What started as a food truck in Fort McMurray, is turning into Ā鶹AVās newest brewery.
Back in 2015, Ā鶹AVās Liam Mitchell was working on a construction site in Fort McMurray, where a women named Crystal Cain, who was also just working in the town at the time, was running a food truck called āThe Grub Wagonā. The two met, got married, bought the food truck for themselves and moved to Mitchellās Ā鶹AV home while continuing to operate the food truck. āThe Wagonā has been a staple at the Ā鶹AVās Farmers Market since 2018.
On top of the food truck, Mitchell operates his own plumbing company in Ā鶹AV but since the start of 2022, theyāve had the idea to expand and pursue their dream into opening a brewery.
āWe were having to divide my time between helping operate the food truck business and my plumbing company and I was sort of falling out of love with plumbing,ā said Mitchell. āI needed to start to think about a decision to make a career shift.ā
Mitchell started looking at commercial real estate in Ā鶹AV in Jan. 2022 for a place where he could have a kitchen with a small area to use as plumbing shop as well. After looking for more than six months, he had trouble finding a place because of bigger companies buying properties with knock-down clauses because they plan on building apartment buildings in the future.
āOnce I saw the writing on the wall, I realized it wasnāt going to be as easy as I thought to just jump in,ā said Mitchell. āI already made the decision that something was going to happen, and I kind of always had the idea that someday, maybe, I would turn the space into a brewery. Iāve been home brewing for a couple years now and itās one of those things where I wanted to pursue my dream job.ā
He ultimately decided to leave the plumbing shop area of the space behind and look for a place to build a brewery. The idea of having everyone all together in one direction was important to the family as well, instead of running between his plumbing company and the food truck.
In August, they were able to lock down their location at 105-1111 Gordon Drive. āāIt was a shoebox with a bathroom in it,ā said Mitchell.
The space helps extend Ā鶹AVās brewery district further east as itās down the road from Railside Brewing, which opened last August.
āI think weāre pretty fortuitous that Railside opened up before us because itās always good to have brewery neighbours,ā said Mitchell. āWe have good neighbours right in our building.ā
Around the same time, one of the other units in the building was leased to become a plant store, which opened recently. The area is growing, as Mitchell told Capital News a tattoo shop is also opening beside the brewery.
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While in the process of finding a place, they had the food truck open throughout the summer, which is entirely vegetarian and vegan, something they plan on keeping at the brewery.
āThe Wagon is [vegan and vegetarian] so weād be foolish to abandon the following that weāve amassed with the food truck,ā said Mitchell. āTo my knowledge, Iāve been to a lot of breweries in the province but havenāt been to one thatās vegan or vegetarian, thereās definitely a nichĆ© market there.ā
Mitchell and Cain eat mostly plant-based foods and live by the mantra āeat more plantsā.
As for a name, āThe Wagonā name wonāt continue. The brewery will be named Buffalo Rouge Brewing, and thereās a couple reasons behind it.
Something Mitchell and Cain have adopted in their life is the buffalo because they met in Fort McMurray, which is known as the municipality of the Wood Buffalo. Because of that, they buy each other buffalo-related gifts and art and even each have a buffalo tattoo. Then one day, one of Cainās friends called Mitchell āPapa Rougeā because of his red hair. His plumbing company was also called āRed Giant Mechanicalā.
āWe just sort of merged the two together,ā said Mitchell. āOver the years of talking about a name, we decided thatās what itās going to be. It stuck and it had a nice ring to it.ā
The coupleās goal is to have the brewery open in the spring. āWeāre going to keep the pedal to the medal here,ā said Mitchell.
Mitchell has been homebrewing for a couple years and plans on having a little bit of everything at the establishment.
āWeāre planning on having a bit of a mix of traditional craft beer offerings as well as experimental and seasonal beers that weāll rotate,ā said Mitchell, who loves making hazy IPA beers the most. āI like making beers for occasions. The seasonality of brewing is important. If thereās something big or important in our lives or coming up for the brewery or the city, weāll have specific beers for those purposes.ā
āWeāre trying to live our family mom-and-pop shop fantasy,ā said Mitchell. āIt seems like the universe wants this to happen. Itās nice to set down roots here.ā
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jordy.cunningham@kelownacapnews.com
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