by Andrew Morrison | A new brewery and tasting room is coming to Strathcona. Owned by Federico Stucchi, Anique Ross, Ryan Parfitt and Eleanor Stewart (two couples), the 5,000 sqft Luppolo Brewing Company is just a few weeks away, opening in early to mid-October at 1123 Venables Street. The address is – I’m happy to say – just around the corner from my block, so I’ve naturally been watching its development with keen interest for quite some time.

I finally took a closer look inside the 67 seat, 850 sqft. tasting room last week with Anique and Ryan (that’s them pictured below). I dig the layout, starting with the long service bar and the multi-coloured chairs, but the thing that really jumped out was the long tiled wall, which they looked to be finishing on the day of my visit. There’s also a sneaky hideaway at the back of the space that has a big window peekabooing production. Its communal table had yet to be installed, but it wasn’t hard to imagine. Hat’s off to Ron Hart Architects, who worked on the design with help from One Seed‘s Allison Holden.

I’m especially interested to see what Italian twist they’ll be putting on things (Luppolo translates as “hops” and works your tongue hard when you say it five times fast). Federico and Ryan share Italian heritage, and I’m told we can expect to see some of it in the small food program they’re developing for it. In addition to cheese and salumi, the small kitchen will also be preparing simple piadina flatbread sandwiches reminiscent of those commonly found in the north of Italy.

As far as beer is concerned, they’re going to start off with at least five different brews and hope to produce around 3,000 litres a week. Take a closer look…

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