Historic building starts new chapter as brewery

Walk through 1002 E. New Haven Ave. in downtown Melbourne, and its 117-year history unfolds.

A hand-operated freight elevator represents its hardware store days, and a walk-in safe harkens back to the bank.

Double layers of Sheetrock line a space that once held a TV studio; a window overlooks it from an old second-floor control room. The Sheetrock couldn’t muffle the sound of the trains barreling down the track just a few feet to the west, though.

The TV studio was short-lived.

A pair of nutcrackers stand guard in one of the upstairs rooms, remnants of a more recent past, when the building housed The Christmas Cottage. Plastic garland trails along the floor.

The funeral parlor that once operated from here isn’t evidenced in a visible way; that history is told only by the ghosts said to roam the place, though new owner Don DiFrisco hasn’t met them yet.

DiFrisco, his family and a tight knot of friends have spent the past month reviving 1002 E. New Haven Ave. for its next life as Hell ‘n Blazes Brewing Company, a microbrewery scheduled to open in December.

Most days, Whiskey and Bellini, friendly but vocal yellow labs, stand guard while DiFrisco, his son Jimmy, brewmaster Todd Furbeck and his Merritt Island neighbor Briggsie Kilbourne work. They’ve torn down the partitions that once divided the Petite Boutiques into multiple retail spaces.

They’ve cleared out shelving in the upstairs rooms.

This old girl has good bones, and the Hell ‘n Blazes crew wants to preserve them. DiFrisco said they plan to sand down and refinish the hardwood floors. The high, tin ceiling, believed to be original to the late 1800s, is gorgeous as is.

They’re uncovering second-floor windows, bricked over for decades, and pulling up carpet.

The result? A big, open room with an occupancy of about 225, perfect for a large bar, several tables, a stage and 300-gallon tanks to hold all the beer Furbeck can dream up.

A section in the back, added to the building in the 1920s, will house storage, coolers and a game room with shuffleboard, darts and Giant Jinga.

A space to the left of the bar will serve as a tasting room and aprivate event area. Upstairs, who knows? The DiFriscos have their hands full with the first floor for now.

In the old TV studio, where the ceiling stretches two stories high, the team is carefully removing the wooden flooring so it can be reused. Cement floors will take its place, a foundation strong enough to hold the brewing tanks.

In addition to cosmetic work, the building needs multiple upgrades.

“All-new electric, all-new plumbing, all-new A/C,” DiFrisco said.

Originally, he considered renting a place, but decided with renovations, upgrades and equipment, it made more sense to buy.

“I walked in, I knew this was going to be the place,” he said.

Angela LoPresti sees the brewery as a great next chapter for the building. Her parents, Dano and Rita, owned it for 36 years. She and her brothers Okie and Dano Jr. grew up there.

“There’s a whole lot of emotional attachment in there,” she said. “But we’re very pleased with the plans the DiFrisco family has for it.”

By the time the brewery opens, DiFrisco and his wife Clare will have sunk almost $2 million into project: $950,000 to purchase the building, $600,000 in improvements, $200,000 in equipment.

It’s a labor of love as much as a business.

“I’ve been a real estate investor and entrepreneur my whole life,” DiFrisco said. He spent 15 years building electronics for the government.

“I figured my next venture would be something fun we could all enjoy,” he said. “The world was pointing at me to do this.”

Don and Clare’s oldest son, Jon, is moving back to Brevard from Los Angeles to join the Hell ‘n Blazes team. Adam, their youngest, is working in Beijing right now, but he’s talking about coming home, too.

Rounding out the team will be general manager Andy Pinkerton, who has more than 12 years of leadership experience in the craft beer industry.

In the meantime, they’re steamrolling ahead, getting the building ready and testing beer. That’s where Furbeck and Jimmy DiFrisco come in.

Furbeck talks about beer like a five-star chef describing his latest creation. Orange blossom honey wheat. Chocolate cake porter. German pilsner.

At 33, he already has more than a decade of brewing to his credit. His fascination started when his mother bought a homebrew kit as a gift for his father’s 40th birthday.

“And it sat in our garage,” he said. “I decided, ‘Hey, he’s not going to use it, I might as well.’”

“That early attraction to brewing has grown into a full-on addiction,” he said with a chuckle. “I make one beer, and I’m already thinking about the next one.”

He won awards as a home brewer, then went to work brewing beer at Charlie & Jake’s in Suntree, where he went on to win commercial brewing awards, too.

“I would go to Charlie & Jake’s and gaze in at the big tanks,” he said. When an opening came up, he was hired.

He worked there a couple of days a week, cleaning the tanks, soaking in knowledge.

“I remember looking around thinking, ‘I’m never going to learn this,’” he said.

Now he has an even bigger brewing operation to master, with new equipment, new challenges and new opportunities.

The DiFriscos have a big barn on their Merritt Island property where Furbeck and Jimmy DiFrisco, also a brewer, have been practicing.

“We’re going through different variations of beers we think we’ll like,” Furbeck said, “playing around with different fermentation methods.”

They’ve been making 15-gallon batches and testing them out on friends and family, which means the barn has become a popular spot.

“The kids’ friends show up and say, “What are you going to do next?’ ” DiFrisco said, the “kids,” he’s quick to point out, being his adult children. “We have a keg-o-rator in the barn.”

While the grand opening is still months away, DiFrisco knows the time will go quickly. He wants Hell ‘n Blazes, which is named after the South Brevard lake, to be part of the downtown Melbourne community from Day 1.

He’s already joined the Melbourne Regional Chamber and the Melbourne Main Street Program.

The Hell ‘n Blazes team passed out samples of beer at the Downtown Melbourne’s July Friday Fest and let festival-goers come inside for a peek at the building plans and how the space is taking shape.

They expected to go through one keg, but ended up tapping three.

T-shirts have gone out to fans who like the brewery’s Facebook page, where frequent progress reports are posted.

The plan is to “build a fun atmosphere and be part of the community,” Furbeck said.

Adding to that fun atmosphere will be Josh, Mel, Mabel and Stewart, the full-time spirit residents of 1002 E. New Haven Ave.

LoPresti, whose family had previously owned the building for almost four decades, said that through the years, people with sensitivity to spirits visited the building and felt various presences.

A frequent visitor to the Christmas Cottage told the LoPrestis he could see the spirits, and he knew their names. LoPresti wrote herself a note so she would know who was where and so the staff could greet the ghosts each morning.

DiFrisco has the note pinned to a column in the main room: “Josh and Mel hangout downstairs in dark room. Mabel loves the big nativity in back. Stewart is the grumpy old man who hangs out downstairs in N.E. section and the one who danced with Angela.”

LoPresti still feels an attachment to the building. She and other family members were among those stopping in to check out the progress during Friday Fest. She likes that the DiFriscos are a close family, working on a family business, much like her own.

Come December, when the transition from shop space to brewery should be complete, DiFrisco said he plans to display memorabilia from the building’s past. And in a nod to its holiday heritage, Hell ‘n Blazes will continue a Christmas Cottage tradition. While the Loprestis owned the building, they kept a special chair for Santa.

The chair remains, though it’s weathered and dusty. It will be repaired so Santa can once again greet girls and boys who have been more nice than naughty.

“It’s a special place,” LoPresti said. “A very special place. We’re leaving it in safe hands.”

Contact Leonard at sleonard@floridatoday.com. Follow her on Twitter @SuzyLeonard.

Learn more

Follow Hell ‘n Blazes Brewing Company on Facebook at www.facebook.com/HellnBlazesBrewing or at www.hellnblazesbrewing.com.

A brief history

Don DiFrisco has pieced together a rough history of the building at 1002 E. New Haven Ave., in downtown Melbourne, from sources including websites, written histories and talking with longtime Brevardians. Some dates may be off by a year or two.

*1898: A wood-frame building was constructed by Charles Stewart. He and Frank Fee owned a hardware store in this building, which was later covered with tile and brick. The business expanded to include farm supplies, furniture, a bank and mortuary. Fee sold out his interest to Stewart and moved to Fort Pierce.

1936: Harvey Huggins bought the building and opened his hardware supply store in August 1936. He continued its operation until 1949.

1970s: The building housed a television station. Apparently, the passing trains caused problems with the TV cameras, because the building shakes gently as the trains pass.

1979: Dano and Rita LoPresti opened The Christmas Cottage and ran it for 32 years. The LoPresti family operated the Petite Boutiques in the building for another four years before selling it to Don and Clare DiFrisco.

2015: Hell ‘n Blazes Brewing Company, a microbrewery, is scheduled to open.

* According to one account, Fee and Stewart’s original store was on Fee Avenue and burned in the “Great Fire,” which destroyed much of downtown Melbourne. In that account, the store was relocated to New Haven Avenue in 1919.