"What, you mean he's leaving to sell beer?"

That was my response when I found out that one of the area's best mixologists, Tommy Mullady, had set up bar at the BottleHouse, 2050 Lee Road, Cleveland Heights, 216-214-2120.

You see, the newly opened bar/brewery specializes in craft beers, not classic cocktails. Which is what Mullady's calling card was when he tended bar at the Fairmount Martini and Wine Bar in Cleveland Heights.

It all started making sense after I checked out the BottleHouse.

Yes, it's a craft-beer joint. But it's all sorts of other things -- and it features the eclecticism and fluidity that appeal to Mullady, a musician with a wide range of interests.

"The BottleHouse is kind of like the Rolling Stones," he says. "Yes, there's a structure, but things are just so loose."

Is it a brewery? A roadhouse? A never-ending open-mike night? A picnic?

It's all those, as well as a hotspot for . . . pierogi?

Yup, they're sold in the corner by Perla Pierogies. It's part of a BYOF concept that invites patron to bring their dinners to the bar, where they can eat on the picnic tables.

"I've never seen families bringing food in picnic baskets to a bar before," says Mullady. "But it's working, because they're ordering a bunch of beer with their dinners."

The idea, according to co-owner Brian Benchek, is to interact with people looking to eat out in a casual atmosphere, but also to interact with local restaurants.

They'll supply the food; BottleHouse will supply the beer.

"We're going to have food trucks pulling up to the bar," says Benchek, pointing to the parking lot in the back. "It's a new approach."

Not just in terms of theme.

Benchek, an artist, has never run a bar before. Some would see that as a liability; Mullady sees it as a chance to bring new ideas to the concept.

"First and foremost, this is a brewery," he says. "But we also have a popcorn machine, board games, picnic tables where you can BYOF at your own pace."

There's also a stage, for spontaneous jams, hosted by local musician Harry Bacharach.

"Sometimes things will get slow behind the bar and I'll go jam my guitar," says Mullady. "Everything is spontaneous and eclectic around here."

Which fits Mullady just fine. Cleveland music fans might know him as part of Cleveland's late 1970s rock scene, when he played in popular avant-rock band Neptune's Car.

He lived in New York until 2006, where he wrote plays that were produced on Broadway and fine-tuned his mixologist skills as part of Manhattan's classic-cocktail movement.

It's the latter that left me scratching my head when I heard he was becoming a beer guy.

"Actually, we had a number of people asking for some signature cocktails, so I have put together a list of personal favorites I created," he says. "But we're trying to do something different, that I haven't seen really seen before -- and we're also doing something that makes sense for Cleveland."

You mean, beer and picnic tables and pierogi?

"No, more than that. When I came back to Cleveland, I noticed that we were a bit behind New York when it came to classic cocktails," says Mullady. "But we're definitely ahead of New York and the rest of the country when it comes to the craft-beer movement.

"There's something really cool happening here where you have people opening their own breweries and distilleries," he adds. "We're saying, 'We don't want to be beholden to large corporations because we want to control the quality and the price of the product,' and it's a powerful thing to be a part of -- especially when you can have fun, listen to music and eat popcorn, pierogies or whatever you want to bring to the party."