USA, NY: Fidens Brewing Co. opening a brewpub in Albany’s warehouse district

Fidens Brewing Co., which opened in a Colonie industrial park in late 2018 but has outgrown its ability to serve retail customers at the location, will open a brewpub in the coming months in Albany's warehouse district, a co-owner was quoted as saying by the Times Union on February 13.

Also called Fidens Brewing, the operation takes over an 11,000-square-foot restaurant space at 897 Broadway, next to Wolff's Biergarten and across from the restaurant The Copper Crow. It becomes part of a neighborhood with six existing food-and-drink establishments. A seventh, Lionheart on the Green, an extension of the venerable Lionheart Pub near Lark Street, is projected to open in the spring at 952 Broadway. Yet another beer-centric eatery, the Albany locations of Druthers Brewing, sits a little farther north on Broadway, and a cafe, wine bar and brewery satellite are planned for Slip 12, the multiuse redevelopment of the Fuck Finn property.

The 897 Broadway building, once the longtime home of a moving company, was handsomely renovated in 2017 into an industrial-style restaurant space. It has been vacant for almost three years, since the failure at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020 of a business called no-ware pint & plate, which closed about six months after changing its name from Vintage, the restaurant and wine bar that opened the converted space at the end of January in 2018.

The five partners who co-own Fidens are leasing the building from developer Brian Pollock, who bought it in spring 2022 and also owns a nearby office building at 915 Broadway.

The Fidens brewpub will have 24 draft beers, most made by Fidens, with occasional guest drafts featuring beer produced by Fidens in collaboration with other small breweries, said Greg Wilhelm, the company's general manager and a partner. There will be no mass-produced beers, he said. It is scouting for an experienced chef, who will be tasked with developing a menu of food complementary to the company's beer, Wilhelm said.

Fidens beer will continue to be made at the original site, at 10 Walker Way in Colonie, where all currently goes into cans. Wilhelm said it produces an average of about 750 cases of beer a week, sold during Wednesday-to-Saturday retail hours. The company's fan base has grown to the point that traffic on Walker Way at times becomes problematic, he said.

The retail operation will be moved to the brewpub, freeing up space for increased brewing capacity in Colonie, according to Wilhelm. He said 897 Broadway is projected to open in late spring or early summer. It will serve starting in the late afternoon Wednesday through Friday and from midday on weekdays. Wilhelm said he expects to hire a restaurant staff of about two dozen; Fidens presently employs 15 brewery workers in Colonie.

"I think it's going to be fantastic for the area," said Lionheart owner Jerry Aumand. Lionheart on the Green, which will be beer-focused and have a light-fare menu, is finishing final developments, but Aumand said its location, in a small parklike setting at Broadway and Pleasant Street, dictated a strong indoor-outdoor component, and so he will delay opening until warmer weather.

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