Brian Titus has been eager for some time to take advantage of a business opportunity that he believes exists for a craft brewery to open in the Quinpool Road area.
Titus, the president of Garrison Brewing, one of Halifax’s oldest craft breweries, announced plans on Tuesday to open a new taproom in the former Elegant Touch Beauty Salon, which is part of the old Oxford Theatre building on Quinpool Road.
“It’s a beautiful space with exposed brick on both sides and 14-foot (high) wood ceilings,” he told me in an interview Tuesday. The total space is 3,140 square feet, Titus says, which is about 30 per cent of the whole building.
Garrison has signed a 10-year lease on the space, which seems to meet the desires of the Nahas family, the owners of the building. Titus says there is another group, which is just a couple of days away from signing a lease on the rest of the building, but declined to reveal anything more.
The space where the beauty salon once was isn’t in bad shape, he says, but Titus is having plans drawn up and hopes to have construction started soon. He’s aiming for a Victoria Day weekend opening, although he admits that may be jinxing the timeline. To be safe, he is saying the opening will be in late spring.
Titus says he was looking at the Quinpool Road area for a while, where he saw “some great potential, although it needs a little bit of love in certain areas.” There are a lot of changes happening to the street and and more to come.
It is in the centre of a large residential area, which seems to be an ideal spot for someone to take the dog for a walk and drop in at the taproom for a beer, he says. Titus pointed out an interesting fact, the Nova Scotia Liquor Corp. store on Quinpool is the No. 1 craft beer store in the province, which shows there is already demand for craft beer in the area.
On a whim, Titus says, he decided to check with the Nahas family, which also owns the King of Donair next door. Negotiations moved quickly after that.
He said the arrangements may have taken all of two months to complete. Since both sides were going to put money into the property, he says, the Nahas family was eager to have a longer term lease, no month-to-month arrangement.
Garrison’s new venture will include a pilot-brewery, street-front taproom and retail store, backyard terrace and second floor community space. The brewing operation will only have capacity for 100 litres, or one barrel.
Since the bulk of Garrison’s brewing operation is on its Seaport location, the smaller batch operation on Quinpool will provide opportunity to experiment with different ingredients.
Titus says it wasn’t difficult to come up with a name for the new venture, The Oxford. It basically named itself.
“We’re excited and honoured to breathe new life into such a landmark space while celebrating its amazing history,” says Titus. The taproom will be a throwback to old Hollywood.
There will be retail space where the old passport photo office was, he says, where there will be various Garrison merchandise and cold beer for sale.
The Oxford will only be offering a limited amount of snacks but Titus says customers will be welcome to order-in food from the many great neighbouring restaurants in the area.
“Many of the surrounding restaurants have been long-time customers of ours and we look forward to promoting them through pop-ups and catering,” according to Titus.
The announcement by Garrison on Tuesday also dispels the rumour that the venerable Oxford building would be torn down to make way for condos.
