Trailway Brewing Expands Patio In Time For Summer
FREDERICTON — Spring is in the air and beer is brewing in Fredericton. Trailway Brewing Company is welcoming patio season with some big news.
Dani LeBlanc, tasting room manager, said the patio expansion has been long anticipated. The added space will give more seating and room to social distance.
“The new patio has a little landing set up so that we’ve got a nice flow of traffic to be able to get into the food truck,” said LeBlanc.
Milda’s, a local go-to for wood-fired pizza, has a food truck at Trailway on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. Leblanc said they wanted to integrate the food truck when planning the expansion.
“Our collaboration with Milda’s has been really great for bringing more business to us and giving Milda’s a platform on the Northside, where they do have a huge customer base,” said LeBlanc.
In accordance with Covid rules, Leblanc is planning to celebrate the new patio this weekend with a happy hour. Trailway has been staying away from big events this year because of the pandemic.
“It’s been incredible to see the show of support throughout it all,” said LeBlanc.
When the pandemic started last year, Trailway didn’t have to close its doors completely.
“We were really fortunate to be able to stay open for selling cans since we’re an NB liquor agency so that allowed us to be considered essential,” said LeBlanc.
The pandemic pushed Trailway to create an online website and make shipping available throughout Ontario and the Maritimes. LeBlanc said this is great for people who can’t visit Fredericton right now or moved away during the pandemic.
“We got to keep brewing the whole time,” said LeBlanc. “Being a producer as well as a tasting room, we were able to keep producing and keep our brewery staff on and they worked hard throughout it all.”
They were forced to close taproom doors and lay off some staff. However, their sales in grocery stores went up during the pandemic.
“People didn’t stop drinking,” said LeBlanc. “So that was to our benefit on the production side.”
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When they were able to reopen their tasting room, they did so with caution. Leblanc says that because of unclear guidelines for restaurants and bars reopening in the province, every brewery was left to come up with its own operational plans. Despite this, LeBlanc said they had a great summer last year and hope to have another one this year.
“Last summer our focus was really on keeping the brewery afloat,” said LeBlanc. “And this summer we’re able to take maybe a few more liberties with the end in sight.”
When it comes to beer, fans of Trailway have a lot to look forward to. They just brought back a summertime favourite, Beyond Reality, which is a seasonal light wheat ale with raspberries.
LeBlanc says customers can also expect two new beers in the next few weeks. Little Kicks is a Raspberry “seltzer-style” sold by the 6-pack. LeBlanc describes it as Trailway’s take on a hard seltzer but brewed like a beer. Fetch is a light beer that branches away from their usual hoppy style.
“[Fetch] will be a nice easy drinking beer that people can buy by the twelve pack, in a 350 ml can,” said LeBlanc. “So that they can have their summer party or their camping 12-pack beer.”
Rachel Smith is a summer intern for Huddle. Send her story suggestions: [email protected].