Brewery and restaurant opening downtown

by Eric Ginsburg

Preyer Brewing Co. and a new restaurant by Crafted are coming to an empty building across the street from Deep Roots Market in downtown Greensboro.

The action in downtown Greensboro is no longer isolated on the South Elm Street strip.

The northern edge of downtown, where construction for apartments and other development is visible and the Downtown Greenway is in progress, will soon be home to a new restaurant and brewery, business owners confirmed.

Preyer Brewing Co. plans to open its first physical location in the former Steele & Vaughn building that will also house a second location of the popular downtown restaurant Crafted, building owner Andy Zimmerman said.

“We plan for the brewery and the restaurant to be open by January 1,” Zimmerman said. “We’ve started the renovations. The floors have been torn out where the brewery equipment is going.”

Nicole and Calder Preyer, a local couple, are the force behind the brewery. Nicole Preyer said Monday that they had signed a lease for the property, which is located at 600 Battleground Avenue, sealing the deal with Zimmerman. Preyer said the brewery will offer a portfolio of about six standard ales as well as other beers.

Calder Preyer has been homebrewing for eight years, she said, and he attended the Siebel Institute of Technology, which is based in Chicago and affiliated with World Brewing Academy in Munich.

The news comes less than a week after Stone Brewing Co. passed over Greensboro for its planned East Coast facility and amidst a craft brew boom in the Triad.

Crafted chef and owner Kristina Fuller isn’t announcing what type of food the new restaurant will be serving or its full name, but said it will be called “Crafted: The Art of the ?” The concept will be announced at or shortly before the restaurant’s opening, she said, but it won’t be tacos like her existing South Elm Street restaurant.

The brewery, which is unaffiliated, is a plus too, Fuller said.

“We feel like with our concept and just the Crafted name that crafted beer just goes right along with that,” she said. “It’s going to be nothing but beneficial to have a brewery right next to us. We’ve met the Preyers and we feel like it’s a good partnership of brewers and a restaurant going in the same location.”

Fuller said she is excited about the location at the intersection of Eugene Street and Battleground Avenue because of development in the area and Zimmerman in particular.

“Andy [Zimmerman] is a great guy and I’ve known Andy through our last restaurant which was the Bistro, so when he presented us with this opportunity I probably couldn’t have thought of anybody better to work with on this project… especially with the vision that he has for downtown,” she said.

Fuller said that planned condos, a hotel and the performing arts center, in addition to the Grasshoppers baseball stadium, make it a great location.

“It’s also part of the greenway,” she added. “People are going to drive by that space every day. Downtown is not just centrally located now. What most people’s idea of downtown is, is starting to expand outwards.”

Zimmerman is also excited about the potential for growth on the north side of downtown.

“I think it’s going to be a great addition to the area there with Roy [Carroll]’s buildings and other development that is planned in the area,” Zimmerman said. “I think this is going to a great addition to that side of town. I just think it’s going to be a great gathering place for people between the brewery and the restaurant there.”

Zimmerman also owns the building on Lewis Street at the southern end of downtown where Gibb’s Hundred Brewing is under construction and nearing completion.

The two forthcoming breweries, along with the recently opened Pig Pounder Brewery a short distance down Battleground Avenue, are part of a craft-beer wave in the Triad. Prior to the rapid uptick, a new brewery hasn’t opened in Greensboro since Natty Greene’s launched downtown more than a decade ago.