{"id":250454,"date":"2016-07-15T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-07-15T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/reviving-the-neighborhood-one-beer-at-a-time\/"},"modified":"2016-07-15T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-07-15T07:00:00","slug":"reviving-the-neighborhood-one-beer-at-a-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/reviving-the-neighborhood-one-beer-at-a-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Reviving the neighborhood, one beer at a time"},"content":{"rendered":"

Craft beer and Craftsman architecture come together at North\u00a0Park Beer Company<\/strong><\/p>\n

Por Michael Bueno | Visitas a domicilio<\/p>\n

There are do it yourselfers. And there are DO IT YOURSELFERS. Kelsey McNair is the all-caps kind of DIY guy.<\/p>\n

When I first met him four years ago, he was looking for advice about the woodwork in his Craftsman bungalow in North Park. Most of the wood trim was intact \u2014 bookcases, china cabinet, fireplace mantle \u2014 but a small piece of picture rail molding had been painted. We talked about what needed to be done to restore it, and the next time I saw him, he\u2019d done it. Himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat looks pretty good,\u201d I said. \u201cWhat\u2019d you use?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShellac.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cInteresting,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n

Shellac is what they used back in the day. It\u2019s made from a naturally occurring substance found only in India. \u201cYou know, I don\u2019t use shellac very much,\u201d I said, because I thought I needed to say something to demonstrate my vast knowledge on the subject of wood refinishing. \u201cIt has a short shelf life. When I buy it from Home Depot, it\u2019s usually gone bad.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"North<\/a>
North Park Beer Company\u2019s 1946 Art Deco exterior. (Photo by Michael Good)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t buy it from Home Depot. I made it up myself, from flakes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cImpressive,\u201d I said, because I didn\u2019t know what else to say. I run into people all the time who pretend they know how to make their own shellac, because they saw a video about it on YouTube. But I\u2019d never actually met a homeowner, other than Kelsey, who had done it.<\/p>\n

But that shouldn\u2019t come as a surprise. Now that I\u2019ve gotten to know him (I\u2019ve done a couple wood refinishing projects for Kelsey and his wife Amanda over the years), I realize he\u2019s not unlike the go-to guys who made their own shellac and built their own house 90 years ago.<\/p>\n

Additionally, he\u2019s pretty familiar with the whole concept of mixing natural ingredients with alcohol. Kelsey had been brewing his own beer since 2004, after his future wife bought him a brew kit for Christmas. A couple weeks ago he officially made the transition from hobbyist to professional when his North Park Beer Company opened on the corner of University Avenue and Ohio Street in North Park.<\/p>\n

As it turns out, it\u2019s been a long row of hops to hoe. Kelsey first started thinking about making his avocation his vocation back in 2010, when he won two prestigious homebrewer awards. The first, in March, was from Stone Brewing. The second, that summer, was a national competition for homebrewers. He took home a gold medal for his \u201cHop Fu\u201d IPA.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose two events made something click for me,\u201d he said. \u201cI started thinking that maybe I have the ability to do something more than brew a beer to share with my friends and family. I started to put together a business plan. The whole time I was set on putting a brewery in North Park. That was the challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n

The two basic elements of success \u2014 a building and financing \u2014 seemed to be at war with each other.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the same time I was trying to sign a lease, I was also trying to raise capital. That was a Catch-22,\u201d he said. Basically, the investors wanted to see the lease, and the landlords wanted to see the money.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was hard to convince both sides. I kept beating my drum until I found the right landlord to make it happen.\u201d That landlord was willing to invest in the future of North Park by buying the building where Kelsey wanted to build his brewery. It\u2019s another example of how North Park has become a neighborhood revived by beer. \u201cObviously, for me, I just wanted a cool place where I could make beer and live my dream.\u201d<\/p>\n

Simple as this might seem, it wasn\u2019t an easy sell, considering how Kelsey\u2019s business resume was a little skimpy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never owned my own business. I dealt in comic books and collectibles in high school. I would go to different comic book conventions and set up and buy comics and sell comics. I always had aspirations to be an entrepreneur. I spent the last 16 years in the video game industry, much of it in a leadership role. I left that career as an art director,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Kelsey\u2019s entrance into the video game industry was as improbable as his adventure in beer making. A comic book colleague got a job in San Diego working in customer service for a videogame maker. He asked Kelsey to join him. Kelsey dropped out of college and moved to San Diego from Florida to take a customer service job. After a year he became a game designer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was pretty much self-taught throughout my entire career. I like to figure things out, I\u2019m pretty pragmatic, pretty thorough, sometimes to a fault,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Now that his dream has come true, how does it feel?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been challenging. I hired a really great staff to manage and operate the front of the house. But I walked into this with, basically \u2014 I\u2019m basically the guy who makes all the beer. I don\u2019t have an assistant. At the same time, I\u2019m writing checks, managing the books. It\u2019s overwhelming. I\u2019m not getting much sleep,\u201d he said. \u201cMy wife has stepped up. She\u2019s become office manager, and I don\u2019t think she knew that was going to happen six months ago. I\u2019m figuring out how to delegate and who to bring in to help. I need to figure that out and everything will be fine.\u201d<\/p>\n

From the drinker\u2019s perspective, everything is fine already. NPBC\u2019s focus is on the basics. Ales and lagers without the foo-foo frills: no berry flavors, peanut butter or added fruity zest and zing. The building, too, leans to the authentic. The ambience and design honors North Park\u2019s Craftsman heritage and identity, in a way that no other local brewery does. And that\u2019s not by accident.<\/p>\n

\"For<\/a>
For now North Park Beer Co. offers only its own selections. (Photo by Michael Good)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cMy wife and I really fell in love with the neighborhood in 2006. We were living in North County. We became really interested in what was happening in the area \u2014 in the restaurants and bars, the craft beer and farm-to-table restaurants, like Hamilton\u2019s and the Linkery. There wasn\u2019t anything like that in North County. We found ourselves here Friday night and Saturday night. And as we did that, we were parking in the neighborhood and walking. And I was immediately drawn to the architecture and the charm. It didn\u2019t take too long until we were saying, why are we even living up here? So we started looking at rentals and thinking about buying. We discovered that the charm of these homes wasn\u2019t just on the outside. They were even more beautiful on the inside than the outside,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the design of the brewery, I really want to give the patrons a feeling of the North Park that they don\u2019t see. So much Craftsman charm \u2014 if you don\u2019t live in the neighborhood, you miss it. I wanted to put that esthetic inside.\u201d<\/p>\n

The building, which had last been used as a martial arts gym, had lost most of its original features, with the exception of the original Craftsman-style board and batten staircase wainscot.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a blank canvas,\u201d Kelsey said. He hired Hauck Architecture, the firm responsible for nearby Modern Times and Thorn Brewing Company. For the interior, \u201cWe worked with Basile Studio. They\u2019re incredibly talented. You give them a creative idea and they come back with something you never thought of. And that\u2019s arts and crafts at its core.\u201d (The design also incorporates quotes from William Morris and Elbert Hubbard.)<\/p>\n

Like the still-revitalizing commercial district around it, North Park Beer Company is still a work in progress. It will be a couple months before food is served. And, for now, only North Park Beer Company beer is on tap. (Once the kitchen is up and running, the liquor license will allow Kelsey & Co. to sell beer from other brewers.) The upstairs mezzanine is not yet built-out. The concept is for it to be more cozy and residential, with a fireplace and inglenook, to counter the downstairs open, cityscape feel, with its globe streetlights.<\/p>\n

Beer names will continue to recognize local people and places, such as historian Don Covington, who chronicled the story of North Park\u2019s neighborhoods and business district. Kelsey plans to bring in other historic elements, with the help of the North Park Historical Association.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d like to install a number of historical framed photos. Create a North Park theme park of sorts. That\u2019s kind of our vision for it. We want this to be for the community. From top to bottom,\u201d he said. Then, remembering the still-unfinished mezzanine, he added, \u201cOr from bottom to top.\u201d<\/p>\n

You can do your part to bring back the neighborhood by raising a glass at North Park Beer Company, located at 3038 University Ave.<\/p>\n

\u2014Comun\u00edquese con Michael Good en housecallssdun@gmail.com.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Craft beer and Craftsman architecture come together at North\u00a0Park Beer Company By Michael Good |\u00a0House Calls There are do it yourselfers. And there are DO IT YOURSELFERS. Kelsey McNair is the all-caps kind of DIY guy. When I first met him four years ago, he was looking for advice about the woodwork in his Craftsman […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":250455,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"Reviving the neighborhood, one beer at a time","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11547,11551,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-250454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-news","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250454\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}