The DC Beer Show

In this episode, Tony Prebula reflects on nearly a decade of running Saints Row, sharing insights into the challenges of small business ownership, community building, and the emotional journey of closing a beloved brewery and taproom. Join us for a heartfelt conversation about craft beer, family, and what’s next.
  • Tony’s journey from opening Saints Row in Rockville to relocating in Gaithersburg
  • The importance of community, friendships, and local support in the craft beer industry
  • The challenges faced by small breweries during COVID-19 and economic shifts
  • Balancing family life with the demanding brewery business
  • The creative process in developing innovative beers and maintaining quality
  • Celebrating special events like Lagerfest, open houses, and community gatherings
  • The emotional impact of closing Saints Row and what’s ahead for Tony
  • The collaboration and camaraderie among local breweries
  • Highlights of upcoming events: Lagerfest and the farewell open house
Upcoming Events:
  • Lagerfest at Saints Row - April 18th
  • Ladies’ Night at Saints Row - April 29th
  • Farewell Open House - May 2nd
Join us to celebrate Tony’s impactful journey, enjoy local beers, and share your favorite Saints Row moments. Cheers to community, craft, and new beginnings!

Thank you for tuning in! Follow what's happening in the DC scene at DCBeer.com and @dcbeer on social media. Support us at Patreon.com/DCBeer
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Creators and Guests

Host
Brandy Holder
This southern girl got a late start in the beer world, but with such a bold and intoxicating personality behind the name, booze was destined to be a part of her endeavors.
Host
Jacob Berg
Jake’s beer education began when his dad brought home a 6-pack of Brooklyn Lager in the mid-90s. It was love at first sip.
Host
Jordan Harvey
As a born and raised Georgian, lover of music, and HBCU advocate, Jordan’s affinity for craft beer kicked off after being exposed to the craft beer scene in Pennsylvania and the legendary beer scene in Europe.
Host
Mike Stein
Michael Stein is President of Lost Lagers, Washington, DC’s premier beverage research firm. His historic beers have been served at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History and the Polish Ambassador’s residence.
Producer
Richard Fawal
President of DC Beer Media LLC and Publisher of DCBeer.com and The DC Beer Show

What is The DC Beer Show?

The official podcast of DCBeer.com! Everything you need to know about the people, places, and brews that make the DMV America’s best beer scene, including the best local places for eats, brews, trivia, live music, and more! Learn about the latest trends in craft beer – from the beers, to the breweries, to the business – from the editors of DC Beer.

JB (00:06)
Welcome everyone to the DC Beer Show. are at DC Beer across social media. Jordan, what are you drinking tonight?

Jordan (00:13)
Good sir, good to see you, good to see everyone else. So am drinking a taco Tuesday from Monday Night Brewing Company, know, a little Mexican lager, a little early, but it's spring and it's like 75 degrees in Georgia. So I'm going over to the dark side a bit, but don't worry. I'll be having some other half later. Stein, what's in your Stein, sir?

Mike (00:34)
Well, thanks for asking Jordan. I have a drama of the bow a Bob's, which is a beer from Mies a blend re our friend, Alex Lynch owner of Mies. It calls us a mixed culture table, say song style, ale Asian oak barrels. is indeed Oki. It is indeed say song and it's hopped with Brandy's favorite hot mosaic Brandy. What are you having?

Brandy (00:58)
Well, I just finished a beer with my favorite hop, Mosaic Hop in it. ⁓ And of course, it's one of my old time favorite beers made in DC proper by a good friend of mine, Jared, over at Lost Duration. I'm talking about none other than Figures at Seaside, my favorite yearly. ⁓

West Coast IPA at Lost Generation and I was chatting with Jared just on Sunday at their oyster fest and there's going to be a a ⁓ Basically figures at Seaside light or feather kitties light and it's gonna have it's gonna be lighter ABV and called Cali Calico feathers Calica feathers Cali feathers anyway Calico kittens

I'm excited, so check out some local IPAs from Lost Interation crushing it as always. Mr. Berg, Mr. Scoops, what you got?

JB (01:59)
It is almost baseball season and so I have a beer from the brewery closest to said stadium. It is the Atlas Bullpen Pilsner. Award winning. Happy baseball season everybody. Hey, it's our guest Tony Puebla. Tony Puebla, what are you drinking tonight?

Tony Prebula (02:19)
So tonight I actually with my dinner with my kids, my wife decided I wanted to open up one of our ⁓ most favorite popular beers that we do at Saints Row. We did this last version this past winter called Darkest Necessities. So it's kind of a Imperial coffee milk stout with coffee, which we roast in house, hand processed vanilla beans, cinnamon, cayenne pepper, and all the good stuff. It's my wife's favorite beer we brew. And so we figured we got to have some with dinner tonight.

Crack the bottle open with that dinner.

Brandy (02:50)
Nice.

Mike (02:51)
That sounds delightful. ⁓ Tony, ⁓ to clue our listeners in, hopefully folks know St. Row is in Gaithersburg, but right next to your tap room and your brew house, have a site, you have a roast, roastery on site. Tell us about beer and coffee, two things you're doing at St. Row.

Tony Prebula (03:14)
Yeah. So well, we opened the coffee shop in our, in our new space. When we moved to Gaithersburg in 2022. So about four years ago, when we moved from Rockville to Gaithersburg, we moved into a bigger space and we had a little bit of extra kind of like office space. And I was trying to figure out what we're going to do with it. And so the obvious natural thing to do would be like, well, let's start roasting coffee. Right. The way we say it is we get to do buzz in the morning, buzz in the evening.

So you can come by for the morning coffee and then come back in the afternoon for a beer. And so just trying to figure out, just like I liked to figure out how to make my own beer, I want to figure out, hey, how can I go ahead and get my, make my own coffee? And so the natural progression was to try to figure out how to roast it. And so we started roasting coffee in-house. It's a really small shop, about 200 square foot. Mostly we're roasting wholesale for other restaurants, cafes, but we do run kind of a retail coffee bar now.

Yeah, it's fun.

Mike (04:11)
So Saints Row was born in ⁓ Rockville. Is that right?

Tony Prebula (04:18)
That's correct. Yeah. We got started in Rockville in, I want to say fall of 2017. I got to do my math right. But yeah, it was fall of 2017. Yeah. So this fall would be nine years. Yeah.

Brandy (04:29)
Hmm.

Mike (04:29)
So

just shy of a decade in the fall, but sort of midway through your career in 2022, you moved to Gaithersburg. How have you found business? Obviously we're leaving out 2020, you're the global pandemic. We'd like to believe once in a lifetime pandemic, going back to the flu from the first world war, early 20th century.

Tony Prebula (04:39)
Mm-hmm.

Right.

Brandy (04:53)
Hehehe

Tony Prebula (04:56)
Yeah.

Mike (04:58)
What are some of the challenges that you faced that you had to come out of opening a new spot, keeping the same brand Saints Row, but moving to a new home a bit outside of Rockville?

Tony Prebula (05:09)
Yeah, I think the move was mostly because of the challenges we saw in the rebound after COVID, right? When we opened up Saints Row in 2017, we were literally like hole in the wall, tiny little mini taproom, 3000 square feet, but most of it was for storage, some taproom and some production, right? And I think a lot of consumers coming out of COVID

we're coming out of it with kind of new expectations for when they're going to go out to enjoy a brewery, a restaurant or tap room and whatnot. And we just knew that our space that we were in wasn't going to really accommodate that pivot, that shift, that change. And so in 2020, 2021, we started looking for a new spot. We knew that our lease was going to be up within five years. And so we knew that right around 2022, if we didn't want to renew, like we kind of be out of our lease. So we wanted to have something in plan in the works.

for that process. And so we looked for something that was bigger, something a little bit more spacious, something closer to home for me. So I live in, you just down the street from the brewery right now. So I wanted to be closer to home. And I always knew I wanted to hopefully come back to Gaithersburg. This is where I was born and raised, born in DC, but I was raised in Gaithersburg. I knew I wanted to come back here. So we found a spot, which was actually the old Brawling Bear storage facility and where they are planning their ⁓ taproom and production space.

And so we, found it. ⁓ it kind of had the bare bones already put in there for us. You know, we wound up purchasing their brewing production equipment and the brew house and all that. And so it was kind of ready for us to move into their, ⁓ get all the construction done, the uplift for the tap room and all those nice things that you want. And that was the focus was finding a place that we could really lean into creating a space for people to enjoy really kind of stepping up and how we present ourselves as a brewery. Cause we were

Like I said, literally a hole in the wall. If you'd ever been to the old spot, you know, it was kind of like your best friend's garage or basement. was, it was obvious that we started on a shoestring budget, my wife and myself.

Brandy (07:15)
Can I ask you about the launch in Rockville? the reason that I want to bring it back is because Matt Splane as you know ⁓ He was longtime GM of Gillies in Rockville and he told me earlier today After I told him who we were having on as the guest. He's like, my god I love Tony and he was like I think Gillies was one of the first accounts like that like that we we were one of the first to buy a kegs from him

Tony Prebula (07:28)
Mm-hmm.

Brandy (07:45)
And he was like, Tony's a good dude. And it's not just Matt Splane that has said that. Anytime I have spoken to anybody about Saints Row, the first thing they say, it's not even about the beer. It's like, yeah, I love Tony. Tony's a good dude. So what's cool is that you created such a wonderful, warm, welcoming space. not everyone can accomplish that, I think as easily.

seemingly as you did. ⁓ And I think, you know, we all want our local brewery to be our, you cheers, but how did you find such success in launching ⁓ Saints Row in Rockville?

Tony Prebula (08:32)
Yeah, well, I mean, I got to say that's really humbling. It means a lot to hear, you know, to hear that. ⁓ I think part of what makes that possible is, ⁓ you know, when we opened a brewery, the reasons we did it were my wife and I wanted to find a way to do something that we enjoy and to be able to do it together and kind of share that with, with our community. And I think the goal was never about building a brand. was never about, you know, Hey, how much can we make? Like, how can we get so much into distribution? Like all that sort of stuff.

I think for us that the goal was always focused on, let's enjoy what we're doing and then share it with the people around us. And that is going to be what kind of supports our family, right? I think starting with that kind of really set the tone for the expectations and ⁓ kind of the culture that we tried to bring to the brewery, to our taproom. And it's something that I think we have not been willing to compromise on.

So I worked a lot of really long hours for a long time waiting for the right people to come along and kind of help out behind the bar. Luckily enough, when we first started out, my brother and my sister-in-law were right there along beside me, bartending with me, and long hours and whatnot. And we really took our time to kind of find the right people and put them in place to kind of carry on the mission that we've set forth for ourselves.

And I think they've really kind of made it their own as well, which I think you could see like our staff. I say time and time again, our staff is the best in the industry. I believe in them fully. And I think they've really kind of made Lacey, my wife and my, ⁓ the mission and the culture we wanted to bring. They made it their own and they've kind of adopted it. And it's kind of like, it's our mission. Right. And so I think that starting out in Rockville and when we did start out in 2017, I think we were only the fifth brewery Montgomery County.

So think what helped us out is it was still such a new and novel thing in Montgomery County. And we were also a very different and novel concept. When you think about breweries, like if you're going to breweries in DC, Frederick, Baltimore, like the really small, tiny, we called ourselves a nano brewery because we were brewing two to three barrels at a time. Like that really hyper localized thing was still so pretty new and novel that I think it was kind of the perfect storm of everything. You know, it such a cool, new experience. People in Montgomery County were clamoring for a place to call their own.

and we were kind of just coming in right at the right time. ⁓ And we've been able to ride that for a long time now. And yeah, it's been a crazy, crazy journey.

Brandy (11:00)
Well, you seem to have done it well because everyone talks so highly of you. So well done. mean, to be liked in your field is a wonderful accomplishment for anybody. So well done on that. Yeah.

Tony Prebula (11:11)
Thank you. I appreciate that. Thank you.

It's humbling. I appreciate that.

Mike (11:15)
I have to say Matt Splane, general manager of Other Half in DC is not the only person to speak good behind your back, Tony. And I don't want to out everyone. I've spoken, I've heard spoken good of you behind your back, but I'll say this as we come upon the sunset of the Saints Row brand, I have to ask you, you know, sort of

Brandy (11:24)
For sure. ⁓

Mike (11:40)
the hard question, the softball question and the meatball question. ⁓ Nine years in, two seasons into fall and 10 years in, is this the hardest time it's ever been for small breweries and small businesses to operate? Follow up, is this the best beer you've ever made in your nine and three quarters years operating as a small business owner?

Tony Prebula (12:04)
Yeah, and you know, I think, you know, and I actually was talking with ⁓ some friends about this over the weekend. I think it really depends. So the first question is this the hardest time for smaller brewers? You know, I really think it depends on the people behind the scenes, right? So Lacey and myself, this has definitely been the hardest time for us, not just because of all the things that we're seeing going on, the uncertainties that are happening around us.

It seems like it's one hit after another and she's like, how many of these can you really take? Right. And so it's just one after another after another. And that's tough. But because, and I mean, I don't want to speak for everybody, but because we built the brewery the way we did, we're kind of, it's us, we're putting everything out there. ⁓ We're not looking to increase a huge brand, distribute things like that. Things have been always kind of really tight.

And so there's only so long that we can kind of withstand that. also like our time and our energy, we're reprioritizing things like that. So when we first started out, had a one-year-old. ⁓ Now I have four kids and my wife's expecting our fifth at the end of the summer. So our priorities has definitely shifted over the last almost nine years. And I think that's what's made it for us specifically. Yeah, it's the toughest season for us because...

I think our time and our energy, we're realizing we want to spend it in other places. And so the heart's not there to continue doing the grueling hard work, which I've loved for so long, right? I really do love this work. I love the industry, the people, the people behind the scenes, people, you know, across the bar. ⁓ but it's hard in that sense that my heart's not where it was nine, 10 years ago. It's somewhere else now. Right. ⁓ and then are we making the best beer? You know, is this the best beer we've been making? I think.

We're putting out some of the most.

I think what got us started in Rockville, which we were able to carry some of that through into Gaithersburg, was our willingness to like, everyone says like we try new different things, right? And so that was a lot of fun. Like because we had six taps in the old spot, like our taps were constantly changing. And we came up with a lot of really fun beers. Some of them we've been able to carry over into the new space, but we realized that we kind of had a need for consistency for the, for the patron. And so I think we're making some stellar beers right now.

It's not as much fun as it was experimenting in the past. know, my Latin roots really played a big part in trying to develop interesting flavor profiles, interesting beers like our horchata beer. We do an horchata beer, which people love. know, we just did a a coquito beer for the holidays. So it's a lot of fun stuff. And so I think we're making some solid, consistent beers, but it's not as much like fun as what we did in the years past because

Brandy (14:40)
Mmm.

Tony Prebula (14:56)
Again, you got to read the market and like people want to know what they're going to get when they go to your spot. So yeah.

Brandy (15:02)
It sounds like you're adaptable, which is what we all should be, I suppose. It's soul crushing to hear you and so many of our brewers and industry friends say, you know, I love this. I love what I'm doing, but I kind of have to leave. It's hard for anyone to afford to live in the United States currently. And having hit after hit, as you said, is...

Tony Prebula (15:05)
Right.

Brandy (15:29)
getting so hard on so many folks. Like I've lived here for 15 years and I'm over it. I'm ready to just move and you having a fifth on the way, affording to live is hard on a brewer's and brewery owner and industry salary. I mean, there's another brewer at another local brewery who's leaving because he's going into real estate. Like, you know, it's usually the opposite that you would hear. Like people hate their jobs.

Tony Prebula (15:53)
Right, right.

Brandy (15:58)
they stay at it, they leave to go do something they love, you kind of have to leave to live, which sucks. my God.

Tony Prebula (16:05)
Yeah, it really

does. It really does. That's the thing too. It's not so and I'm, I can't, like I said, I can't speak for everybody. Obviously, things being difficult and tight. And like, you know, knowing that down the down the pipe, we're going to have a lot of more cost increase, like all that stuff is stressful. And like, that's a concern, obviously, that a lot of brewers or owners, know, restaurant to like anybody carries those concerns. I think the biggest thing for us was really just the motivating factor that

you know, my heart is somewhere else right now. And like, you know, my oldest is nine years old, she'll be 10 this fall, I saw she'll be 10 this fall. And, you know, the hours that I have to spend at the shop, you know, early mornings for the coffee shop, you know, late night, maybe a double brew, we got to catch up on packet, whatever it is, like, I'm losing time, where I want to be spending most of my time, right. And so like, the living is one component, but I think for us, which makes this really hard is, it's not just that it's, you know, I

Brandy (16:51)
Right.

Tony Prebula (17:00)
It's hard to say that, you my heart's not where it used to be. Like I really now I've shifted my priorities and that's just part of growing and maturing. Right. I've shifted my priorities and they're, they're at home. You know, I got four kids, five on the fifth on the way and I want to, I want them to see me and I want to see them. So, ⁓ that's part of getting older, I guess.

Brandy (17:07)
Absolutely.

Mike (17:17)
yeah well that is i mean time is

Brandy (17:17)
Admirable. Yeah, I'm curious

what you're getting into though.

Tony Prebula (17:23)
Yeah, that's still to be determined. I mean, I got a couple ⁓ leads. I got a couple leads. are projects in the works, and we'll have to see how they play out before I can finalize all that. But probably stuff closer to home. There's some administrative and ⁓ jobs that I got lined up ⁓ for here close to home. So we'll see how that plans out.

Brandy (17:24)
okay. All right.

Good. Well, best of luck.

Mike (17:49)
Well, time is

the one non-renewable resource, right? And time is the great teacher. ⁓ But it's interesting picking up on what you said about what perhaps you'd like to do as head brewer, know, lead of production or you are head brewer, you are production lead, you you are multiple ads. ⁓ Having to create, getting to create new beers for a deserving drinking public is a wonderful thing.

But then there's the flip side of the coin, which is that you've you're blessed with repeat customers and they want to have the same thing over and they want it to taste the same on the second experience, third, fourth, fifth, their dozenth time visiting. They want to bring that into right. So it's kind of like the blessing and the curse, the goodness of success, but then being tied to the brewing schedule ⁓ versus, you know, having something brand new every time a customer steps foot in your environment. ⁓

So before we got going, just to speak to the customers, well as our wonderful Patreon supporters and those that support us on DC beer, we're going to see you for another month and then into May, you're going to have an open house on May 2nd. Tell us a little bit about what we can expect from Saints Row in the next month plus.

Tony Prebula (19:05)
Yeah. So I think in the next month, we're going to try to kind of bring back some of the greatest hits, so to say, some of the greatest hits. So we're bringing back our Trotter beer. ⁓ It's, you know, one that was so unique and different that people were like, they didn't know quite exactly how to understand it. Right. So we're bringing that one back. We're bringing back some playful twists on older beers that we've done again, bringing them back and whatnot. We do have on April 18th. So we've done, this'll be, I believe the fourth or fifth year. got double check.

We have a, host Montgomery County Logger Festival. So we're going to have, ⁓ I think almost everyone in the county is going to be sending us some product. So we're going to have loggers on tap. Usually we have about two dozen loggers on tap from other breweries in Montgomery County. So that'll be April 18th from 12 to nine. You know, that includes ⁓ three, hold on, I got a train coming through.

Brandy (19:58)
⁓ That's the same day as...

JB (19:58)
You got a day without sirens on one side of the county

and a day without train horns on the other.

Tony Prebula (20:03)
There we go. Yeah.

Well, I live so close. If you guys, I live so close to the train tracks in Gaithersburg that it's like my cousin Vinny. can't sleep on this. hear them, you know? But yeah. So Lager Festival, April 18th, we'll have three bands, two food trucks, lots of good beers on tap. So that'll be fun to do in April. We do have a kind of ladies night, mama's night out. This will be our fourth one. That'll be on Wednesday, April 29th. So like a lot of

Brandy (20:05)
The. The.

Tony Prebula (20:32)
vendors, permanent jewelry, flash tattoo artists, like hair tints, all sorts of stuff. And then our open house, which will be on May 2nd. So technically we are not going to be selling any beer because our license ends at the end of April. So we're going to have an open house. It's kind of like, Hey, listen, we're not going to, we're not going to tell you how many beers you've had, but we're going to keep an eye on you. And if we feel like you've had enough, we're to be like, all right, that's it. That's it.

And then we'll be auctioning off, silent auctioning off some of our pieces of art that we've had done over the couple of years. So every year for our anniversary, we've had custom shoes made. We have some old string art that we had made for the old spot, which is like these really cool, unique pieces. Yeah. So we're going to be silent auctioning. They look really cool. I do have, think two of them have been claimed by my staff members and I'm like, okay, well, that's it. We've got to get the other ones to silent auction. So that'll be, yeah.

Brandy (21:12)
I love those. I love those.

Yeah.

Yeah.

always my favorite pieces

in the those are always my favorite pieces in there. love those.

Tony Prebula (21:30)
They're just

so unique and different and huge. so I remember, I think the first time I saw the artist who did it, I think she did the Maryland one for RAR. So they used to have a string art piece that she did. Yeah. So that's how I first saw it. And I was like, these are really cool. I want to get these done. So she did six huge ones. They're like three and a half feet by like two feet, whatever. And they're really heavy, but they're really cool. So we're going to be auctioning those off at the silent auction on May 2nd.

Brandy (21:54)
Yeah.

I might

have to come for that.

Tony Prebula (22:00)
There you go. It's just

gonna be a party at that point. It's just, know, um, yeah, an open house, come hang out with our bartenders because they really become the face of the brand. People know our bartenders. And so we want to give a chance for our bartenders to see our everyone for like one final good, good farewell party open house. So this can be a good time. Um, yeah.

Brandy (22:22)
like a beer share open house. Sorry, I just want to clarify. Okay. St. Trove beer share.

JB (22:22)
So.

Tony Prebula (22:24)
Kind of, yeah, essentially. Yeah, essentially, yeah, yeah, yeah. We are

sharing the beer, we are sharing the beer with everyone. So that's gonna be the way it's gonna go, yep.

JB (22:33)
When you all moved up to Gaithersburg, you also got yourself another brewery neighbor in that you're maybe, I think I've done this before, like a six minute walk ⁓ to Mayan Monkey. ⁓ And I'm very much in a rising tide lifts all boats. Like you visit St. Thoreau, you visit Mayan Monkey or you go the other way around. ⁓ Curious if you've heard from from Guillermo, from Matt at Mayan Monkey.

Tony Prebula (22:58)
Right, yeah.

JB (23:02)
about what effect this might have on their business if there's only one brewery by the Gatorsburg train station as opposed to two.

Brandy (23:07)
They're like, damn you, Tony.

Tony Prebula (23:10)
Right, right. You know, it's funny.

And I think maybe it's because a lot of my the last month and a half for me has just been thinking about the last eight or nine years. But it's funny because when we first opened up, I would say within a couple of months right down the road from us, True Respite opened up. And so that was that was a cool, unique experience that, I remember talking to Brendan and Bailey and I invited them to come bartend at Saints Row because we did a collaboration beer with them. And so I invited them to come bartend at Saints Row.

So it's just funny, like having a brewery down the road, it's kind of like, it's our MO, right? Like just having a neighbor and whatnot. And that was a fun experience. And then we moved in April of 2022. And then Mayan Monkey, think moved, opened up maybe, I want to say almost like a year later, I want to say, I don't remember exactly the timeline, but then they opened up later. And so we did actually a collaboration together for our Logger Fest that year. So we did it, we did a black, we did a Schwartz beer for Logger Fest that year. So it's just fun.

Brandy (24:08)
you wouldn't

mind monkey? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's good.

Tony Prebula (24:09)
Thinking back, yeah, yeah. So we brewed with Matt. Yeah, I brewed with Matt. And so we

brewed it at our spot and we had it on tap for Loggerfest. And then they also, we sent some to them to have on tap as they were getting their production up and running at Mind Monkey. ⁓ That was always fun. It's always been good to have neighbors. I mean, that's what brewing really was for the longest time, right? It's communal thing, hanging out with buddies, friends, sharing, things like that. And so it's always been a fun part to be.

part of a community in that sense, like really close neighbors and whatnot. ⁓ My time has been really kind of pulled in a lot of different directions right now, so I haven't had a chance to talk to Matt and Guillermo specifically, but we've caught up every now and then. I saw them a couple of weeks ago, went to go take my kids there for dinner. It's always fun to go hang out somewhere else.

Brandy (24:56)
Mm-hmm. Plus the monkeys are cool on the wall.

Mike (24:58)
Definitely.

Tony Prebula (25:00)
Yeah.

Mike (25:00)
Yeah, I feel like there's a

Tony Prebula (25:01)
And Matt's a great brewer too. Like Matt's a great brewer. Like I love, I love what he's putting together. Yeah. Matt's a great brewer. So I love putting what he's putting together in it. It's nice to always try other great product in the area.

Brandy (25:03)
Matt, yeah.

We recently had Matt on, if listeners you are interested in that interview, ⁓ we get pretty nerdy about corn, so check it out.

So it's going to be hard for folks to get to both Mind Monkey or ⁓ Saints Row and DC Brow on the same day on April 18th, but that is also DC Brow's 15th anniversary. So if you can do both and one day safely, folks, you do it. But if you choose Maryland or DC, let us know how it goes. ⁓ Two good events.

Tony Prebula (25:37)
wow.

Mike (25:43)
Find a designated driver. Yeah, fine. Find

Tony Prebula (25:44)
The DMV is covered that day.

Mike (25:47)
a DD and do both. ⁓ I just for shits, Tony looked up how far you were from DC brow and it was less miles from you to DC brow than it is miles from you to checker spot. I was like, let me just, let me just triangulate myself here. You know, I'm a New Yorker originally. So my, my geography, you're a hometown hero. So your geography of course is better than mine, but you know, it's less miles to get to.

Tony Prebula (26:01)
Okay.

Brandy (26:02)
⁓ yeah.

Tony Prebula (26:04)
Okay.

All good.

Mike (26:13)
Northeast Bladensburg Road, course, where DC brow is, and they're going to have the mariachi in addition to the pie tasters, know, epic DC ska band. Yeah, so ⁓ lots to do that weekend. ⁓

Brandy (26:22)
course.

Tony Prebula (26:27)
I mean, if I didn't

Brandy (26:27)
Yeah, I

think that's the same weekend as our beer. Is that when our beer share is too on the 17th? Yeah.

Tony Prebula (26:27)
have Logger Fest, I would be going.

Mike (26:33)
⁓ at correct at Third Hill.

JB (26:34)
You are correct. It is

Friday night also in Montgomery County at Third Hill.

Mike (26:42)
cornucopia you know it's just

JB (26:44)
Yeah.

Brandy (26:45)
We're really giving Marilyn some love in April. I love that.

Tony Prebula (26:49)
Gotta love it.

Mike (26:49)
Indeed,

indeed. I'm really looking forward to giving Saints Row some love, Tony, and we so appreciate all of the high quality beers you've given us, both in Rockville and in Gaithersburg, and now the coffee. I'm gonna grab a few bags when I see you next.

Tony Prebula (27:05)
There you go. Yeah, I appreciate it. It's been such a trip and such a joy. ⁓ I think the easy temptation has been over the last month and a half to be like, man, did we fail? There's that temptation to feel like that. ⁓ But it's really been, thinking about it, it's really been such a joy. And the people we've encountered, the staff members and all that stuff, it's been more bittersweet and there's a lot of good happy memories. I think it's...

It really does overshadow the sense of maybe quote unquote failure because there's really no way to put it into words. At least without me getting choked up, right? Just how impactful it's been to my family, the people we've encountered, the people we've made friends with. ⁓ So yeah, it's been a long, crazy, wild ride, but I've loved it.

Brandy (27:54)
don't think you are going to have any second ⁓ during the next month of feeling like you failed because the people who are going to show up and come out to your last few days, ⁓ you're going to really feel it as a huge blow, but in a good way. So I'm excited for you. I look forward to you feeling that.

Tony Prebula (28:16)
Yeah, I appreciate it. Yeah. Yeah, we've got an outpouring of

love. Yeah. Yeah, I appreciate it. Yeah. I mean, it's going to be it's definitely consoling and it's reassuring. We've definitely gotten already gotten a huge outpouring of people like support and and just, you know, words of thanks and encouragement. And it's nice to see that. So I'm definitely going to be resting well with all those words over the next month or two.

Brandy (28:37)
Yeah. Do you know if there's been a couple that has met at Saint Tro and then are married or like, what's like, there people who've been going there for so long. you, it's like a community. Have you watched any of these? These are cute stories. Take us on a side quest.

JB (28:38)
No, I think this is, yeah.

Tony Prebula (28:53)
Well, what my taproom manager, yeah,

my taproom manager met her now husband at the brewery. So yeah, so yeah. And we, so we had, was fun. It was, they got married this past October, I want to say it was. And so we took our, our fun little beer trailer up there for their wedding. was good times. ⁓ so I definitely know they met at Saints Row. ⁓ a lot of our close, I mean, they're like friends now have met at the brewery.

Brandy (29:03)
See?

Tony Prebula (29:23)
⁓ there's a lot of stories, probably best safe for them to share those stories and not, not me, but there's a lot of people who've met and it's for better and worse, you know what I mean? But that's, that's life. Right. So, it's been a play. mean, it definitely feels like it's been a place. It's been kind of a community hub. And I, I know a lot of people say, ⁓ our restaurants, the community or that's true. I think there's communities anywhere you go. But I think in a real special way, St. Joe, I, I want to say really does feel like it's.

been that and it's not been because of anything that we're doing. But the people who've kind of adopted us as their home have made it kind of that community space or that third place, right? Like that's this is a place that people have taken on for themselves. Our staff have really taken it on for themselves. And the people who support us really do feel like they feel a sense of ownership over the community that they've built themselves. And nothing because of whatever Lacey and I have done. But that's something that the people have organically done that on their own, which is pretty special.

JB (30:20)
That's really a modest and a healthy perspective, but also don't shortchange yourself because you had full spectrum service. You had coffee and then you had beer and then also if you wanted it, you had beer with coffee. ⁓ For 12-ish hours a day, ⁓ you really were people's third place. ⁓

Brandy (30:20)
because of the space you created,

Tony Prebula (30:37)
Right, exactly.

JB (30:50)
What we at DCB want listeners and others to know is, you know, there's an awful lot of emotional labor in that as well. And, you know, it definitely takes a toll. You got a nine-year-old, like you want to see your nine-year-old. And oftentimes the best way to do that is to work a nine to five and to take a step back. It happens. Yeah. And so, know, this is, yeah, this is a celebration.

Tony Prebula (31:11)
Right, right.

Yeah, yeah, I appreciate that. Thank you. I appreciate that.

JB (31:20)
It's a, you know, it's bittersweet, but it's a good thing for you and for your family as well.

Tony Prebula (31:27)
Yeah, I think that's people always ask me like, you you feeling feeling how you feeling about it? And like I said before, like there's easy ways a temptation is to wonder you did something wrong. But, you know, there's I say it's bittersweet because there's a lot of hope for what lies ahead for us. I know there's a lot of people are going to be hurt, not hurt, but there's sadness that we're, you know, st. Joe's closing and whatnot. But for my family, like there's a lot of hopeful anticipation for what I know is going to be some of the best years of our lives now laying ahead of us.

And that kind of keeps it in perspective, right? Like we did this because we love doing this, but now there's something else that we want to do, right? And so that's always been kind of in the back of my mind. So yeah, it's going to, I mean, I'm hopeful it's going to be good.

JB (32:05)
Yeah, and you've got two skills, right? You can

make coffee and you can make beer that are very important and those translate well elsewhere.

Tony Prebula (32:15)
Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And now I know how to make a killer cup of coffee whenever I have people coming over to my house.

JB (32:21)
And with another kid on the way, you just might be needing another cup of coffee.

Tony Prebula (32:25)
That's true.

JB (32:27)
Brandy, take us out.

Brandy (32:30)
Well, I'm not going to take this out because that's Jake's job. ⁓ But I did want to mention before everyone left the chat that the Women's Rural Culture Club event this month is going to be hosted by our amazing Baltimore branch lead, Amber, up in Baltimore on April the 22nd at Bodega and Vino.

which is a cute little spot and they have wine and beer and you're gonna meet the owner and it's gonna be pretty cool. So if you're in Baltimore, you wanna drive up for the event, it's on Wednesdays, ⁓ on a Wednesday. So make sure to plan accordingly, but I'm sure Amber would love to see you there and thank you for coming out and supporting the Women's Brew Culture Club and DC Beer Panel at Other Half. We had a wonderful event and thanks for supporting women in the craft beverage industry.

And I want to know after folks listen to this and realize that we had Tony on, I want folks to drop what your favorite Saints Row beer you ever had was in the comment because I mean, nine years of different fun beers, want to hear, I want to be taken back like old school. Let's live the memories. ⁓ But Jake, yeah, take us out.

Tony Prebula (33:43)
I'm curious too. I'm curious too for sure.

JB (33:46)
So I'm a 355

caliber beer man myself. Just, you know, a nice easy drinking like little sweet little in the multi-us side lager, think nice, nicely done. It will be missed as Bobcat from True Respite, their dark lager is also missed. Up Rockville, up Gaithersburg, Tony, thank you so much.

know that you're be running around for the next month ⁓ housekeeping and you know saying goodbye saying hello also because you physically aren't going anywhere ⁓ but again lagerfest the 18th and then sort of the the grand finale on may 2nd ⁓ Tony at Saint-Sereuil thank you so much for being here and for sharing it with us we are at DC beer across social media and dcbeer.com

Thank you for your continued support. All right. Good night, everybody.