USA, CA: Danville Brewing Company planning to build its second location in East Pleasanton

An upcoming microbrewery and biergarten might bring a new sense of vibrancy to East Pleasanton with its scheduled opening next year, Independent News reported on May 22.

The Danville Brewing Company plans to build its second location on the vacant lot at 3595 Utah Street, adjacent to the Surf Thru Express Car Wash, expanding its offerings of IPAs, lagers, stouts and other brews into Pleasanton.

The Pleasanton Planning Commission on May 14 unanimously approved the project, which is set to include an 8,600-square-foot microbrewery and brew pub, a 1,850-square-foot biergarten and a 45-space parking lot. Designs submitted to the city show a contemporary, industrial-styled building with high ceilings and open interiors surrounded by numerous trees shading outdoor seating areas and shuffleboard courts. The project also allows for two food-truck locations, complete with electrical, water and sanitary connections.

The Maita family, which traces its beer-brewing heritage back to shortly after prohibition, opened the original Danville Brewing in Danville in 2016. Its craft beers have since won regional, national and world-level medals.

Owner Marcus Maita said at last week’s meeting that the family now looks to meet the growing interest in its beers with the new Pleasanton location.

“The main thing is, yeah, we want to expand production, but we also want this to be a fun location,” Maita said. “We’re going to have the biergarten. We’re going to have the taproom (and) food trucks. We expect this to be a really communal spot.”

Commissioners looked forward to the addition to a neighborhood currently dominated by auto-repair shops.

“That area feels very industrial right now, so having something where people can come in, not just to repair their cars, (but) hang out will be a nice change,” Commissioner Anurag Jain said.

Commissioner Stephanie Wedge added, “I think that’s a great part of town to put something in for people to go to other than the drive-throughs or some of those smaller restaurants.”

While city staff did not anticipate noise issues with the brewery’s patrons or occasional amplified music, the city retains the ability to add restrictions should it receive complaints. The brewery has proposed operating hours from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.

Eric Luchini, city senior planner, also expected the brewery’s peak traffic times to fall during mid-week lunch time, later evenings and on weekends, which would not conflict with existing school or rush-hour traffic demands.

Maita said the disharmony of something named “Danville” in Pleasanton remains to be resolved.

“The number one question we have is the name,” Maita said. “There’s no 100% answer on that yet, but at the very least, if it stays ‘Danville,’ this location will have a nickname to pay homage to Pleasanton in some way, whether it’s ‘DBC the Cliffs,’ or ‘DBC the Ridge,’ or ‘DBC Alisal’ — something that pays tribute to Pleasanton.”

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