Ardent Craft Ales co-owner Tom Sullivan, left, and Buskey Cider co-owner Will Correll. (BizSense file)
Two Scott’s Addition booze producers have staked out additional space in the city.
Ardent Craft Ales and Buskey Cider have both recently leased new storage facilities to give them extra room beyond their main production areas.
Ardent’s new 4,500-square-foot space is at 3117 Moore St., just a few blocks from its home base of 3200 W. Leigh St.
Buskey, whose facility and taproom are just a few blocks south from Ardent at 2910 W. Leigh St., inked a lease for 10,500 square feet at 1609 E. Franklin St. in Shockoe Bottom.
Tom Sullivan, co-owner of Ardent, said the brewery looked to expand elsewhere in order to free up space at the brewery.
Ardent Craft Ales is preparing to move into furniture rental company Paisley & Jade’s old space in Scott’s Addition. Paisley & Jade has since moved to the Southside. (Mike Platania photos)
“We just want to be able to store cans and all kinds of other stuff that we’ve been stuffing into our brewery for the past few years to make space for more production,” he said. “It was kind of too good to be true to have something like that open up so close to us, so we jumped on it.”
Sullivan added that Ardent may someday look to use the new space for uses beyond storage, but said they don’t have any immediate plans.
“Potentially, we could do some brewing and blending over there but it’d probably be of no significant volume,” Sullivan said. “We may have a small event space and tasting room. We’re going through code compliance over there to know whether we can.”
Buskey, owned by couple Elle and Will Correll, chose an old building owned by the Loving family of the longtime Loving’s Produce at the other end of town.
Buskey Cider is leasing a former Loving’s Produce warehouse not far from the 17th Street Farmers Market.
“It’s an old Loving’s produce warehouse,” Will Correll said. “I think they made tomato sauce there at one point.”
Correll added that they’re subletting part of the warehouse to local peer Legend Brewing Co., and that Buskey recently purchased its own in-house canning line to run at the Leigh Street facility.
As the craft beverage industry looks to rebound from early pandemic lockdowns, Sullivan said they’re still battling can shortages, and that forecasting keg sales to restaurants has been similarly difficult.
“(The) delta (variant) kinda cooled everyone’s jets off. It’s weird, everyone’s still adapting. Some (restaurants) overbought with reopening, but even in August the wholesale business was pretty good,” Sullivan said.
“It’s been week-to-week. We’re guessing, rather than executing a plan,” he said, laughing.
Ardent Craft Ales co-owner Tom Sullivan, left, and Buskey Cider co-owner Will Correll. (BizSense file)
Two Scott’s Addition booze producers have staked out additional space in the city.
Ardent Craft Ales and Buskey Cider have both recently leased new storage facilities to give them extra room beyond their main production areas.
Ardent’s new 4,500-square-foot space is at 3117 Moore St., just a few blocks from its home base of 3200 W. Leigh St.
Buskey, whose facility and taproom are just a few blocks south from Ardent at 2910 W. Leigh St., inked a lease for 10,500 square feet at 1609 E. Franklin St. in Shockoe Bottom.
Tom Sullivan, co-owner of Ardent, said the brewery looked to expand elsewhere in order to free up space at the brewery.
Ardent Craft Ales is preparing to move into furniture rental company Paisley & Jade’s old space in Scott’s Addition. Paisley & Jade has since moved to the Southside. (Mike Platania photos)
“We just want to be able to store cans and all kinds of other stuff that we’ve been stuffing into our brewery for the past few years to make space for more production,” he said. “It was kind of too good to be true to have something like that open up so close to us, so we jumped on it.”
Sullivan added that Ardent may someday look to use the new space for uses beyond storage, but said they don’t have any immediate plans.
“Potentially, we could do some brewing and blending over there but it’d probably be of no significant volume,” Sullivan said. “We may have a small event space and tasting room. We’re going through code compliance over there to know whether we can.”
Buskey, owned by couple Elle and Will Correll, chose an old building owned by the Loving family of the longtime Loving’s Produce at the other end of town.
Buskey Cider is leasing a former Loving’s Produce warehouse not far from the 17th Street Farmers Market.
“It’s an old Loving’s produce warehouse,” Will Correll said. “I think they made tomato sauce there at one point.”
Correll added that they’re subletting part of the warehouse to local peer Legend Brewing Co., and that Buskey recently purchased its own in-house canning line to run at the Leigh Street facility.
As the craft beverage industry looks to rebound from early pandemic lockdowns, Sullivan said they’re still battling can shortages, and that forecasting keg sales to restaurants has been similarly difficult.
“(The) delta (variant) kinda cooled everyone’s jets off. It’s weird, everyone’s still adapting. Some (restaurants) overbought with reopening, but even in August the wholesale business was pretty good,” Sullivan said.
“It’s been week-to-week. We’re guessing, rather than executing a plan,” he said, laughing.