Renovated pool hall, downtown Dorchester’s newest destination
The long awaited opening by Dorchester natives Chris Brohawn and JT Merryweather was realized Saturday August 10 when more than 100 friends, family members, dignitaries, and drop-ins descended on downtown Cambridge for the grand opening of Reale Revival Brewery. As a dozen local and state elected and business development officials lined up behind the Chamber’s welcoming banner, Brohawn and Merryweather took a pair of ceremonial scissors and cut the ribbon to their new brewery.
Keasha Haythe, Dorchester’s Economic Development Director, offered her congratulations to JT and Chris for having the vision and tenacity to convert the vacant pool hall into a community asset. Haythe helped the co-owners secure a $200,000 UMES, Rural Development Center loan to renovate the one time pool hall and bowling alley into the City’s hip new destination. Haythe took time to thank Dorchester’s delegation – Senator Colburn and Delegates Eckhardt and Haddaway – for their support and extended her best wishes to Cambridge Mayor Jackson-Stanley and Main Street’s Mari Stanley for their role bringing Reale Revival Brewery to life.
As business owners from adjacent shops stopped in to offer their congratulations, and wayfaring visitors found themselves in the middle of the opening revelry, City Commissioners Robbie Hanson and Gage Thomas took a minute to enjoy Reale’s debut brews: Nanticoke Nectar, an India Pale Ale, and Bucktown Brown, coffee-flavored brown ale.
In keeping with their motto, “Reale brew. Reale local.”, the team also debuted their partnerships with fellow Dorchester county residents and former high school classmates BJ Wheatley and Ian Campbell. Wheatley’s original art – mural and collages – adorn the brewery’s walls. And Campbell, Bistro Poplar’s award-winning chef, unveiled “Bistro Eats”, a pub menu for patrons featuring gourmet fries, hummus, curry roasted pistachios, naan pizza, a Cuban pork sandwich, and chicken salad wrap.
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