, the Acevedos traveled to Portland, Oregon, to inspect the new system.
“The Brewhouse is beautiful,” Acevedo said. “It is everything I ever wanted in a compact system. I would also like to give home brewers and opportunity to scale up on this system from time to time as the opportunity presents itself.”
Along with its award-winning craft beers, El Toro will serve a wide variety of appetizers, gourmet burgers, sandwiches, salads, pizza, fish and chips and other pub fare. Not to forget families and youngsters, El Toro will also be brewing its famous handcrafted root beer, sodas and floats.
El Toro will seat more than 200 patrons on two levels of dining. The patio will seat nearly 100 more customers and display a brick wood-fired pizza oven. There will be room for private parties, banquets and special events on its mezzanine, which will overlook the ground level floor.
Music and dancing will be scheduled in the evenings for those interested in club type activities. Foosball and darts will be available on mezzanine.
Televisions of various sizes will be spread throughout the brewpub for sports and other entertainment viewing.
