Comstock's magazine 1117 - November 2017 | Page 39

ble,” so why are breweries and beer bars
embracing the grid again? And how will
they carve out a niche in an increasingly
crowded marketplace?
TAKE TWO
“This is the big show,” says Kenny Hotch-
kiss, co-owner of the newly opened Cap-
ital Hop Shop on the corner of 15th and
I streets, a grid-based extension of the
highly-respected Capitol Beer and Tap-
room. “There’s a high energy here.”
Hotchkiss and his life and business
partner, Patti Aguirre, opened Capitol Beer
and Taproom on Fair Oaks Boulevard in
2011, but they originally planned to set
up shop on the grid. “We just couldn’t find
a space, and nobody understood what
we were trying to do back then,” he says.
Eventually, they found their current space
in University Village, and grew into one of
Sacramento’s premiere beer destinations.
“I don’t know if we would have done as well
here the first time,” Hotchkiss says. “It gave
us the experience to come downtown with
better quality.”
Capitol Beer and Taproom is known
more
for
the
uncompromisingly-
curated tap lists than for the décor, but
Capital Hop Shop raises the game in ev-
ery way. Renovated from an old auto shop,
the new location has twice as many taps, a
more spacious outlay and a full food menu.
Even the hand-drawn chalkboard tap lists
are gone, replaced by sleek and modern
digital displays.
“I think competition just raises the
quality of beer, and I think there’s always
room for quality,” says Hotchkiss, when
asked about market oversaturation con-
cerns. “We came to raise the level of beer
down here.”
Rob Archie is another craft beer suc-
cess expanding onto the grid. Inspired by
his time visiting Belgian beer bars while
playing international basketball, Archie
essentially started the Sacramento craft
beer craze when he opened Pangaea Two
Brews Café (now Pangaea Bier Café) in the
Curtis Park neighborhood in 2008. Now Ar-
chie and best buddy/brewing legend Peter
Hoey are preparing to open Urban Roots
Brewery & Smokehouse, an ambitious
project that could transform the under-
nourished Southside Park neighborhood.
Archie and Hoey are renovating a
15,600-square-foot warehouse on the
corner of 14th and V streets, with the aim
of opening in early 2018. Along with a ro-
bust mixed-fermentation program and
“the ultimate German beer garden,” their
vision for Urban Roots includes a restau-
rant, so business parks were never part of
the plan. “We have a very retail-focused
model, so we want the foot traffic, we want
the nightlife,” Hoey says. “I couldn’t see a
full restaurant going in the middle of a big
industrial park.”
Given the reputations of the people
involved, expectations are high for Urban
Roots, but Archie welcomes the challenge.
“I don’t really look at it as pressure, I look at
it as a responsibility,” he says. “I want to be
the biggest neighbor on the block.”
NEW NEIGHBORHOOD BREWERIES
“You can’t put a bad beer in the market
right now,” says Ryan Campagna, brew-
master at Touchstone, a proposed brewery
hoping to open on North 16th Street some-
time in 2018. Two years ago, Campagna
was recruited away from Strike Brewing
in San Jose by the owners of the rock-
climbing facility Pipeworks, who wanted
Kenny Hotchkiss co-owns the newly opened
Capital Hop Shop on I Street.
New Breweries and Beer
Bars Coming to the Grid
Capital Hop Shop:
1431 I St.
Now Open
Urban Roots Brewery
& Smokehouse:
1322 V St.
Opening late 2017
Touchstone:
116 North 16 St.
Opening sometime in 2018
Sacrament Brewing:
1616 J St.
Opening late 2017
November 2017 | comstocksmag.com
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