MONTAGUE — North Grove Brewery has finally reopened its inside bar after suffering a devastating fire in April. An official grand re-opening is planned within the next few weeks, but the indoor bar has officially reopened.
“We’re trying to get the kitchen open as soon as possible,” owner Jason Jaekel said. “I’m hoping by next week. It still hasn’t hit me yet. I keep thinking, ‘Oh, we have to get this done.’ I guess once we get everything back the way we, the owners, all want it then I think I’ll be able to breathe. Right now we’re just bar service and everyday something new comes up. ‘We need to get this or that, that got lost in the fire.’ It’s one of those things where we’re just trying to piece everything back together. We’re almost there.”
While cleaning the inside, Jaekel and owners took it as an opportunity to redecorate the bar. The walls, previously black, are now white, making the space brighter. Most of the brewery’s beloved pinball machines were saved and cleaned, and are back in the bar.
During the time they were closed, North Grove was able to serve beer outside in their own beer garden. The garden featured a tent, and lawn with cornhole and other games. Jaekel said the beer garden was North Grove’s “saving grace.”
“When we had our fire, we were able to have the remediation company come in and clean everything, especially focusing on the ‘brew house,’” said Jaekel. “Once we did that, we ordered all new lines, gaskets, basically new everything. Anything that could possibly have soot, we had to replace. We were able to have a partial occupancy with our beer garden. The city and health department granted that, and that allowed us to be able to brew beer while we were serving outside. Luckily, a couple years ago, we put that separate brewing space in. We didn’t fully utilize it, but it saved us through this whole ordeal. We had six beers on tap outside and we made it work. It wasn’t the prettiest thing, always very weather-dependent.
“I have to compliment our staff. They rocked it out. They did the best that they could with that situation, while our new head brewer, Dylan, went to town making great beer. It looked disjointed, but we made it work. That’s what we had to do to stay alive.”
Jaekel said the brewery plans to bring back all of its favorite beers and recipes, but they will not have whiskey until at least mid-winter. North Grove distills and brews everything themselves, and the process of fermenting and aging whiskey takes at least three or four months.
“I’m hoping to bring back all the staples, but we are going to focus on having three or four beers that are always going to be on tap,” Jaekel said. “That’s a little different than what we’ve done in the past. In the past, we constantly rotated different beers. We found that there are certain beers the community always wants. We’re bringing back all of our food recipes. Hopefully soon we’ll have cans. We’ll bring back whiskey eventually. We had to focus on vodka and beer.”
Jaekel feels especially grateful for his staff and the support of the White Lake community. Not long after the fire, Sawyers Brewing and Fetch Brewing Company both made efforts to help North Grove. Fetch played host to the Oat Bran Boys, who usually perform at North Grove every Wednesday evening. Sawyers encouraged community members to buy food from Dog n Suds, Jaekel’s other business, by offering discounted or even free drinks if they did so.
“I have to thank the staff and the community who came out and supported us,” said Jaekel. “It’s been phenomenal. We’ve had this awesome group of volunteers that have helped us. I can’t say enough how much it means to me and to the rest of us owners. We could not have functioned without them. Our staff put up with a lot, like having to haul ice from Montague Foods or Dog n Suds. There weren’t always pleasant days, but on rainy days people still came out and drank beer just to keep giving revenue to us so we could keep going. We had to do most of the upkeep on this. After the remediation left, we were on our own.”
One positive Jaekel has taken away from this experience is the growing closeness between him and his staff.
“We’re a family,” Jaekel said. “We’ve had some ups and downs throughout the whole process, but in my opinion it’s like the COVID-19 pandemic all over again. We get through another tragedy, we can do anything. We survived that, what else could you throw at us?”
