The Penn Brewery, which had been a mainstay business in our neighborhood for more than 20 years, will reopen soon. Tom Pastorius, the founder of the microbrewery, has purchased the business from the investment group which had purchased it from him more than six years ago. The microbrewery brewed and served authentic German beers, including its flagship Penn Pilsner. Earlier this year, just months after Pastorius retired from active operations at the brewery, the investment group shut brewing operations down at the North Side facility and transferred all brewing to a plant in Wilkes Barre. In the meantime, the much loved Penn Brewery Brewpub was the subject of a highly publicized tug of war between the owners of the brewery building and the new operators of Penn Brewery. After announcing the Brewpub would be shut down, the parties struck an 11th hour deal to keep it open in March. However, the damage was done - business at the pub never rebounded to anywhere near the pre-announcement levels and eventually shut down last summer.
Bob Batz, the estimable Post-Gazette Food & Beverage writer (and beer guru) has been following the story closely. Here is his report in today's Post-Gazette.
Tom P reports that he plans to start brewing immediately and will reopen the restaurant as soon as the beer is ready. We at The Priory welcome our neighbor and friend back, and look forward to many more years of fruitful partnership.
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