Northshore magazine showcases the best that the North Shore of Boston, MA has to offer.
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/943494
118 On weekends, both breweries hum with patrons' friendly chatter, families playing board games, and of course the brewers themselves doling out pours and shooting the breeze with customers. Look around the walls and you'll notice the absence of TVs blaring at the gathered patrons—all the better for talking with your friends sans distraction. "It's more of an Old World approach," says Bullen of the Silvaticus aesthetic. "So building this place out, we wanted to make it feel like a nice community place, like if you were in Europe, somewhere in Belgium or Germany, sitting down, drinking some beers, and having a good conversation." Zappasodi agrees. "is is the way people drink in Europe. People bring their families. It's a social environment." at's antithetical to the standard American drinking experi- ence, which tends to revolve around televi- sions and sports games. But Bullen and Zap- pasodi, brewers with different backgrounds (Zappasodi hails from the home brewing per- spective, while Bullen studied in Germany and spent five years running a brewery outside of Alaska's Denali National Park), believe that's changing. "It's been bastardized in America for so long," says Zappasodi. "Now, people are centering on community more and more, and it's becoming more acceptable." At BareWolf, Bareford shares the same outlook on what a good taproom experience should be. "Our main motivation is making the best possible beer that we can make," says Bareford. "But the next most important thing to me is getting people here to enjoy one an- other's company, sharing a beer. It's a unique thing to beer, I think." He's not wrong. Ever walk into a wine bar that was blasting Michael Jackson over the speakers? Probably not. But you're as likely to hear "Billie Jean" playing at BareWolf as live blues on a Saturday night. at's Bareford's goal: "I'm trying to make a comfortable living room vibe where people can chill out and play a few games of pool, or some board games, or just distract their kids for ten minutes while they drink a beer." at inviting atmosphere is essential for BareWolf, for Silvaticus, and for RiverWalk, too. One of the common threads among the breweries is a belief in community, and mak- ing a space that fits in with and enhances the town they're based in. "We really wanted to be part of the local community as well as the broader community," says Sanderson on the subject of RiverWalk's move, "whether it's people here in town who can come down and see what we're about, try a few beers, get some education on how we work and what the brewing process is like, or people coming from out of town or across the country. It had to be kind of a destination." Clockwise from top right, Newburyport's RiverWalk taproom manager, Dave Melusky; malted barley; RiverWalk offers an extensive list of brews; patrons enjoy a flight of ale; Christian Soucy, head brewer and director of operations.