The taps started flowing last week in Spryfield when Serpent Brewing sold its first beer. The brewery is officially located at 16 Dentith Rd., but it sits beneath the Canadian Tire and is better accessed from Sussex Street.
Serpent Brewing is the idea of Glen O’Keefe, a Newfoundlander who found his way to Halifax when he moved with his progressive rock band Oceanic. A carpenter by trade, O’Keefe had been serving as a lead hand for Dexter Construction.
“Over the years, I’ve done several homebrew events, sometimes as simple as the Brewnosers club events or small parties, and as large as serving my product at weddings or our band’s album release,” O’Keefe says.
“Seeing a group of people all standing around enjoying themselves and my product, I couldn’t find a better motivator.“
Picking the location was partly about solving a problem he identified when he lived in the neighbourhood.
“I lived in Spryfield when I first moved here, and one of the things I disliked about the area was having to bus or cab back and forth into the city centre to grab a decent beer,” he said.
“Seemed like a good problem to solve.”
For now, the beer is available via pre-order from serpentbrewing.com ) for pickup or delivery. The beer is “Belgian focused, however, designed to be enjoyable by all,” said O’Keefe.
The starting lineup is a witbier, a single (patersbier) and a Belgian IPA, with more styles coming soon. O’Keefe is also working on an apple cider.
There are still finishing touches to be put on the space, but the taproom will be a 60-seat live music and event venue when it’s done. The plan is also to have a patio in season, with food trucks coming in to provide the eats.
Here are more retail highlights and happenings:
- Staying on Dentith Road in Spryfield, a PetValu is opening between the Canadian Tire and Dollarama.
- RedChillies on the Bedford Highway has opened sister Indian grocery store RedChillies Bazaar right next door to the restaurant at the corner of Hammonds Plains Road.
- Spice Hub Indian Kitchen is opening at 1015 Main St. (Highway 7).
- One of the original tenants of Park Lane when it opened in 1988, the A&W on the lower level, has closed. Across the hall, between the print store and the cinema, takeout A Passage to India will soon open.
- Spirituality shop Drala has a second store at 59 Portland St. in downtown Dartmouth called Elements by Drala.
- GD Meat Market (formerly Chops) on Wright Avenue in Burnside has closed after changing names roughly a year ago.
- They were on indefinite hiatus, but the two Pavia cafes in the Halifax Central Library have closed. The Art Gallery of Nova Scotia location closed earlier this year. The original location in Herring Cove remains open.
- Penelope's Boutique, a consignment shop on Cunard Street, has closed “for the foreseeable future."
- The Syrian Meat Shop on Gladstone is gone, ahead of a redevelopment of that property. There are indications it will return at some point, but no timeline or location has been announced.
- You may have noticed a Lululemon banner on Larry Uteck Boulevard. It is there to indicate that Modo Yoga is carrying Lululemon products in its shop.
- Bianca Aperitivo, the replacement concept for Bistro Le Coq, is open on Argyle Street.
- Sprout Therapy is opening a juice bar where Lole was on Spring Garden Road, near the entrance to Park Lane.
