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Small Lake City
Small Talk, Big City
Join host Erik Nilsson as he interviews the entrepreneurs, creators, and builders making Salt Lake City the best place it can be. Covering topics such as business, politics, art, food, and more you will get to know the amazing people behind the scenes investing their time and money to improve the place we call home.
Follow along for more!
Small Lake City
S1, E87: Hopkins Brewing - Chad Hopkins
From skateboarding around Sugar House as a kid to brewing award-winning beer in the same neighborhood, Chad Hopkins' journey epitomizes the heart of Salt Lake City's local business renaissance.
Growing up in Sugar House during the 80s and 90s when it was "kind of rough," Chad developed a deep connection to this eclectic neighborhood. His first job at Einstein's Bagels sparked what would become a lifelong career in hospitality. While exploring various roles in the restaurant industry, corporate life never quite satisfied his entrepreneurial spirit. "The corporate thing is boring to me," he explains. "There's no real vision there. They're not doing anything to make the world better."
Everything changed when Chad discovered craft beer and the transformative experience of trying his first Red Hook ESB. "It blew my fucking mind," he recalls. Frustrated by Utah's limited beer selection, he began homebrewing in his basement, eventually installing epoxy floors, stainless steel sinks, and multiple brewing systems to perfect his craft.
The opportunity to open Hopkins Brewing came unexpectedly. While initially scouting locations on State Street, Chad learned that a space in his beloved Sugar House was available. With just six weeks to secure a bar license, he and his team worked tirelessly, brewing during the day and developing the menu at night. That hustle paid off, creating what has become a community hub known for exceptional beer, locally-sourced food, and a welcoming atmosphere.
Chad's philosophy centers on empowering his team with creative freedom and supporting the local community. From featuring local artists without taking commission to hosting live music several nights a week, Hopkins exemplifies how businesses can strengthen neighborhoods. The hyper-local approach extends to ingredients too, with malt from Logan and grass-fed beef raised in Utah.
Despite offers to expand, Chad remains committed to maintaining Hopkins' authenticity through owner presence and personal connection. "I didn't do this to make money," he says. "I love what I'm doing." That passion shines through in every aspect of the brewery, where even employees choose to spend their days off.
Stop by Hopkins Brewing at 1048 East 2100 South to experience a true Salt Lake City success story in a pint glass. Follow them on Instagram for daily updates and to learn about their upcoming events and beer releases.
Head to www.smalllakepod.com/merchandise for Small Lake City Gear!
Join Erik as he supports Fork Cancer, a night of food, drinks, and live music—all for a great cause. Grab your tickets at utah.acscanforkcancer.org and enter Erik Nilsson to help him hit his $12,000 fundraising goal!
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I'd probably say it was high school is when I discovered craft beer. Just had this like idea, like wow, I want to open my own brewery.
Speaker 1:I did all this discovery of all these beers. I'm like fuck, we can't. Nobody's brewing all the stuff I want to drink. I have hit root myself. Sugar House is like that's. My dream is to have a brew pub in Sugar House, but I didn't think that was ever going to happen. If we wanted the bar license, we had six weeks to open, because here in Utah we all need each other. We all need all the breweries.
Speaker 2:What is up everybody and welcome back to another episode of the Small Lake City Podcast. I'm your host, eric Nilsson, and this week's guest is someone that I've been really excited to talk about. His name is Chad Hopkins and in case you recognize the last name, then about His name is Chad Hopkins, and in case you recognize the last name, then you probably know that he's the founder of Hopkins Brewing. Now, hopkins Brewing is one of my favorite breweries to go to for a few reasons One great beer, two, great food menu and three great programming.
Speaker 2:We talk about how Chad grew up, around the corner from where Hopkins is today, his passion for food and beverage and the energy of working in restaurants where he got his passion for brewing beer, starting to brew his own and then taking the leap to truly start his own brewery, thanks to some help from his friends. But let's jump into it. It's a great conversation with me and Chad that you're going to enjoy. It was fun because we actually recorded right in the brewery itself, so enjoy and I'll see you on the other side.
Speaker 1:The theater and everything was built over there where the Barnes Noble. There were little local shops all around there and it was just a big, wide-open parking lot and so we used to skate there. That was our hangout. We'd go skate and then, over here, you had, I mean, you had Bronx Records, where Whole Foods is, but you had another record shop over here. You had, I mean, you had Bronx Records, where Whole Foods is, but you had another record shop over here, a hip hop shop, a skate shop, like you had all sorts of small businesses all around here.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And then when the Olympics came here and Barnes Noble's built, it just kind of kicked out a lot of the locals and it got really corporate and it just kind of sure how sausage feel for a minute there.
Speaker 2:I agree.
Speaker 1:And you know I'm so grateful to be in here. I feel like I've kind of taken it back, taking back the local, and more and more local businesses are popping up around here and it's great.
Speaker 2:It's like that's what sugar house is built on, like we need to keep it local exactly, and I love that it's kind of become this blueprint because, like, when you think about like salt lake in its development, sugar house was kind of the first spot where it's like, okay, cool, we're gonna actually develop this, we're gonna bring in a lot of new opportunities not all good ones, not all bad ones but then we've kind of seen how, like central ninth is starting to get developed and like the post district, all these other places that feel I feel like the things we've that happened here are being learned onth. I mean it's all local places and some of those like badass businesses, it's all Lake and the same with, I mean, like post districts. I mean it's I don't can't think of a completely like corporate thing in there and they've done really good about curating that. So I'm glad that we've gone from like all right, listen, we don't need this anymore. But we I do.
Speaker 1:I know what we, these local people that actually care about where they're at oh, yeah, I think the Olympics brought a big wave of corporate businesses here Totally that are now starting to go away.
Speaker 2:Not mad about it. I'll always support local people, so I mean so you're born and raised in Sugar House, you're, I mean, used to seeing all the local businesses skateboarding around here. I mean especially like the, like what I call the Shopko parking lot, even though Shopko is obviously not there anymore. Oh yeah, like the. My last memory of it was so in the early 2010s.
Speaker 2:I found out about this app that people were doing to make a bunch of money whenever they wanted to, and I was like, well, that sounds like a great idea. So I applied to become a Lyft driver Nice and so I was like one of the first ones here and then I got invited to do. They used to have this thing called the mentor program, where anybody who's been a driver for a while has a really good rating. They'll be like, hey, you're going to kind of be the last line of defense. You'll meet with people, answer questions, go on a drive with them, and if it's like the vibes are off, like Caesar thumbs down, and if it's like everything's fine and like good to go, so I would just like line wait in shopko and just do them over and over again, and essentially I only have to work for like four hours a week and then go back to school.
Speaker 2:Uh, it's like that. I spent a lot of time in that parking lot just sitting there and I'm sure there's someone who's like, is this guy selling drugs? Yeah, but no, just just getting people rideshare drivers, but so so border raising here like very local to I mean both sugar house and ninth and ninth area, but I know that so much of your career in history is based on, I mean restaurant, hospitality, food and Bev. I mean, when did that story all start or where did the journey begin?
Speaker 1:You know, I my first job in um in restaurants was the Einsteins on 15th and 15th. Heck, yeah, so um.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I started there in like 98, I think so that's when I look at him, like how are you still here, like I wouldn't mind if it was something else, because again the local stuff and just that area, but yeah, so I mean starts with einstein's yeah, yeah and it's.
Speaker 1:You know, back then utah was salt lake was just kind of a weird, kind of weird place and it just cousin it was. This area was just kind of outcast, it was sugar house was a shithole, yeah, in the 80s and 90s. And you know people like, oh, you're living sugar house, oh it's kind of rough, and I'm like whatever, it's not my hat, like it's still what I know in my home.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's like, what do you think?
Speaker 1:but I like it like you know, I wouldn't as a kid like if I left my skateboard out front and be gone. You know, like I live in sandy now. Like you leave your bikes out, you leave anything out there. Nobody, nobody gives a shit yeah, someone will probably put in your garage for you yeah so it's, it's a lot different.
Speaker 1:So and still, you know it's it's still kind of the city here, you know so. But yeah, so I worked at einstein's for a bit and uh really liked the energy of restaurants because there's you're not going to be bored. You know there's always something to do, so you're always on your feet moving around and and I liked that a lot, so I did uh. Shortly after that I went to the military for a little bit. Didn't really love it, but I.
Speaker 2:I get dubious of people who are like I love the side tangent. I was golfing with this guy once at bonneville and I was playing alone and all of a sudden this guy almost like pops out of the woods walking his car's, like, hey, you got room for one more. I was like nice, yeah. And this guy was probably the weirdest person I've ever golfed with on a golf course. And so he goes on to be like, oh, what do you do? I'm like I work in tech and do this. And he's like, oh, I'm like what did you do?
Speaker 2:He's like I'm a retired pilot, like, oh, cool, sweet. He's like I was at NAMM and I was like, oh, I mean, that must have been tough. He's like, yeah, unless you like killing people. And I was like, okay, like. And then he goes on to be like, yeah, but then I ended up getting two women pregnant there and then found out both of them within the last years Don't care for one of them, but the other one's pretty nice. And I was like you, yeah, I was like you are someone I don't necessarily know if I want to in the middle of a golf course, in the middle of nowhere, but in your military. Were you mostly domestic or did you get to travel anywhere fun?
Speaker 1:No, I just did the reserves and just stayed here. I you know kind of more pressure from my parents. Yeah in a sense, and I'm just like this is not, this is not my thing, so which?
Speaker 2:is good because you have an experience. You're like, oh, I like this energy, I like doing this and then being like, not that, let's continue to refine what we want to do. So you do the reserves and then I assume you go back to some sort of food and bed hospitality.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, came back here and, you know, actually went back to Einstein's, worked at a different one for a little bit and then just started working a bunch of chains around here, cool, helped open like all the noodles and company and payways and just all these like fast, casual chains. Um, actually helped open the the noodles over here. Yeah, so I worked at the payway that used to be here that's now. I don't even know it's over there anymore. I think it's like a dentist office, yeah. So, um, which is kind of funny Cause when that restaurant we'll side tangent on that. When I was, I had a great team over there. That was years ago. I worked there but they were closing down as I was opening. So some of my old cooks were walking over here and they're like, hey, you're like you're opening your own business. I'm like, yeah, it was perfect, so got a couple of my old cooks that worked for me at Payway forever ago.
Speaker 2:I was, I went to that payway a lot like that was one of my mom's favorite like, because my mom was a pediatrician before she retired, it's like didn't have a ton of time. So she, like I recognized my own adhd hyper fixations in her old behavior and one of them was like meals that we would eat. Like she would go like one, like she got this like a ricotta and cheese from costco multiple times a week for like a month or two and then we wouldn't have it again. And then like all of these, just like deep dives. And then there was one where she's like yeah, payway, send me your order, I'm picking it up. We're like, we're going to payways. Like I mean, I don't like don't get me wrong like I love a good, uh, what I call like a sugary fried chicken and rice, but always a classic. But that's fun that you could, hey guys, like just walk up here half a block and come cook over here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was interesting doing the the corporate thing for a while. I just didn't really love that either. I loved the restaurant thing but didn't like the corporate thing. So so I bounced around a few different places and then tried to take a break from, break from it, went to uh, went to Whole Foods for a little bit and I I loved working at Whole Foods, um, because it was a lot of people, like-minded people. Yeah, you know we all care about, um, the environment, sustainability, and a lot of people love good beer and there are a lot of homebrewers, so we would all share beer with each other and and beer wasn't one of my departments, so I got to choose, like a lot of stuff we brought in.
Speaker 2:Cool.
Speaker 1:So that was. That was a lot of fun Did that for a couple years and then I just kind of missed the restaurant chaos so went back to it um, but started working um with a consultant and learned a lot about the back end of opening restaurants and and so kind of followed him around a little bit. Um turned out he wasn't a very good dude and so a lot of drama. He has a lot of people money. He owes me money but you know we're just gonna not worry about that anymore. Sometimes you gotta cut your losses and move on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was a. It was a really good experience. Um, and then after that went on my own and just I helped um, this little small pizza place up in Camas Summit and Pizza they're in like 200 plus year old hotel, like I lived above it, yep.
Speaker 2:I've. I spent how long was that? Probably four months living in Oakley. Oh, yes, and like cause. I mean when you're up in Oakley, like it's beautiful, like that whole area is gorgeous, amazing, but if you need to get anywhere, pain in the ass.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, and so I would always be like it's the end of the day, I've done so much. Maybe friday, saturday, weekend, I just want food and there's only so many restaurants that are out because you have that like, unless I want to go just like ken's cash and grab like a bunch of random snacks but there's always some at pizza and I knew I just went straight down the road for like two miles get my pizza and it was good. Pizza too, that was great was great, yeah.
Speaker 1:So yeah, I got to drive up there for a little bit and kind of it was fun it was. You know, a lot of my career in corporate restaurants was going and taking over restaurants that were just not really well-run and kind of flipping them, yeah, you know, turn them around, make them successful and then kind of go on to the next thing. So you know, these guys were established. I think they ready to open something new, so so it's cool. So I got to help design the new store and get them set up and I was planning to stick around and open more stores for them.
Speaker 2:But do you, did you feel like you enjoyed more of like that opening and getting things started side, or did you just love the humdrum of operating a restaurant, just kind of the chaos that goes along with it?
Speaker 1:You know the opening was really fun because I did a lot of that with the corporate stuff and you know I got to do that a little bit with the consultant. Just, you know, help design and set up restaurants and I really enjoyed that. Um, you know, you just kind of, with corporate restaurants, just kind of get bored doing the day-to-day stuff because it's like anything extra I'm doing here is just supporting some corporation and it's not really doing me any good. So, um, so I got fired a lot for my corporate jobs. So you know they want you to work 50 hours and I'm like you know I create successful stores and a good team environment and people love the jobs and we, you know we hit all our numbers and people like, why aren't you working 50 hours?
Speaker 2:I'm like I don't need to yeah, everything's happening the way it should like. I'm not going to be here for the sake of being here, no.
Speaker 1:So I'm like you know. So I went to college, then I didn't start at the U until I was 28. And so I kind of had it cushioned, some of my restaurants I was running and like, ran a good operation.
Speaker 2:So if you don't need it, why go spend money to make money when you're already making money without spending money? Yeah, so I'm like, no, I, I think I'm gonna go to college now, which is like I think more people should take that into account. Like I was talking to um someone semi recently and like, oh, I like took to you, like no, it's actually one of my friends. She uh has a daughter that I mean, it was the typical kid of like oh, when I graduate, I'm getting out of here, I'm gonna do my own thing. Blah, blah, you can't keep me like. All right, whatever, cool, like graduate from high school. If you want to live here 500 bucks a month in rent, unless you want to go to school, then we'll cover your rent. Um, choices yours. She's like, no, screw you, I'm moving out of here.
Speaker 2:So ends up moving in with like three or four of her friends in a two bedroom apartment and they're all working. I think she was working at costco, which is like pretty good side of things, and she kind of looked at what like I mean just like the trajectory of her life and like what I was looking at, and she's like, hey, mom, I'm gonna come move in and go back to school, it's like, okay, cool, like because, like I always like when people I mean any time in life where you can voluntarily make a decision, instead of someone saying here's the next step, or go do this, or go do that, it makes it more impactful, it makes it more meaningful. You're gonna try so much more because you actually care about it, compared to here's the next thing that, like, I have to do, that, I don't want to do.
Speaker 1:This is just what you do, yes, what you do with your life. No, I would. I. There's no way I could have done well in college when, like right out of high school, like I'm surprised.
Speaker 2:I like I made it work, knowing myself. Now I was like maybe to go do something else for a minute, come back to it oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was. I was ready when I was 20. I'm like, all right, let's check this out. And I did great. I loved it.
Speaker 2:I'm like I wouldn't have loved it before you gotta appreciate it for what it's worth and if you, sometimes it takes a little bit of time, like a fine wine.
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 2:So you go to school. I mean, like what did that play in your decision-making process? I mean, were you still just like hey, I kind of want to use this to be more on this food and bed and restaurant side, or did you have different plans from there?
Speaker 1:you know, kind of my goal has always been on my own business. Um, you know, my, my parents owned their own business and you know I always told them they owned a body shop like paint and body shop and so, um, so I grew up working there a lot too, uh, working on cars, and I I love that.
Speaker 2:Um, so I do as a hobby I was gonna say if anybody that follows you on instagram knows that you enjoy cars, oh yeah my third toys.
Speaker 1:You know they're fun for me. So I but I grew up around that a lot and grew around, grew around, uh, uh, my parents own, you know, a business and and they had a couple um businesses going to and so they're always busy, Um, but I but I love that, like it's. It was just really cool to see, like bear in charge of their lives and what they were doing. And yeah, they worked a lot but, um, but it was awesome and I was like Mike, I want to. Can I buy this business from you? Like, can we like work something out here? And they're like no, you don't want to do this shit. Like this sucks. Yeah, I'm like, well, I'm tired of working for other people. So that was off the plate. You know I was pretty bummed about that.
Speaker 1:But going to the? U I just wanted to go, just to go. Yeah, just, you know, gone to college and you know I just I went into business management, entrepreneurship, and you know I learned some things, but a lot of it I had mostly learned on my, you know, on my journey through working on restaurants and corporate stuff. You get so much training with with corporate jobs, which is one bonus to it, um, but it was just a good experience it was. I had a lot of fun doing it, so, um, it was pretty easy for me at that point.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's like nice Cause, like if someone were to put me back in school, I'd be like, so I have like four classes. I it's like nice because, like, if someone were to put me back in school, I'd be like, so I have like four classes, I have like three homework assignments and I just got to be ready for tests. Like I'm in, like are you kidding me? I used to complain about this Like compared to like what I'm expected to do.
Speaker 2:It. I mean any sort of job or any sort of thing that can, like give you a living wage, like, yeah, that sounds, that sounds really nice, but then also gives you like that mental space to be like what do I want to do? What does life look like? What kind of business do I want to start in understanding more of like the details of it? But then it's hard because, like I mean, everything you learn in school is such in a silo and like such a theory compared to like what you've been used to of operating and opening restaurants, like that's the actuals and like the actual experience of doing it, which is never as simple as a classroom will let you make it seem to be right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like uh when I took over whole foods, one of my departments was prepared foods and the previous manager had hired all these kids out of culinary school. Everybody wants to be a chef and that's like, well, you guys gotta clean, you guys gotta make stuff to this recipe, you guys gotta do dishes like, you guys gotta do all this shit. And they're like what we? Just everybody wants to be. You know, chef, I want to make this dish and like, culinary kids were not the ones to hire. So if you want to get in the culinary industry, go work at a restaurant.
Speaker 2:For guys Go wash some dishes, go bus some tables and then appreciate all of the things that build up to it, Because it's not just do the fun stuff and hand everything else to everybody else.
Speaker 1:See if that's what you really want to do. And in fact one of the restaurants we opened with a consultant and this guy had a bunch of money, decided he wanted a fine dining restaurant, went to culinary school and we got that thing open and he just he couldn't handle it, couldn't handle the pressure of the restaurant.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:He's like I've got millions of dollars opening these businesses. This would be easy. I'm like good luck, let me know how it goes. Yeah, so he's not running that restaurant anymore. Somebody else took over. That makes sense.
Speaker 2:It made it work Well because so my, actually I'm going to go visit him this weekend. He lives in Portland, in Willamette Valley. He's been a chef his entire life, for the most part, and but also it's fun too. So they live with lab of valley and your response makes you, you know that. You know what it. I mean. It's wine country a lot, tons of pinots, tons of shards and hops and hops, yes, and so he'll always so. I mean him and his boyfriend are, I mean, wine enthusiasts through and through, but he also for I mean his restaurants and work has always purchased wine through it. So it's fun, we go taste. It's like, oh, come to the, come to this room. Here's the reserve bottles, here's all of like just totally red carpet treatment, which is fun.
Speaker 2:But his nephew named jonathan, he went to oregon state and became an engineer, graduated and then he got done with school. He's like, actually I think I want to go work in a restaurant and be like j Nice and so, sure enough, like goes and works. I mean it's like a really nice restaurant in downtown Portland called Le Pigeon, but I mean starts washing dishes and starts bar, like I mean just, I mean the hard, like the shitty part of it, but then now he's finally like up to like I mean sous chef and like actually cooking, and he's like, yeah, I like this a lot more than, oh, it's what I was doing, that's fun, I mean, especially in the middle of chaos, a big rush, and you've got just a line of people and you're looking at your tickets and you're just like, wow, we're never getting out of this, we're gonna.
Speaker 1:This is our life now. Yeah. But then you see it to that end ticket and it is the most rewarding thing and you're, and it's done, everybody's, everybody can breathe. We're done. Oh yeah, we did it like it's like it's done, everybody can breathe. We're done. Oh yeah, we did it. It's like a game, it's so fun. It's like well, see you tomorrow. Yeah, let's do it again. It's not for everybody. No, it takes a certain person to do it and that's a lifestyle and it's fun. Talking to other service industry people, we try to plan meetings and stuff and people like, oh, that's a hold it. Well, I'm more so, we're still open. So like doesn't matter.
Speaker 2:What do you think people want to do when they're off? Yeah, I'll have a beer and a good meal with their friends. And guess what I do? I give them that beer and a good meal.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's like you know, talking to other industry people that are hanging out here today, it's like we're trying to plan like some party for somebody and it's like, well, every day is a Friday for us, so what's the slowest day we can do this party? Let's do it Monday, yeah.
Speaker 2:That'll work for everybody. Oh yeah, so you go to the? U, you have kind of this time to take a break to be at school, which is the best part of school, but I mean, what happened after that? I mean, at what point were you like, all right, I think I know what I want to do for my own business and it's going to be this. Yeah, I mean it's.
Speaker 1:I'd probably say it was high school. It was when I discovered craft beer and and Corona's to trick a lot of Corona's and I just had this like idea, like wow, I want to, I want to open my own brewery. And you know, when I was 28, about the time I started college, I started home brewing too and winemaking, grow my own Chardonnay grapes at home and growing up for a long time used to just make wine every year and I just put them in beer.
Speaker 2:But Like eh we're, we're gonna dump it all into here instead yeah, and so just really got into it.
Speaker 1:you know, I spent a lot of time, um, just dialing in recipes and, uh, I took over my. My whole basement ended up like ripping out all the carpet in my basement, putting epoxy floors and standstill steel sinks and extra sinks, and I had like two, three homebrew systems at one time. And I don't know if you saw that kegerator that's in that room next to the bar. Yes, but there's. I think there's eight taps on that thing, but that was in my basement.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:And I have friends that come in here and sit at the bar like, is that the kegerator you had in your basement?
Speaker 2:I'm like, yeah, that come in here and sit at the bar like is that the kegerator you had in your basement like?
Speaker 1:yeah, like yeah it's come, it comes with me, obviously. Yeah, so he you know he brought that here. I still had a bunch of stuff a bunch of beers and stuff left over when we first opened and I told him, hey, try this stuff out like. And people are like why don't you bring your homebrew system here and like let's start stuff. So that's that's what we do now. Every friday you can try homebrew batches. Pretty much, you know, small batches for my brewers, but anyway.
Speaker 2:But I guess during that time when you're starting because again, like you have this whole period of exploring from, like the ripe old age of 18 till, let's say, 20 when you start school I mean, was there any sort of beers you gravitated towards or what was that learning process like, because I can't imagine it was just success from the beginning?
Speaker 1:You know we were, we were so limited here with beer, you know, and it was, it was hard to get anything high point or anything like really interesting. We just, I mean we've had some good beer. I mean we've got some great breweries that have been around for a while. They're pretty big now and pretty much all sold and no longer really local. Um, but we've, you know, we've always had good beer here, but it's always been just kind of just simple, nothing like really nothing really out there, nothing really too interesting. Occasionally some of our breweries did do that some really interesting stuff and then they stopped doing it.
Speaker 1:So I just I would travel around and and drink beer everywhere I go. And I remember actually here I was hanging out at a friend's house and, um, he had a friend that was in town from Oregon or Washington, somewhere in the Pacific Northwest. Yeah, I'm drinking a full suspension and you know this is 20 something years ago, it's 4%, and I'm like this beer is 20 something years ago, it's four percent, and I'm like this beer is so hoppy, it's so good, and I still love full suspensions great, great beer classer.
Speaker 1:But he's like, try this, hands me a red hook esb and blew my fucking mind. I'm just, I'm like what is the beer tastes like this holy shit, so like just elevated my, my palate. I'm like, what is the beer tastes like this Holy shit, so like just elevated my, my palate. And I'm like, how do I get this beer? So I ended up going up to Oregon, going to Washington it was near Seattle so went to the, went to the brewery, checked it out, like just really kind of went after it. I'm like, like, how do I, how do I brew this? So I brewed a lot of that, brewed a lot of esb at home and, um, you know, that was like my early 20s when that happened.
Speaker 1:And so I did all this discovery of all these beers. I'm like, fuck, we can't. Nobody's brewing all the stuff I want to drink. I have hit root myself. If no one else is doing it, you're gonna have to do it yourself. Yeah, and luckily a lot of people had that same idea. So now we've got a lot of great little local breweries all over Salt Lake and you know, kind of spreading out all over Utah and that's amazing and I'm like, if I can go and everybody's kind of doing their own thing, and I love it. We have so much good beer here in Utah.
Speaker 2:And it's so funny because it's like this, almost like it's so contradictory, because obviously utah population you can always assume half of people don't drink and taboo around it all and also weird liquor laws, but at the same time breweries keep popping up and they all keep doing like really, really well, and it's so. It's fun to see how much success there is, how much, because I mean it was fun, like in the same way that you talk about Washington, like Seattle is where I really started to appreciate beer, because I really didn't start like drinking until college-ish Shout out Mormonism. But when I did it was like I mean I was again Mormonism. I was like just wanted anything sweet, nothing too bitter. So I'd be like, oh, let me get a Heff, let me get a Blue and let me get a. That's the gateway beer.
Speaker 1:Let me get a blue and let me get a.
Speaker 2:I mean gateway beer. It is the gateway beer, especially in Utah. If I wanted to open up a brewery and just get people and be like here, take this, do you've never had this before? Great, then just come closer and closer. But that was the first place Like there was. I'll never forget this.
Speaker 2:There was one time so I met this friend there via my partner up meeting him, and it was one of those like this is so fucking awkward, what are we doing? But then at the end of like damn it, you guys were right and so and he had he's from montana, was it went to the udub and had a bunch of friends from there. He just kind of like be like hey, like we're gonna hang out I know you don't have any friends, come hang out. And there was one time that like hey, we're it's game three of whatever. I think that would have been like what? 2017? I think it was a year before anyway. Um, so we go to buffalo wild wings and we just tell the there's probably like 20 of us at this long table and we're like, hey, just whenever you come back, just have two space dust in your hand and we'll figure it out from there.
Speaker 2:Nice, needless to say, everybody pretty much like borderline blacked out that night because we just kept like chugging space dust, like it was PBR, and but that was the time I was like, oh, what is this? Like that's a, that's called an IPA and that's like don't drink too much. Anyway, you can imagine how it goes from here, probably. Yeah. Then there's always like because I mean, they have a liquor store here, I mean, and Elysian is an amazing brewery, and so like I'll always take a picture of it and send it to those friends and be like remember that one time. And everybody's like, how could we forget? So, yeah, I mean Washington is another place that I explored and understood and appreciated beer and coffee. But so I love that you have this experience of like, oh well, there's beer I want. I can't have it, I'm going to make it and it'd be fun to do this, but I mean, at what point did you bridge those two together? And we're like you know what Time to do it myself.
Speaker 1:On a bigger scale, I would say, yeah, I mean, it's it always been kind of on the back of my mind. I'm like someday, someday, I'm going to do my own thing. And you know, then my son was born kind of my mid-30s and I'm just like I can't keep working for other people. The corporate thing is just boring to me and there's no real vision there. They're not really doing anything to make the world better, they're just trying to make money and I struggled with that. And then I'm working for somebody else on his.
Speaker 1:You know, the sultan I worked for is, you know he's a fraud and it's like, oh, this sucks working for this guy, like you know. So I, I was just like I have to, I have to open my own business. And you know, I I got a, um, a poker game of friends I've been going to for 15 years or something cool and and I'd always bring my homebrew. And people are like, finally, one of my friends is like dude, you need to open your own brewery, you do this. And he kind of like started pushing me and he was like he's like whatever, whatever you need help with. Because he had opened his own, uh, business doing sushi. He's like whatever you need help with, because he had opened his own business doing sushi. He had like a sushi catering business for a little while and so he kind of knew like getting things started, and so he helped me. He's like let me help you out.
Speaker 1:And so he kind of pushed me to get started and so I started getting things going, got the LLC going and I'm like all right, I'm just going to start looking at properties. And you know, and a couple of my friends, you know, they backed me, they're like well, we'll pitch in with you and let's do this, let's make it happen. So I start shopping around and I was down on state. There's this place across the street from Epic Brewing. This building's changed hands so many times over the years and we we were looking at that. I'm like you know we might be able to make this work, but like, no, going into an industry I don't want to, I don't want to be an asshole or anything to other breweries and try to, you know, take anything from them. So, um, because here in Utah we need, we all need each other, we all need all the breweries.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, and like that's the fun thing. That's been like because not only do I see how many people have worked together at so many different places, but then hearing how much everybody's willing to help each other, and because it's I mean it's a community, and then I mean in talking with other people in other places about it, it's like I mean, people don't talk to each other, people don't want to help each other, but here it's very different. So I love that there's like this support network of people that are willing to drop whatever they're doing, like oh, you're so-and-so's broken, or you're thinking like I'll be there in five minutes and let's figure this out together.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I mean it's beer Keto's. Like I love going there and seeing my friends. I'm friends with the brewers and owners and it's a totally different thing with business and especially in this market. Like there's camaraderie in other beer markets around the country but nothing like Utah's. So it's been awesome, it's been an awesome thing to be a part of.
Speaker 1:And you know, and we even sell a ton of different uh breweries or uh yeah breweries, uh beers, yeah, um, high point. We we don't have a canning line yet. We're working on that but, um, with our silly draft laws we're limited to 5%. So people want strong beers. Like we bring them in because there's so many good ones around.
Speaker 1:So, um, but back to originally looking at that location. Um, down on state street. You know, we looked at a few and that one was kind of the one that were like ramps, cheap and kind of worked out for what we're looking for, and now we were opening a kitchen. There's a lot of money, it's a lot of work and I was like I'm like you know what? We're just going to go tap room food trucks. Keep it real simple.
Speaker 1:Um, I'm going to call the owner, epic, to ask if it was cool. I'm like cool for over here, like you know that Anax and Sugarhouse, we're going to sell it, so I'd kind of forgotten about this place. You know they opened and you know it was good, food was good and whatever, but just I didn't really remember it, just never came back and come to find out it had been like five iterations over five years and Just I didn't really remember it Just never came back, yeah, and come to find out it had been like five iterations over five years and geez, nobody could really figure out the formula here. So everybody talked about the curse there was a curse here and all this stuff. And so he's like, yeah, we're going to sell that. And I'm like, oh shit, like this just got real, yeah, and in your head you're like oh shit, like it's just got real, yeah.
Speaker 2:And in your head you're like I know exactly where that is. Feels like cause. I mean again, if, like knowing way less than you do about everything that you do, you put the state street property and this property head to head, I'm like yeah, like of course of course this.
Speaker 1:I'm like, yeah, sugar houses, like that's my dream is to have a brew pub and sugar house. But I like that's my dream is to have a a brew pub and sugar house. But I didn't think that was ever gonna happen. Yeah, you know, there's like the money that would have to go into that and um and trying to find the right property. So, luckily, luckily, these guys did the groundwork for me and didn't really want to keep doing it. So so it worked out for me totally. So I so I came in and it was a fine dining Italian restaurant at the time, and so I came in here and had dinner, checked out the space and I'm like, all right, guess, I'm opening a restaurant too, so let's do it. So my friends weren't too keen on the restaurant. Part of my like. Well, it's my background.
Speaker 2:So yeah, let's do it. I will show you that I can make this work.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, so, yeah, we went for it and then. But there was a catch, like If we wanted the bar license, we had six weeks to open.
Speaker 2:Of course there's some sort of wrench in everything that you have to. Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:So it's like, do we go restaurant license? And just you know, restaurant licenses are so complicated, especially for a brewery. Oh, you guys got to get food. You know kids are in here. And it's just like I can't stand up with your beer. Like I'm like I don't want a restaurant license. I can't stand up with your beer. Like I'm like I don't want a restaurant license. We want to be a bar. We want it to be fun and welcoming when we'd be able to walk around with your beer and not have to order food if you don't want to. Yeah, so, um, so we went for it. I'm like challenge accepted, let's go. And you know it was. It was real nice Cause um Epic's head brewer came down. Um did a brew day with me and kind of showed me the system.
Speaker 2:So cause that? Cause it sounds like they they kind of just like right, we'll leave it here, yeah, fun.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you can, you can buy this property from us. And here you go and they're just kind of like, you know, they've offered that it a shot and I'm like, all right, let's go. And no, so I was brewing on that system and then I, working on the kitchen, like I came up with the initial menu and it's cooking in the. I'd brew all day as a come cook, all night, damn. And then my buddy helped hire the bar staff and kind of helped, um, get that going, but I was still bartending too. So I was doing all the things and we got open in six weeks and we still didn't have our food quite where I wanted it, so I was just giving it away. I'd come up to the bar, like what you guys want to try, like what do you need to give me some feedback? Yeah, like, and it was a hit, people loved it and you know, and we, and then it stuck, so was finally, I finally got a badass kitchen team and they were able to take over and you kind of you know I did my team autonomy. So it's like hey, these, I used to have these, these tie wings on the menu. They're super high prep and really just a lot of work and they were so good. But my my team was just like, like, these are so hard to make, can we like, simplify or like and come up with other flavors? And so I kind of let my my team kind of formulate their own recipes and try some other stuff that ended up working really well. So so it's cool.
Speaker 1:It's been a, it's been a big team effort in here and you know, the past few years I've been able to step away from the brew house, which I miss. I miss the, uh, I miss brewing beer. Um, but I've got some awesome brewers now to take care of everything cool, got an awesome kitchen team and you know, I I bartended for a little bit. Now I'll pour a beer every once in a while when I'm back there. But we've we've grown so much now we've got some really nice cocktails and everything I'm not gonna. I don't know what they're'm back there, but we've, we've grown so much and now we've got some really nice cocktails and everything I'm not going to. I don't know what they're making back there.
Speaker 2:You guys know how to do it better than I do. I've got other things to do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I come up to the register. A guest walks up. I'm going to, you know, I'm going to help them, of course, and I'm sitting there like I'm a new kid.
Speaker 2:They just see you walk around by yourself and start pushing. They're like are you sure you?
Speaker 1:work here. You're like yeah, I own the place, but I just can't remember how to. Yeah, I don't do this very often. That's why I tell them, like I don't do this very often, sorry, but I'm not going to leave anybody hanging.
Speaker 2:Totally no-transcript a part of their own programming. And even you, I mean I can't remember who was telling you a story, but you've kind of feel like this like ringleader of kind of like these sugar house businesses and everybody that comes together.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. So everybody kind of looks to me like what's what's Chad doing over there and like so that's, that's cool. We're all friends, we all like to help each other out and promote each other's businesses and you know we want everybody to be successful around here. I've got some awesome small businesses around here, totally.
Speaker 2:So. So I mean, what kind?
Speaker 1:of beers I mean is Hopkins most known for. Where do you see kind of the new batches coming through or new beers that you want to work on? You know construction with the road has slowed Sugarhouse down the past couple of years. So I mean, we're still doing well, but we're not selling out of beer like we used to Like. We used to have to bring in guest tasks, we were just out and so we've.
Speaker 1:We've got some time now, so I've had my brewer working on some lagers, because lagers take at least a month to condition and um really hit their peak where they're supposed to taste like, and so so I'm like make some lagers, like let's go. So so we're still making, you know, some sours and fruit ipas and stuff like that, uh that people really like to drink. But you know, as, as brewers, we we like our lagers. So I think we have like four on right now. So but we were able to give them the time to condition and um.
Speaker 1:But now we're, you know, for our the last two anniversaries we did um, we collabed with other breweries. Um. For our five year anniversary, we collaborated with uh Bewilder and we brewed a classic West coast IPA, like I wanted and um, then this last year, for our sixth year, we did a, a, a right ipa, with fisher brewed over there and they canned it and you know. So these are all those two beers are all homebrew recipes of mine and you know, send it to the brewers like, yeah, cool, let's do it, like yeah, so we're, we really want to get into canning, we really want that, uh, creative freedom. You know, it's just, that's really difficult with. You know, we gotta hit five percent, so it's. You know it's hard for me to call some beers ipa when it's not really an ipa.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was have to warn people in town.
Speaker 2:They're like oh, get that on, drive like hold on yeah, let me warn you before this happens it's gonna be a light ipa. You're gonna get half the flavor and the same cost. Like get something in a can, like what? Like I don't understand, it doesn't make sense, but just do it. Yeah, it's essentially a pillow.
Speaker 2:I mean it's so awesome that you've been able to hire the right people and a lot of those have been people that you've met along the way but then also, just freeing them up, the kitchen staff are like hey, oh, this is too hard to make. It takes too much time. Make too takes too much time. Like cool, give me an alternative and we'll do that. And similarly with your brewers, I mean like hey, quick, this sounds fun, let's do that. But like it's also hard when, again, like you have this like five percent limit on anything you can do and so being able to be like all right, we're going to take that away now and now you can make even more fun things right so just continuing to free people up to be their own creative genius.
Speaker 2:But then it's also got to be fun to see how I mean some of your homebrew recipes have become. I mean these now collaborator collaborations with these big like other brewers around here, but also just to see how many people like enjoy these things that you've been making forever and come back for more.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, that's great. And then some of my friends come in and like, oh, I remember, I remember this beer when you're brewing it back home and it's, it's always really fun. Yeah, but yeah, and then with our bar too, we use, um, we've got some awesome cocktails. Uh, we've got a great cocktail program and a ton of local distilleries. So we use local as much as possible and, you know, give my bartenders greater freedom to make, uh, whatever kind of cocktails they want to put on the menu. And so it's a big, it's a big team here. You know, what do we want to do? What do you guys want to try? You know, and it's nice, coming from the corporate world, like you make this like the.
Speaker 2:Here's the recipe, here's the rules, here's the sop. Like here's everything you have to do step by step, and instead be like I'm not gonna be that person, but what do you guys feel like doing? Yeah, I kind of like this, but great, go do it, make it work.
Speaker 1:we it work. We still keep the consistency in our current recipes and what we're making. But then it's like somebody's like can we try this? Yeah, let's do it. Can we bring this in? Yeah, let's try it out, why not?
Speaker 2:Yeah, if you're not innovating, you're dying Might as well. Work with everybody that sees and interacts with people every day, compared to you coming in as this overlord twirling his mustache, saying, ah no, but this will make us more money, and blah, blah, blah. And yeah, those never do well, anybody who comes to me is like well, I have this idea for this business that could make money. I'm like are you passionate about it? Is there something you have to do? They're like well, no, but it could make money. I'm like you more likely to fail than if it's something you actually want to do and love to do. Like that will. Like. Everybody feels passion, everybody feels, um, that authenticity behind it, and I feel like this is a good dedication to that, because it's it's not like you just decided oh, there's an opportunity to make a brewery, I'm gonna go do that.
Speaker 1:You're like I've been doing this for decades and now I finally have took my like I trusted myself to do it on my own yeah, exactly I mean, that's just I didn't do this to make money like and being a restaurant we don't make a ton of money anyway, so I'm just I love what I'm doing.
Speaker 1:That's a lot of fun and my my team's happy. I take good care of them and you know you just come in here and it's that's a good time. My team's all always happy to be here than other industry people were here like I think that's.
Speaker 2:That's when you know that you've done something great, when people who are in it come here to spend their time. One of my favorite signs of a good dive bar is the waiters, servers, whoever are off, and then they just grab a seat and sit in the bar and start hanging out. So I feel like it's similar to that. People are like oh yeah, I make beer, yeah, I work at a restaurant, but like we're going to Hopkins to enjoy my time off.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, yeah, and you see my team come in on their days off, come hang out. I'm like, all right, I'm doing something, yeah you're doing something right, you don't hate me.
Speaker 2:Good, I mean, obviously you mentioned canning and getting some higher IPA beer, but then also being able to I mean sell things outside of here more. I mean outside of that. What are some of the plans you have for Hopkins?
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's. The next big step is get a canning line open up, that creative freedom. You know kind of have a want to have a grab and go cooler up front. People want to come in and take some stuff to go and just have it ready to go, like this Pico Rico we just drank. I would love to have that canned, be able to take that home. But you know I don't want to get into distribution. Really, you know that kind of loses its touch, its value, what it means to me. You know I don't want it sitting on the shelf warm at the dabs or you know I just you miss that interaction and so we'll we'll send some stuff out to beer bars and you know, like slack water, slack water's great, yeah, because they train their team and people know their beers there and that's why I want my beer to go, if it has to go, be sold from outside of here, but we'll try to do as much as we can from inside here yeah, you can trust your baby to only so many people, yeah.
Speaker 2:and because, yeah, I mean like once I mean distribution is like a whole nother business and pain point, and I mean I wouldn't want to do that too. But then also I mean you look at all the people I mean the brewers and that have gotten big enough if they kind of lost their soul, and that's usually that first step towards that. And then you get so big that all of a sudden you are that corporate guy. Now you're like, oh, I lost, I became the thing I set out to conquer.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and we don't want to go there. You know I've had a lot of people real estate people and landlords reach out to me like come check out this property. We'd love for you to build something here, like, and we'll invest all this money into making what you need it to be to put your brew house in. And people really want me to open chains and I'm like that's not, it's not what I wanted.
Speaker 2:Done this before no, thank you.
Speaker 1:No, like it will never be as good as this. So and I, you know I can't be at all places at the same time and what's really important to something like this is owner presence, like I got to be here. I mean I don't have to be, but I should be here.
Speaker 2:I like being here, yeah, so which is a good sign, like if you had once found yourself at a place. You're like, oh, I don't really like this anymore. Like then don't, yeah, but it is a good sign that you're doing the right thing. You're like, oh, I like being here, I like being present, I like showing people beer, I like handing people food if they want to try something new, or just I mean, because if you're not here, you don't know what the feel is like, what the customers are like, what people do want, right, and then judgment calls, but until you're in the middle of it all, then you're just kind of outside of it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's just, I don't know you get so disconnected from your own business Like I've seen it happen to other people that's like, and how their team portrays them and it's. You know, I never want to be, never wanted to be like that. No, so deal. And I think one thing that is really cool that we do here is really focus on local. You know, I like to say we're hyper local. Um, you know, everything from the food to the ingredients in our beer is grown locally as much as possible what are some of your biggest suppliers?
Speaker 1:that you use on everything. Um, so for our beer, um, it's mostly grown up near logan and solstice malt he, he, uh, james is his name he opened his own malt house pretty close to the airport. Um, and he picks up grain from all over Utah and and malts it himself and delivers it and and so it's. It's just awesome. And then you, I need to take that same grain and you take it to after you've brewed with the grain. You take that same grain and take it to the farmer and the they feed their cattle or whatever with it and like and some places there's a brewery that just opened up in Logan. He's getting his grain from this farmer and then he's, after it's spent, take it, takes it back to the same farmer like just circle of life oh yeah.
Speaker 2:I think this beer, I think the malt we got from this is actually from that.
Speaker 1:Anyway, that's funny yeah, so we use a lot of little local companies for our stuff. Luckily there's some big ones that help do a lot of stuff, like Nicholas and Co's, where we get most of our food from and they're local and so they have a lot of local little businesses.
Speaker 1:but we use a lot of different little bakeries for each kind of specific thing we want to get for our breads, um, and then we use a lot of uh. Caputo's has like a business that brings in a lot of different stuff too. Yes, we use them a lot, um, but I just for me, it's so important to bring in local, sustainable stuff, like our burger. It's grass-fed, the cows are raised here in Utah and you know it's better on the environment, and then when you have humane-raised meat, it tastes better too.
Speaker 2:Yep. So you can't make good food without good ingredients and also you can't make good food without good ingredients. I mean you can, and also you can't make good beer without good ingredients. And usually the closer it is and I mean especially when you know the person and you know what they're doing to do to create whatever ingredients it might be that's goes better than. Where did this come from? Who made this? How is it? What's in it? What's not in it? There's a whole level of trust that starts to disappear. And also like another detail is like the art on your wall always changes, because it's always local artists that I mean want to promote their own work that you've given that space for. So it's like not only is it just in the food, but it's, I mean, everything from the like I mentioned, like the jazz nights and all the programming that you put on to. I mean everything hanging from the walls is local things oh yeah, and we don't.
Speaker 1:You know, we change that once a month. We have a whole bunch of artists that come in and set up and we don't take any commission for it. It's just like, hey, it's cool to have a place to show your stuff off and if you sell something, great, like, very cool. So yeah, we love supporting the artists, the music. We have a ton of local music here three to four days a week, so there's always something going on here.
Speaker 2:There's always a reason to come to Hopkins.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, if it's even just the beer and the food alone, awesome, but then also if you need a reason to listen to some music or have some sort of event, also great to have here. Because, like I said in the beginning, one thing I love about Hopkins is it's like such a either like double threat or even triple threat, because you have, I mean, grape Year check. You have your own food in your own kitchen, you have control over that's amazing Check. I mean patio if you want to go outside. Also a lot of great events, I mean it's hard to find a weak point here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a good place to have. Yeah, we have something going every day, never boring, no.
Speaker 2:Well, I want to wrap up with the two questions I always ask everybody at the end of each episode. Number one if you could have someone on the Small Lake City podcast and hear more about their story, who would you want to hear from, oh?
Speaker 1:You know, one of my best friends is David Tastemasters. He does a podcast. Is David taste masters, he does a podcast and and his podcast is focused on a lot of um brewers and distillers and he's a lot of fun to talk to. I always love hearing podcasters interview podcasters, cause it can be really fun. Yes, and so so he's. He's good. Did he's kind of changing um his whole dynamic on how he's doing things?
Speaker 1:but he's also the head brewer at keto's, so, um, yeah, we're total beer nerds and just love our community, so, um, but he's kind of a big deal with the brewing community and I think he'd be a lot of fun to have on the show oh yeah, because I mean it's fun to talk about people like their specific beer, but be like all right, let's look at the whole landscape, what like, especially someone who, I mean, knows the industry here super well and knows beer super well.
Speaker 2:To be like what? What should I know? Or what do I not know that I should know? So no, definitely reach out to me. It sounds like a, because I think I've talked about him before, but fascinating. Dude, and also just ketos in general, has been another great brewery that's come through in the past five or six years and really I mean made a big impact and made some really cool beer too yeah, david.
Speaker 2:David's done some, some cool stuff over there lately, so cool. And then, lastly, if people want to find out more about Hopkins or see programming, where's the best place to find information?
Speaker 1:I'd say our Instagram. I do our social media so I try to post on there daily and just post as much information as possible. We've got our calendar and we've got all our events on there.
Speaker 2:Do All our events on there. Deal Then come by. What's the specific address?
Speaker 1:I know it's on 21st South and something it's 1048 East, 2100 South, got a big spiky ball on the top of the building from the 50s. It's pretty cool yeah.
Speaker 2:It's an iconic location. I mean, even the basement has signs of the furniture store that used to be here and all of the previous things. But come by, grab, grab some food, have some beer. We got a big parking lot in the back too so, yes, there's parking spaces to have, so you don't have to worry about the I mean construction that somehow never ends but might end one day, I don't know.
Speaker 2:Should be done by september, they say, so we'll see so that'll probably mean it's like done at like 2027, uh, but I mean hopefully it's done in september for everybody and you're safe yeah, yeah, we're.
Speaker 1:All of us businesses are around here.
Speaker 2:We're just, we're ready, like all right, let's let's be done here, especially like how many years longer it's gone than probably anyway we could talk about. I could talk about traffic and construction, utah in general, but it's nuts. No chad, this has been great. Thank you so much for creating this space. It's awesome. It's well welcomed. But keep doing what you're doing and, yeah, I'll keep coming around.
Speaker 1:Cool. Thanks, man, appreciate you having me on.
Speaker 2:No, thank you Right on.
