USA, MA: Widowmaker Brewing set to open its new brew pub in Brighton

Ryan Lavery and Colin Foley started brewing craft beers in a basement while hanging out with friends. That passion project has grown into so much more, The Patriot Ledger reported on February 24.

Lavery and Foley are the co-founders of Widowmaker Brewing, which opened on Wood Road in Braintree on Sept. 23, 2017. Six years later, they are barreling ahead to open a second brick-and-mortar location in the former Brato Brewhouse space at 190 North Beacon St., Brighton. The 5,000-square-foot brew pub will house a full restaurant, a taproom and an outdoor patio. The team behind the Bone and Bread food truck will run the kitchen.

"My partners and I were looking for expansion opportunities for about three years," Lavery said. "We looked into different areas, restaurants that might have been closing, and we had a couple of deals in place up and down the South Shore but they fell through. Nothing came to fruition. This was our sixth or seventh deal that we got pretty deep on."

Lavery said he’s aiming for a late spring opening and expects the new location to add another 1,000 barrels of production to Widowmaker’s operation. The Braintree location, which occupies about 8,000 square feet, produces 5,000 barrels a year. Its flagship IPA, Blue Comet, won a silver medal in the 2022 World Beer Cup.

"The large scale will still be happening in Braintree," Lavery said, adding he will also continue to run Widowmaker’s popular summer beer garden at Kilroy Square in downtown Quincy.

Lavery grew up in Weymouth and now lives in Hanover with his wife and two kids. Foley is a Holbrook native and lives in Weymouth with his wife and two dogs. They met playing in a men’s hockey league. Their third partner is Kenny Semcken, of Plymouth, who bought into the company this past January.

Widowmaker began as a "little hobby" in Lavery’s basement where they would brew everything from pale ales to stouts and porters. Back then, Lavery was in pharmaceutical sales; Foley in finance.

"Colin and I did not want to live our corporate lives anymore," Lavery said. "Both of us were living in Excel and reports, and we didn’t want that."

And so, with dreams of brewing perfect pints, they both quit their jobs to pursue hoppier days – and the risk paid off. Widowmaker’s beer business continues to surge. Now, the Braintree site has 14 full-time employees, about 20 bartenders and, "beer going up and down the Eastern Seaboard."

After its opening, Widowmaker – named for any work that takes someone away from the people they love – quickly became a popular hangout. Lavery calls it the "little pirate ship on the hill." The interior is a wide-open industrial space with big, comfortable communal seating. "It’s a mad house on the weekends, definitely a different vibe from most things in Braintree … We built this little rock ‘n’ roll persona for ourselves."

The mood for Brighton will be slightly different, more "gothic ski lodge," as Lavery calls it.

"It will be a mature version of Braintree," he said, with plenty of IPAs and a focus on growing Widowmaker’s lager portfolio, as well as some special brews to mark the opening.

Widowmaker has long honored its local roots with beer names that celebrate the South Shore’s history and culture. Kilroy Kölsch, a pilsner with notes of citrus rind and a crisp, is a nod to Quincy’s Kilroy Square – which in turn pays homage to a World War II saying with roots in the Quincy Shipyard. Other examples: City of Presidents Pale Ale; Quarry Juice for Quincy’s quarries; and Deadly Gardens, a nod to the Weymouth pizza restaurant, Denly Gardens.

"Braintree has been amazing for us," Foley said. "We grew up on the South Shore, and we’re happy to bring this to Boston to showcase our beer to more people."

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