EP-271 Pete Ternes and Polly Nevins of Middle Brow Beer
I\u2019m Ashley Rodriguez, and you\u2019re listening to the Good Beer Hunting podcast.
A few months ago\u2014right after the pandemic started changing our lives, and businesses across the United States began closing their doors\u2014I wrote an article about some of my favorite local places. I wanted to know how they were adjusting to the unprecedented circumstances. Things felt so serious at the time, just days after shelter-in-place orders were announced, and before the word \u201cquarantine\u201d was an everyday part of our collective vocabulary. But here we are. It\u2019s July 2020, and it doesn\u2019t look like this situation has an end in the immediate future.
One of the places I visited was Middle Brow Beer Co., which is in my neighborhood of Logan Square, Chicago. I talked to one of the co-owners, Pete Ternes. And I remember him mentioning something about the coronavirus, and knowing that this would radically change the way we operate in the world. It seems almost prophetic, looking back at that conversation four months later. And it\u2019s been fascinating seeing how Middle Brow, which is a small neighborhood brewery and pizza shop, has also evolved and adapted during that time.
Today I\u2019m sitting with two of the partners at Middle Brow, Pete, who I mentioned above, and Polly Nevins. Middle Brow opened its brick-and-mortar retail space in January 2019, but has been brewing wild ales in Chicago for almost a decade. In a way, both its newness and experience are helping the business weather this tumultuous time. Because the space is new, the owners have also been able to change their business, shifting almost seamlessly from a vibrant restaurant and brewpub to a few different iterations of a to-go pizza place and community grocery store. The model evolves in real-time in response to the needs of the neighborhood.
The owners\u2019 experience has also given them the confidence to brew wild and weird beers during a pandemic\u2014beers that maybe benefit from having a bartender tell you more about them. Part of that is the trust they\u2019ve instilled in their staff, and part of that comes from the trust they\u2019ve built with their neighbors. Middle Brow doesn\u2019t feel like a destination brewery\u2014you wouldn\u2019t see people lining up for the next hype can release. But what you will see is a business that takes its responsibility as a leader in the community seriously. They\u2019ve recently announced a no-tipping policy to create wage equity among their front- and back-of-house staff, and have been clear on their political beliefs, including supporting the Black Lives Matter movement, donating food, implementing a \u201cbuy a loaf, give a loaf\u201d bread program, and supporting local organizations working within their community.
This is Polly Nevins and Pete Ternes of Middle Brow Beer Co. Listen in.