JACKSON HOLE, WYO – The Roadhouse Brewery Group had some hoops to jump through Monday, but in the end, the group got what it came for: a liquor license to serve beer at their new facility on Gregory Lane.
The liquor license was not actually the problem for Roadhouse reps—the State Liquor Division had already certified the brewery’s paperwork. It was the town’s planning department holding things up as they struggled to define a “tasting room.”
Joint planner Tyler Sinclair explained to town councilors that he needed direction on what they thought a tasting room was. If a tasting room looked too much like a bar, zoning in the Industrial Park area would prohibit such a commercial business. If the tasting room was more of an accepted essential add-on to a microbrewery, then maybe, from a land-use perspective, it could fly.
Owner Gavin Fine, who runs seven entities of the Fine Dining Group with more than 300 employees, assured council members the tasting room was “not a bar, restaurant, tavern or saloon.” He said the room took up less than 10 percent of the space, which was primarily for brewing beer. Selling beer onsite was merely “an opportunity to connect with the customer,” Fine said.
Fine’s business manager Colby Cox said the town has already allowed commercial uses in the Gregory Lane area and 95 percent of what the Roadhouse Brewery would be doing would be considered light industrial.
Sinclair agreed that the industrial park area of Gregory Lane had become home to a few conditional use permit businesses “that just don’t fit anywhere else.”
Ted Staryk, who owns Snake River Brewing with his wife Noa, took the stand during public comment to commend Fine’s entrepreneurial spirit. “There may be no zoning that could fully address the complexities that occur in a microbrewery. And while they may be a competitor, the community benefits when microbreweries are allowed the freedom to operate,” Staryk said.
Councilors generally agreed that a tasting room in a microbrewery was a fairly typical ancillary service for such an enterprise, though they added several stipulations to make sure things didn’t mushroom out of control.
Bob Lenz had a little trouble with the definition of tasting room. “It looks like a bar, acts like a bar, even though it’s a microbrewery,” the councilman said. “I like the entrepreneurial part of it and I’d like to see it go, but it’s a beer bar, isn’t it? You can call it whatever you want, and if we want to let it in the industrial area that’s fine, but I’m having trouble getting over calling it a tasting room.”
The tasting room was ok’d by town leaders once adequate parking was shown and Fine agreed to a few conditions including: Hours of operation (4-10pm), 10 seats (down from 21 originally wanted), and onsite consumption would be limited to 10% of total plant production.
