When Denver Beer Co. opens its new Old Town Arvada brewery and taproom in mid-June, the third location for the company, there will be no need for a food truck outside. That's because the truck — or, rather, trailer — will be parked inside the brewery.
Denver Beer Co. owners Patrick Crawford and Charlie Berger have teamed up with the founders of Lucky Pie Pizza and El Jefe Mexican Restaurant to create The Mighty, an artisan burger kitchen built into a vintage 1978 Airstream trailer. The burgers, made from free-range Colorado beef, will be served on locally made buns with a rotating menu of seasonal toppings. The trailer will also dish up fries, salads and sides.
"The deal came about pretty naturally," says Lucky Pie co-owner Brendan McManus, who created the Mighty along with James Samara and culinary director Sakima Isaac. "Patrick and Charlie are great guys and smart businessmen, so we have always chatted with them about the industry and our various enterprises. When they made the move with this new Arvada location, we thought it would be a great fit to have us come on board."
Lucky Pie, with locations in LoDo and Louisville, has always been focused on craft beer, so McManus is used to having good brews at his restaurants. With the Mighty, that relationship will work in reverse, with McManus selling his products inside a brewery. "We like the twist," he says. "Most breweries host a rotating selection of food trucks. That can be great, but can be a challenge as well.... We have been around for almost nine years and watched the craft-beer industry explode, it will be fun to bring what we do best into a brewery."
Denver Beer Co. announced that it would open its third location, inside a former Craig Chevrolet Dealership at 5768 Olde Wadsworth Boulevard, last August. The 4,350-square-foot spot will include its own seven-barrel brewhouse, a large taproom with a similar look and feel to the one on Platte Street, and a 1,500-square-foot patio and beer garden. The six-year-old brewery also operates its original spot on Platte Street and the Canworks production brewery and taproom in the Sunnyside neighborhood.
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“Brendan, James, Sakima and their team totally get it," said DBC's Berger in a statement. "Great food enhances great beer and vice versa. We are excited for this pairing and think Olde Town should be, too.”
In addition to the existing Denver and Louisville Lucky Pie locations, McManus is opening a third outlet with 73 taps in Niwot this summer. In January, he and Samara opened El Jefe at the corner of West 44th Avenue and Alcott Street in Sunnyside. "We are always pouring DBC beers at Lucky Pie," McManus says. "With the third Niwot location, we will have 73 taps pouring small-brewery craft beer, and it's awesome to have them as part of the lineup."
As for the trailer, it's a 24-foot Airstream International Trade Wind that Berger and Crawford found on Craigslist last fall. They took it camping one last time with their kids before retrofitting it over the winter.
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