Grin and beer it
John Schoeb has spent a career making people’s smiles look better. Now he’s looking to give people a reason to smile.
Schoeb, who’s been practicing dentistry in Crozet for nine years, plans to open Pro Re Nata Brewing in the old Moose Lodge space on Route 250 with two partners in mid- to late summer. Together with his longtime friend Andrew Messina and brother-in-law John Libre, Schoeb purchased the lodge on December 18. The trio is taking advantage of the building’s agricultural zoning, along with a bill passed last year that allows farmers to brew beer, to transform the former community meeting place into a community meeting place of quite another type.
“I’m a dentist, and everybody hates coming to the dentist,” Schoeb said. “I’m looking for something that’s a little more fun, where people are going to come out and have some beer and some food and enjoy themselves.”
All three partners bring with them a love of beer, Schoeb said, and Libre has more than 10 years of homebrewing experience. Schoeb’s own experience as a dentist inspired the brew spot’s name, Pro Re Nata, a Latin phrase used on prescription meds meaning “as needed.”
Schoeb said he and his crew are hard at work remodeling the space for the brewery, and he expects the old lodge to be completely redone by the time Pro Re Nata’s brewing equipment arrives in 12 to 18 weeks. An unnamed local brewery has reportedly assisted Schoeb and his group in designing the brewhouse, planning for production and ordering the right equipment. Also on tap is hiring a brewmaster, and Schoeb said he and his mysterious consultants have narrowed it down to three fellas “with a lot of experience.”
Schoeb said he plans to have at least six beers flowing when Pro Re Nata opens to the public, and they’ll likely not be the “hoppy, hoppy” varieties that have become so popular. Schoeb said he wants to make lighter, drinkable beers and that his suds are “going to be freezing cold. Everyone likes them cold.” (Everyone, that is, except for hardcore beer geeks, who tend to think beer is less nuanced and flavorful when served extremely cold.)
To all the haters who say Crozet doesn’t need another brewery on top of the venerable Starr Hill, Schoeb suggested, “what if there were only one restaurant in Crozet? People would be up in arms. We are much smaller and will have more outdoor seating. We have these beautiful mountain views. We have a different model than what they have. I love Starr Hill beer, and that’s one of the reasons we got into this.”
Pro Re Nata promises to have an interesting setup for those looking for a bite to eat with their ice cold bevvies, according to Schoeb. The legislation that opened the door to farm breweries does not allow such businesses a full-fledged kitchen, so Schoeb and his partners are looking at parking their own “40-foot stainless steel gourmet food trailer” at the brewery. The group is in the process of interviewing chefs, Schoeb said, but if the right person doesn’t come along, they’ll consider contracting with local restaurants to man the trailer at intervals.
Our own Brooklyn bloggers
Two local bloggers publishing under a not-so-local name have been nominated as finalists for tastemaking magazine Saveur’s annual blog awards.
Food writer Elizabeth Stark and her husband Brian Campbell, one of C-VILLE Weekly’s own advertising execs, launched Brooklyn Supper while living in New York in 2008. The couple moved to this hamlet five years later but decided to keep the weblog’s name.
It’s hard to second guess the decision: Brooklyn Supper was one of six blogs recently nominated as finalists in the 2015 Saveur Blog Awards Most Delicious Food category. Among the 13 other categories down to their last six finalists are Best Baking and Desserts, Best Beer Coverage, Best New Voice and Best Photography. Reader voting for the winners in each of the categories is now underway and will close April 30.
Win or no, with almost 50,000 bloggers nominated this year, just being among the 78 finalists is an accomplishment. Want more proof of Stark and Campbell’s success? In a sea of hobbyist bloggers, they’ve turned Brooklyn Supper into a money-making venture through sponsored posts.
“At the time that we started the blog, no one thought of it as a career or a brand or any of the things that blogs have become,” Stark said.
Stark does most of the writing for Brooklyn Supper, she said, with Campbell contributing on occasion and acting as her editor and collaborator. Stark likewise does all the photography and most of the recipe development, though Campbell takes the lead on anything grilling-related. The couple will know their fate in the 2015 Saveur Blog Awards in late May or early June, when the magazine will host a live event to announce the winners.
