Back when Sobremesa opened amid the chaos of 2020, a significant portion of the building remained unused. Various ideas were discussed among the owners as to what do with the northern half of the building, with anything and everything being considered.

Quietly, in 2023, the final vision of what to do with that space came to fruition, and now the Sobremesa event space is in full swing. We learned all about that and more during an interview with co-owner/head brewer David Facey for our Look Back/Look Ahead Series.

“It treated us very well,” Facey said of the year gone by. “Very busy, but very well. We are still, I don’t want to say new, but we’re still being discovered by people and groups and folks. We’re developing a regular clientele, including a group of soccer aficionados who like this Bayern Munich club. We’re doing well in the pub.

“The biggest endeavor was building out the annex, which is now our event space. It’s been great, we are trying everything and anything to see how this place is going to evolve. It’s essentially a whole new establishment for us. We’ve done business meetings, we had a gender reveal (party), we’ve done a comedy night. The reason we built out this place is to have a place on the westside and be an available venue for many different types of events. And, we spent most of 2023 not only managing the regular pub, but building this out, and getting this up and running.”

The event space is quite impressive, with a kind of cool, semi-retro look that is quite different from the main pub. That was exactly the intent, Facey said.

“A big portion of it is when we opened up Sobremesa in 2020, we didn’t necessarily want it to look like a typical brewpub,” he said. “When we opened up the annex, we took the same approach. In my experience, there’s a lot of venues around town, but they’re very blasé, very run of the mill. What we did, when we built out annex, we focused a lot on furniture and decor, all of the things I think people look for in a very intimate environment.”

While opening the event space has been the biggest development of the past year, it did not take away from the rest of the business. Facey and his fellow brewer Ian Graham have still been cranking out one delicious brewer after another to compliment the core lineup.

“Keeping up with the (beer) trends is always a tough one,” Facey said. “We keep an eye on what’s going on around town, around the state, around the country. See what the new popular things are, but still relying on our roots. I think currently we have three lagers on tap, two IPAs, a Belgian. We’re brewing a sour here soon. We try to keep our portfolio consistent because it’s inconsistent. We only have four house beers.”

Doing the math, that is one more house beer than there was in 2022.

“That’s another thing that happened in 2023, we brought in a fourth house beer, and that’s our Mesa Especial Mexican Lager,” Facey said. “That sells like gangbusters. We really struggle in keeping up on that one, which is a really good problem to have.”

Facey said that the brewery has two 20-barrel fermenters in the back that were set up for the Hilltop Helles, which he said takes about eight weeks to ferment. Now, Mesa Especial is having to share those tanks, particularly during the heat of the summer, when it joins many other Mexican lagers in outselling the other beers.

There has not been any talk about expanding the brewing area, pushing into the empty portion of the lot to the west of the building, or at least not yet. One big physical addition that most people cannot see in the back was still an important one.

“Another thing that we did do in 2023 was I finally got my (walk-in) cooler,” Facey said. “One of the problems that I would run into during brewing was I didn’t have a place to put beer. So we built a 40-by-16-foot cold room cooler, which we share with the kitchen, because they needed space as well. It essentially allows me to store close to 800 barrels. Now, we’re not there yet, but that was a great addition as well. It gave everybody a lot more elbow room.”

Facey said that with the added space, Sobremesa can increase its brewing capacity from 700 barrels to 1300, though he said they are not there yet.

As for some personal favorites in the beer lineup, Facey said one recurring brew has been quite enjoyable both to make and imbibe.

“I really enjoy our Chronically Juicy line,” he said. “It’s a recurring beer, it’s not necessarily a staple. It’s a beer that comes back. We play around with different hop combinations. That’s a fun part, because you put it in the kettle, you put it in the fermenter, but you don’t know what it’s going to be for three weeks. You cross your fingers. Usually it works out pretty well.”

Sobremesa has also seen an uptick in Belgian-style beers appearing as seasonals, which is all thanks to Graham.

“Ian is a really, really good Belgian brewer,” Facey said. “He’s a really good brewer in general, but that guy pumps out Belgians that are phenomenal. Super great esters, phenols when you want them. I’m glad that he’s pumping those out, and I give him free reign.”

Lagers, however, are the beers that remain near and dear to Facey.

“I think we’re at a point where lagers are no longer the blonde beer,” he said. “People are understanding the versatility of lagers. We love to play with that. We have an amber lager called IMD. We’ve garnered a couple awards for that. When we have that on, people love it. It’s really interesting to, at some point, introduce the general public to different styles of beer. Now, when we say lager, they ask us what kind, instead of just expecting the pale golden lager.”

Ultimately, though, it is the customers who will decide what beers Sobremesa should brew.

“That’s another thing, when talking about beers, what Ian and I are doing now is we’re actively speaking to the front-of-house staff,” Facey said. “They hear what people want. As long as we’re keeping up with the house beers that we have to make, we listen to our customers.”

As we slowly move into 2024, a clearer picture is emerging for Sobremesa in terms of what is being planned for this year.

“We’re definitely going to keep working on the event space/annex, and try to figure out different things we can do, both for the public and private events,” Facey said. “We feel like around April and May we’ll have graduation parties and the like. We’re excited.

“But, what I’m excited about, and hopefully you and (the rest of the) Dark Side, and Dark Side followers, we’re bring it back — beer dinners. We have a full kitchen, scratch kitchen, we have super talented people back there, super talented. Sometimes making the same old stuff every day gets mundane, so those guys and girls are very excited to be creative and create something different. That’s something that we’re going to bring back, not definitive, but we’re well on their way. Our first one will probably be for Valentine’s Day. There may be a raspberry prickly pear wheat coming out for that. Maybe.”

We have a feeling that a few members of the Crew might be excited to take their significant other to a beer dinner or two at Sobremesa.

“In 2024, in regards to business at Sobre the pub, (expect) a whole lot more daily or weekly specials, i.e. pseudo menu changes,” Facey said. “The menu is not going to change, but they’re really eager to try new things. We’re really encouraging them to have ideas, create new things. Like most breweries, we’re mom and pop. We’re not stuck with corporate standards. If we want to do it and it works, great. If it doesn’t work, well, don’t do it again. That’s how we do it.”

More food choices, more new beers, and a whole new event space. Sounds like a pretty darn good 2024 is on deck.

“Other than that, just keep cranking, just keep going,” Facey said. “We have a very, very loyal following in regards to clientele. The nice thing is they’re kind of our advertisement. Anytime you see that familiar face at the bar, go shake their hand, go give them a hug. Then they want to bring their wife or husband, their brother or sister, their friends to come here.”

That is a mighty good philosophy. A big thanks to David for the interview, the tour of the new space, and a pour of the quite tasty Face the Day Breakfast Stout.

And, the rest of the Bayern fan club thanks you, too, David.

Keep supporting local!

— Stoutmeister