Posted Feb 13, 2015, 8:54 AM
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Loving SA 365 days a year
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Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: San Antonio
Posts: 3,891
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CITY > MIDTOWN > THE PEARL
Quote:
W. Scott Bailey
San Antonio Business Journal
The delicate transformation of the original Pearl Brewery building into Southerleigh Fine Food & Brewery is nearly complete. The new restaurant and brewpub is now slated to open in late March.
Southerleigh will be one of the largest brewpubs in the nation, and it will feature a modern twist on what owner and executive chef Jeff Balfour refers to as Texas' "cross-cultural cuisine."
The newest player in San Antonio's emerging craft beer industry has big plans for an historic site.
"We could not be in a better space to brew beer," Balfour said about the Pearl building, which has not housed brewing operations since 2002.
That long hiatus is about to end. Southerleigh will have a 15-barrel brew house, six serving tanks and an extensive firkin/wood barrel-aging program. Southerleigh brewmaster Les Locke plans to plans to develop nearly two dozen craft beers that will be available on tap — by the glass or in a growler. Southerleigh will offer several dining areas, including a private room housed in one of Pearl Brewery's original grain silos.
In October, I asked Balfour, who left a chef position at Hotel Valencia to take on the Southerleigh project, about the process of developing a new restaurant and brewpub in the original Pearl brewhouse.
"I'm still amazed by the history that you see in the building," he said. "My understanding was, when it closed, it closed. There was a lot of stuff that looked like it probably did when (Pearl) stopped using it."
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