Downtown P.G. Welcomes CrossRoads
l-r Bjorn Butow, Mayor Lyn Hall, Eoin Foley of Downtown Prince George, Daryl Leiski -photo 250news
Prince George, B.C.- Downtown Prince George has just received another vote of confidence and a major project.
Two local men, Bjorn Butow and Daryl Leiski, have announced they will be establishing CrossRoads Craft Brewery in the building that most recently was home to Tony Roma’s restaurant on George Street.
“I am ecstatic about this” says Mayor Lyn Hall, “We’ve been waiting for a major announcement for downtown for quite some time, and here it is. The last one we had was the WIDC building, and here we are kitty corner to it.”
Co-owner Bjorn Butow says his work on the Kiwanis Ale Fest showed him Prince George was ready for a craft brewing operation . “We are going to be a manufacturer with a tasting room concept, there will be a small food concept but not a full kitchen.”
Butow is already a home brewer, “I m just a beer enthusiast and a lover of downtown Prince George. As a child I used to come to Niners (previous restaurant incarnation of the site) with my father, and it was always disappointing and sad to me to see the building the way it went through the years.” He says the location is prime with the Farmers Market half a block away, and Summerfest held on George Street, he and partner Daryl Lieski thought “This is going to be the place to be.”
There are still several hoops to go through including building renovations, liquor licensing and permitting, but there is optimism CrossRoads Brewery will be up and ‘flowing’ by the end of this year. The two won’t be content to just be brewing beer, Butow says they hope to expand the manufacturing capabilities to include a distillery, but that is further down the road.
The name of the Brewery is also significant says Butow “We (Prince George) are at the intersection of highways, the railroad junction is here, it’s where the rivers come together, It’s really a crossroads in many ways and for us, its at a point in our lives were we’re coming to that tough decision on what we want to do. We have other careers, but we really want to give something back to the community.”
While the two owners will only say the cost of the project is “expensive” they will qualify for some of the tax incentives and benefits afforded to those who start a business and make major changes to the façade of a building in the downtown core.
Comments
If it’s not brewed to the specifications of the Bavarian Purity Law of 1516 ( 500 years old this year ) I won’t have any .
‘… I won’t have any.’
No one is forcing you to drink their beer. It’s called consumer choice.
Such good news! It is too bad though that there won’t be a full menu for dining. Places like Canoe Brewpub in Victoria are always full. I will still be a regular at our new brewery though!
“If it’s not brewed to the specifications of the Bavarian Purity Law of 1516 ( 500 years old this year ) I won’t have any . ”
What’s wrong with this city sometimes. God forbid we’re happy about a positive story.
This is a positive news story for PG.
It’s a shame that there always seems to be a NON-RESIDENT troll trying to turn everything positive into a negative!
I got the joke Ataloss.
Me too Ataloss. Very dry, indeed!
Don’t feed the trolls.
So Leiski is splitting his time between his medical clinic, and his new brewery? Sounds distracting.
I bet lyn[Green] and rest of Council are happy..free beers free all!! room for a couple more Booze outlets on the Hart…and an Area that does not serve Booze…..yet! Who`s Gawd….
“I am ecstatic about this” says Mayor Lyn Hall, “We’ve been waiting for a major announcement for downtown for quite some time, and here it is.”
I thought the hotel/condo next to the library was the major project. And then in October we heard that the Apartment on 6th and Quebec was to start construction in late November and be completed by late spring. Then again, was a year mentioned?
A few other smaller buildings have been built and I fully expect this to be ready as they project it to be. Nice to see the building in use again. Hopefully they will not change the classic Art Deco design of the building on the outside. The original repurposing from a service station to Niners Diner was very well done.
Beer and nachos…..major announcement.
Great idea and a good location. A bit concerned that these guys don’t have much experience successfully running in this type of venture ie. none! Hope they hire a qualified brewmaster and chief. People are not going to pay to drink bad beer or eat bad food.
People in PG are willing to give a new place a try at least once. To be successful and bring them back again and again, you have to provide good value, good service, and a good atmosphere, consistently.
Get the food, brew and service right BEFORE YOU OPEN! You never get a second chance to make a first impression.
No one will remember when you opened but they will never forget if the first time they came it was bad.
Good luck boys and don’t F-up! I want this place to succeed.
Once again we have another Mayor mouthing off about another great downtown development. The city should have first established their financial wherewithal to actually complete the project. Like uh, have you, your families and in laws put up their entire net worth to finance this dream?
Spooky name . Robert Leroy Johnson sprung to mind but good choice . I like the distillery idea . Locally grown organic rye would be perfect . Show those rookies in Gimli a thing or two . Do nachos qualify as food ? See what those people making wine in PG started ? It’s called the virtues circle . Positive feedback loop .
Maui brewing company has a tasting room with over 30 beers to taste (not all of them are brewed there, obviously.) In the tasting room you can pave a Pint, Glass, or flight of 3 OZ beers. They also have to go items, you can get growlers, crowlers (seriously the coolest thing ever), 6 packs, and tall cans.
The best part about it? Each week they have a schedule of food trucks that park out front and provide all the food.
That is nobody’s business but the owners and their families as well as their bankers who might be advancing business loans.
Sheesh, folks, didn’t you get Ataloss’ joke?
3 restaurants be4 them in same location..they wastsing there money doomed from the start…yer BOOZE baked brains do not comprehend…Who goes DT when lites go out ??unless yer looking to Score!!
According to the 1516 Bavarian law, the only ingredients that could be used in the production of beer were water, barley and hops….
May The Google Be With You
I didn’t get the joke but congratulations on the new venture. Downtown is looking better and better every time I visit PG in the last few years.
Good luck with the new venture! Craft Breweries are usually great places to get together with friends for a few sampling of the latest and greatest batch!
Not so sure about the name though! I think that there was or still is a drug and alcohol recovery centre somewhere down south, maybe in the Okanagan area that is named Crossroads Recovery Centre or something like that!
“If it’s not brewed to the specifications of the Bavarian Purity Law of 1516 (500 years old this year) I won’t have any.”
I am sorry, but I do not know what the joke is.
1. I can certainly see a tongue-in-cheek joke there if it were told by someone I know who loves beer and cannot pass up having any kind of beer.
2. The other joke I could see is if craft beer could not be made of just water, hops and barley.
So, not everyone knows who Ataloss is, thus #1 will fail miserably in this crowd.
For #2 we need to know whether there is something in the definition of craft beer that would exclude a beer brewed according to the purity law.
A craft beer must be brewed by a brewery that is small, independent and traditional.
• “Small” means the brewery distributes no more than six million barrels of beer a year.
• “Independent” means that less than 25 percent of the brewery is owned by a non-craft beer brewery.
• “Traditional” means that the majority of the brewery’s output consists of “beers whose flavor derives from traditional or innovative brewing ingredients and their fermentation.”
I am not seeing where a beer brewed according to the purity law would be excluded from being a craft beer.
Someone please explain to us amateurs where the joke is.
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As far as the name goes, there is a Crossroads Brewing Company that is a craft brewer and eatery in Albany New York. I doubt there is a copyright issue.
Hart Guy: if you put crossroads recovery into a search engine you will see many such recovery centres over the English speaking part of north America.
It seems to be associated with people who are at crossroads in their lives.
The definition of crossroads includes: “a point at which a crucial decision must be made that will have far-reaching consequences”
Still trying to figure out why the Mayor had to turn this into a photo op. Does he attend every business opening or is this one special?
I do believe this opening is special. The downtown needs a lot of improvement and this qualifies as an improvement. Nothing looks worse than a semi-abandoned business in highly visible locations, or anywhere else for that matter. It sends the wrong message, one of poverty, neglect and despair.
“I am ecstatic about this” says Mayor Lyn Hall, “We’ve been waiting for a major announcement for downtown for quite some time, and here it is.”
Proof that the mayor is a slow learner. A more fitting statement would be “the city wishes you the best of luck that the project will come in on time and on budget(fingers crossed). Cheers” Save all the bubbly hyperbole for the ribbon cutting at the grand opening.
That being said a fine beer can turn a good meal into a great meal much like a glass of wine. The perfect pairing for the stoner sitting on the couch adding yet another bud to the bong is whatever happens to be left on the coffee table be it a half bag of stale Doritoes or the crumbs and crusts from Monday’s pizza.
Punch line. Someone finally realize that all his posts are kinda a joke:P
In heaven there is no beer
BTW, the building was built in 1951 and was called Bryant Motors.
The image can be seen on one of the on line galleries at “the exploration place” web site.
milltowndowntown.com/imgindex.php?lang=en&tid=9&results=1
Yeast gets no respect here .
In heaven there is no beer …… See I told you there is no such place .
Hahahaha, good one Ataloss. If there truly is a heaven & no beer, send me the other way.
that’s why we shouldn’t drink it here.
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