You can call it Empire Brewing Company 2.0. The popular downtown Syracuse brewery is expanding to Cazenovia. The Empire Farmstead will open at the end of the month. Our Iris St. Meran has been following the construction process. She tells us how the staff is getting ready for the grand opening.
CAZENOVIA, N.Y. -- It started with this rendering in front of a 22-acre field in Cazenovia, but it is now home to the Empire Farmstead Brewery.
"From just seeing the empty field to watching the building come up and every stage of the process. It's been very cool to watch," Empire Farmstead Tasting Room general manager Tricia Little said.
Opening day is fast approaching. The staff is working behind the scenes unpacking dishes, other items and putting the last minute touches on this new facility.
"Everything is coming in," executive chef. Chris Carno said. "Food's here, equipment's here. So we're cleaning, we're preparing food. We're getting ready for some mock services in order to be ready for that grand opening."
Just like the downtown location, in Cazenovia locally grown products are the main ingredients. What is different for the farm location is patrons will have a chance to see and learn how their favorite variety of Empire beer is made.
"We're going to try to make it pretty interactive as you can see by being here, there's a lot of glass being able to look directly into the brew house, see what's going on if they're here at a time we're working," brewing operations director Tim Butler said.
When patrons come here, they'll be walking on a part of brewing history. These bricks are from the Haberle Brewing Company and in 1865 it was one of the first breweries established in the Syracuse area.
Once open, the farmstead will be running four days a week, Thursday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.