New craft brewery & pub in the works in Beavercreek

A new brewpub is gearing up to open this fall in Beavercreek.

Renovations are underway at “The Wandering Griffin,” a craft brewery and restaurant coming to the former Quaker Steak & Lube space at 3725 Presidential Drive across from Wright State University, co-founder Brian Young said today.

“We want to do a large-scale brewpub that could do some distribution as well,” Young said.

The 10,000-square-foot brewpub will seat about 300 in its restaurant and tap room, and 120 more on a patio. It has additional space that will be used as a private-events room and which can also be utilized as overflow restaurant space on weekends, Young said.

The brewpub will employ 60 to 80 people and will have three bars: one with 16 taps in the tap room, a second with 10 taps on the patio, and a third with additional taps in the special-events room.

>> Your guide to Dayton-area craft breweries

The Wandering Griffin could open as early as October, although it will be several months before it will begin brewing its own beers, Young said. Even after it starts brewing and offering its own beers, The Wandering Griffin will pour beers from other breweries, with an emphasis on local breweries, he said.

Young was a co-founder of the cooperatively owned Fifth Street Brewpub (FSB) in Dayton. He stepped down as president of the FSB board in November 2015.

Quaker Steak & Lube operated for 13 years in the space before shutting down abruptly in October 2015. The site's proximity to several large employers — including WSU, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Soin Medical Center and multiple aerospace and engineering firms along Colonel Glenn Highway — made the space attractive to lease, Young said. And there are no breweries in the immediate area.

Plans call for spending about $400,000 to renovate the building using primarily reclaimed lumber, giving the special-events room a 1930s-era aviation theme and the restaurant the feel of an early-1900s tap room, Young said.

If the concept succeeds in Beavercreek, Young said the founders’ long-term strategy calls for opening additional brewpubs in other cities.

More than a dozen breweries have opened in the Dayton region in the last five years. None have closed, and nearly all have expanded in some fashion. The region's newest craft brewery, Mother Stewart's Brewing Company, opened Friday in downtown Springfield.

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