Rapscallion's Cellar Lounge opens
Breweries taking smarter approach to Dry January
Can a spot be a hidden gem if it hasn’t been open for more than a day?
Rapscallion Brewery today unveils its Cellar Lounge below its Sturbridge restaurant and taproom. Dimly lit, with wooden counters, an original stone wall and a low post-and-beam ceiling, the tight, yet cozy space resembles so many English pubs. In other words, it’s my kind of place.
Rapscallion spent at least a couple years renovating the room, which used to house Homefield Kitchen and Brewery. Working within a building erected at the start of the roaring 20s, Rapscallion moved cautiously through the intensive construction; it closed off the kitchen behind the bar and added a stairway from the lounge to the taproom upstairs, among other changes.
Like Homefield before it, the final product has the ambiance of a social club, where you feel connected to everyone else eating and drinking based on their closeness to you in the warm, cheerful quarters.
The beer and liquor helps cultivate that vibe, too. The lounge has eight tap lines —including beers brewed only for Sturbridge — and a full bar.
Rapscallion’s Cellar Lounge will open every Friday (3 to 10 p.m.) and Saturday (12-10 p.m.) moving forward, with “vinyl night” on Fridays from 6 to 8.
Getting over the Dry January vitriol
Though I’m not abstaining from alcohol this month, I have taken note of the breweries that embrace Dry January as a marketing and innovation challenge rather than as a trend to deride.
VinePair recently shined a light on an alarming number of breweries that have taken an antagonistic approach to Dry January, seeing it as a major threat to their business. That’s true in a sense. However, their answer to fight this desert of troubles with ridicule, no matter how joking, toward the idea of a person trying to spend a month adopting healthier habits isn’t all that tactful.
The brilliant breweries will use Dry January to their advantage and emphasize what in their repertoire might mesh with the lifestyle.
Worcester’s Redemption Rock Brewing Co. has offered a masterclass on how a brewery can smarly naviatage Dry January. It started with social media posts highlighting its many non-alcoholic beverages — its coffees, lattes, teas, and lemonade — and then started serving NA beers from Athletic Brewing Company.
Dry January can also breed creativity in the brewing world.
Earlier this week, Tree House Brewing Co. introduced the first entry in a new lineup of hopped sparkling waters it has dubbed the “Bubble Hop” series. Using Motueka hops, agave nectar and water, Tree House has produced a refreshing non-alcoholic drink that gives you all of the citrus and sweet fruit of the New Zealand hop.
Even as these paths may appear harder for a brewery than simply making some bad joke riffing on Dry January, they’ll end in happier customers who don’t feel ostracized because they have chosen to spend a month avoiding, as that great Cracked video noted, “brain and liver poison.”