COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.--May 19--If it looks like a warehouse, and feels like a warehouse, then it must be a warehouse. Or a brew pub.
Taking a page from brewpubs in other cities that have found successful homes in warehouse districts, 2-year-old Palmer Lake Brewing Co. quietly opened its brewpub operation Friday. Simply called The Warehouse, the site is a turn-of-the-century building at 25 W. Cimarron St., south of downtown at Cimarron and Sahwatch streets.
But The Warehouse is far from a typical brewpub. Besides looking to attract beer lovers, owners hope to establish an artists' haven. Three residential lofts and three artist studios are under construction above the brewpub. The project should be completed this summer.
In the basement, owners plan to build 10 music studios where local musicians can hone their skills in high-quality sound rooms. Construction has not begun.
A 4,800-square-foot art gallery shares the ground floor with the brewpub in a site previously used for cold storage. Paintings adorn the rugged red-brick walls, and the rough wood-plank floor is dotted with comfortable sofas and chairs, inviting patrons to sit and talk while enjoying Palmer Lake's brews.
"We want to have an active art-community presence," said Perrin James Cunningham, a restaurant consultant for Palmer Lake Brewing. "And we want to enhance that with the beer as well -- with the art of brewing."
After all, it's the beer that opened the door to The Warehouse. Kurt Schoen founded Palmer Lake Brewing in the garage of his home two summers ago, and the company has been growing ever since. The brewery moved to the Cimarron building last year, where three full-time brewers use a gravity system of brewing that takes up parts of three floors.
The middle step of that process can be seen from the brewpub, which holds about 120 people. Dark wood and red brick dominate the room, and both the bar and all the tables are topped with distinctive sheets of copper.
And besides Palmer Lake's four different beers, The Warehouse will serve atypical pub dining fare. Characterized by executive chef Brian Crowell as "a good blend of Colorado game, Iowa choice beef and pork, and a touch of New Orleans," most dinners range from $10 to $20.
Owners hope the influence of working artists will draw people to The Warehouse.
"We're trying to make this part of the entire building experience," Cunningham said of the brewpub. "We wanted to make it a friendly, unpretentious place to be."
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(c) 1997, The Gazette, Colorado Springs, Colo. Distributed by Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News.
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