Jon Bleiweis

jbleiweis@dmg.gannett.com

As work is being done to remodel the Dewey Beer and Food Co., its owners are hoping for a springtime opening in the heart of Dewey Beach.

Demolition work inside the Coastal Highway establishment — the former home to Bubba’s Grill, and before that, Theo’s Family Restaurant — began in September.

Transparency is the name of the game for the restaurant in the works, according to owners Brandon Smith, Mike Reilly and Scot Kaufman and Clinton Bunting. The space has just one wall, and patrons will be able to have first-hand views of the brewery and the open kitchen, as well as Coastal Highway through recently installed see-through garage doors.

“We want you to see the whole process of everything,” said Reilly, the brewer. “People in general have a curiosity and when we go to places, we have that curiosity and we know how interesting and fun and exciting it can be to go in and constantly be like ‘what are they doing now?’ You know that kind of feeling? We want to give it to people.”

The garage doors will also allow those on the sidewalk to look in, and plans include showing pedestrians what beers are in the works at a given time, how long it will take for them to finish and when they will be able to be consumed.

“You can stand outside of our building and you can understand exactly what we have going on in here,” Smith, the general manager, said. “If you never even realized what a brewery looks like, you can just look through the window and you’ll be able to see it all.”

Brewery equipment is expected to arrive in about a month, Reilly said. The brewery will be a seven-barrel system, and the consensus among the owners is that after an Indian pale ale, or IPA, the brewing possibilities are endless.

“To say where we’re going, we’re not going to pigeonhole ourselves into anything, really — just good, quality beer,” Reilly said.

The plan for food includes a rotating menu paying a nod to Delmarva tradition with modern twists, according to Smith, who added ingredients will be fresh and local whenever possible.

Beer made in-house and the spent grains from the brews will also be used for dishes, according to Reilly and Smith.

“We’re trying to be resourceful as possible, to pair up as much as we can,” Reilly said. “It’s pretty much endless.”

jbleiweis@dmg.gannett.com

443-210-8125

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