Hump day and all is well. We continue to march forward on the draft system. The Alchemist has finished the inside of the box and hopped up Johnny has only the front of the draft box to clamp and biscuit join together. Beer shall flow in the near future. The hard working boys from union beer stopped by. For those of you not in the know they are the kind fellows that distribute some very awesome craft brew through our fair land. Craft beers that will hopefully be sliding down your discerning gullets very soon. The evening has finished creeping in and is in full swing and my little dog, BillyJean, is awaiting my arrival and her final walk around the yard to see which neighbor dogs hiked there leg to say hello. Tomorrow should bring the beginning of the end of the last large project on the list. And with a little luck we will be getting you all a date when the doors will swing open. Cheers and Salutations!
Johnny
My fellow citizens, this is the time. Our little village of Peekskill is starting to close the shutters and bed down for the night. The clouds are fighting for space with a starry sky. And this is the time when the demons of another long day slowly seep out of a tired mind and it is time to blog. Tim, the 
Alchemist, has been tunneling underground for the last couple of days putting together the veins of the operation. Veins of the operation? Yes, my friends, the life force of our little tavern. No, I am not talking about blood. I am talking about BEER. The Alchemist has attached all the beer lines to their regulators and has made that little Old Cold Box look prettier than a county fair prize winning pig in a tin can smoker. Johnny has been very gingerly putting together a mahogany draft tower. The project moves on about the speed of a snail, but we are looking forward to the fruits of the extra care. Cheers and Salutations,
Johnny
P.S. More draught pics here.
Its 8:30 in the evening, and what a beautiful evening it is. There is a perfect half moon in the sky and the stars are bright enough to drown out the lights of the city. My partner Tim, you guys know Tim, can’t seem to get his Mercedes door to open. If you have been reading you know Tim buys old cars and fixes them up. Well this is one of those nights when fixing old cars is a bit of a pain in the proverbial back cushion. We are inching ever so closer to our opening date. Every day brings a new challenge, but every day also brings huge discoveries and even blessings. This was Saturday and a lot of people stopped by to say hello. My hiking buddies came through. I was a little jealous thinking about the dirt and sticks they had stumped through and the awesome Hudson valley vistas they contemplated life over, but it gave me a huge charge to have them come by. Not to mention our lovely neighbors that stopped by with their three month old rock star Stella. Folks these people brought me cake. Now if you want to be taken well care of at the Birdsall House a good rule of thumb is to bring cake. On a hard working Saturday cake is good. Especially this cake, It was GOOD cake.
Johnny
George Washington brewed Beer! Actually back in his day they brewed Beer for sustenance. You see they didn’t have a quickie mart or 7-11 where they could fill up with a red bull and a gallon of Poland springs water. Old George didn’t have a state of the art water filtration system in his town. More likely the water came from the same river that the troops took a tinkle. So, what is a General of the Revolutionary army to drink on a hot summer day on the battle field? Well let me answer that my fellow plebes, BEER! Weak, watery beer, but beer nonetheless. Beer dates back to sometime around 10,000 BC, but for our purposes we will start with George. Jefferson brew his own Beer as well. I have been told that his recipe is pretty good actually and let’s not forget good old Benjamin Franklin who was quoted saying, “Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.”
America’s Love for Beer continued after our revolutionary beginnings until the late 1800’s when the industry peaked with over 4000 local breweries around the country. That means we had a brewery in almost every medium sized town back in the day. The beer styles varied but were mostly English inspired ales. At least until the mass migration of Germans in the late 1800’s bringing their lager styles. These were the hay days of American Beer. Rationing from a couple of world wars, prohibition, and Beer accountants advising the use of corn and by the early 1900’s we were stuck with only five major breweries and tasteless watered down beer. Don’t get to sad yet, In the 70’s Fritz Maytag reopened an old California Brewery by the name of Anchor and started making steam Beer. He inspired a lot of people and four decades later we are back in the middle of a beer heyday. Malt, hops, and yeast the flavors, textures, aromas that these three simple ingredients can create are endless. We at the Birdsall House cannot wait to take you on a journey to the past and into the future with the most incredible beverage in the world, BEER!
-Johnny
When I first got into this racket back in 1996 I was living in Alphabet City on Ave. C and 9th St. There was one bar on Ave. C back then - 9C. The bartending staff was welcoming and well versed in the craft of the cocktail, but the place was just a divey juke joint that built up a legendary Monday night bluegrass jam. It was my living-room. The owner, Kenny Nye was often at the bar and, I came to realize later, gave the place that 'thing' that can make a good place great: Owner Operated. The vibe in any establishment should trickle down from the top, as long as the top isn't several rungs up on a corporate management ladder. Kenny was a good-humored guy, but he also didn't take any shit and he ran a great place. I told Kenny once I would like to own my own place someday. He told to me I should take my money and "throw it into the East River." But I didn't have any money. I was lucky if I had two nickels to rub together back then and I was still learning my way in this business. My Own Place seemed as likely as winning the lottery. Kenny went on to sell 9C in 2003 and focus on human kind's other precious liquid: coffee. He founded Ninth Street Espresso in 2001 and now pulls the best espresso in Manhattan. Coffee's been good to Kenny.
Back then I was budding New York bartender from Los Angeles, CA. A million martinis and 14 years later, I'm a small business owner in the Hudson Valley. The budget for the Birdsall House is small. We don't have much money for marketing, but a website and word of mouth has been very effective in a small town like Peekskill. Everyone we talk to seems genuinely excited for us to open. John and I are building this place out on our own, and though the bones of the place are solid and the bar and booths were in place when we arrived, there is still LOADS of dirty work to do here. But it's satisfying work. Stressful and nerve-racking at times? Yes. Tough on the family life? Absolutely. All things considered, we are ecstatic to be building this place in Peekskill and for this project we are happily going to throw or money (and future) into this Hudson River town.
-Tim
Oh Monday, Monday… as the tune goes. And a holiday to boot. We are transitioning from the heavy work to the more detailed stuff. Like installing our 20 line draft system with all the bells and whistles, sending out our first press release to all of our local papers, and tinkering with all the little details that will hopefully make this little tavern shine. Although today was sunny and beautiful and all I wanted to do was be outside and play in the dirt. I guess there will be time for that later. One high point in a more than usual unmotivated day was meeting the great folks over at 3&Co. They are located right here in Peekskill on North Division. Listen folks these ladies are the real deal and if you’re in the market for Promotional design you should visit their website http://www.threeandco.com they gave us the coolest T-shirts. Mine is a dark green that says PKSKLL across the front. For those of you slower community members that is short for Peekskill. Anyway, Tomorrow is Tuesday and not a holiday and we have big plans to conquer the world starting at 8:00am. Maybe 7:30 if Home depot doesn’t take too long.
Johnny
This is a story about an Ice Machine. An ice machine you say, what could possibly be interesting about an ice machine? Well, this little maker of ice lives in the basement of the old Connolly’s, soon to be the Birdsall house. The first my attention was drawn to the machine was during an early inspection of the space with our then soon to be landlords. One of the Connolly’s pointed in the direction of what appeared to be the oldest and dirtiest looking machine I had ever seen and announced that everything in the space works except that. The ice machine had panels missing, parts hanging off and dirt that seemed to have been built up since the space was an A&P back in the early 1900’s. I was already calculating how hard it would be to carry it up the stairs and heave in the trash pile in the back yard. Enter Tim Reinke, my business partner and mechanical engineer extraordinaire. When Tim said he could fix the old ice relic every nerve in my body screamed NO!!!! TRASH!!!! But I have seen Tim take an old Mercedes that probably shouldn’t have even been on the road in the first place and take it apart, put back together and drive for several years.
So against my better judgment I shut-up and let Tim do his thing. Or I should say I shut up a little bit and let Tim do his thing. I am happy to say that our little ice maker that could is almost up and running. Our little ice factory is no longer an eye sore. It is no longer a cause for stress. Instead it has become a symbol of what we can do with what we have. And In a way I think of Peekskill when I ponder the ice machine. Peekskill is old and it has 100 years of dirt and grime still stuck to it in places. But just like the Birdsall boys and their little ice maker I see people all over Peekskill washing the dirt away and making something old new again.
-Johnny
All of our refrigeration is up and running! The cold box, behind the bar, glycol machine & ice machine (which will be a whole other blog) have been charged with freon and getting chilly - thanks for Freddy Ayala of Blizzard Refrigeration, our new refrigeration guy. In this business you want a good refrigeration guy. We found him by Googling. He doesn't have a website, but his number is 845-526-3435 if you're in need of a good refrigeration repairman. He knows what he's doing and his pricing is fair and affordable.
We're still sweating it out in the basement. We've been painting the subterranean exteriors walls with Dry-Lok all week and there's finally an end in sight. John's has cemented some of the rough spots on the basement floor, so tomorrow we should be able to paint the floors and be done with the basement - except for the draught system. All of our draught system components have arrived and we're getting ready for the install.
John Emerald Sharp came in to this world in 1926. Born in the hills of the Ozark Mountains in Southern Missouri to Hugh and Clara Sharp. In his early days he was a US Army Air Corp Veteran. Most of the stories I remember from those days consisted of him and some Air corp. buddies taking the plane for joy rides or duck hunting with a machine gun. Needless to say he spoke of those days with a glimmer in his eyes. After his stint with the Military he came back to his hometown Croker, MO and got to work in the family feed and grocery distributorship, Sharps Grain and Supply. One day he was standing outside the office with a friend and saw a new girl in town. I guess the young lady must have been a looker because he turned to his friend and confidently pronounced that he was going to marry that girl. Seven days later he proposed with a wooden ring and some dead flowers. You see John could be quite the jokester in his day. He used to go to parties with a spool of thread in his inside pocket. He would then poke the end of the thread through his jacket to the other side. Then when some unsuspecting person tried to help him get rid of that pesky thread on his nice sport jacket the thread would keep coming and coming. He had many tricks up his sleeves. Anyway, when confronted with the wooden ring and dead flowers Sarah Hammock must of got the joke, because they married soon after.
My Grandfather passed away this summer, and I think about him all the time. I think about his place in his community and what he meant to so many people. The life’s he touched by being part of a town and running a small business in that town. I think about the path that I am now on and I hope I can fill his shoes in my community as well as he did.
Hanging over the bar at the Birdsall House are three hanging globe lights. These lights were from my grandfather’s office. They probably date back to the late 30’s or early 40’s. So, if one night you’re in the bar and you happen to look up and you see a little glimmer from one of those lights that’s John Emerald Sharp saying Hello!
Paula Connolly dropped off a few pictures today, which have been posted in Pictures under "The Old Place". We plan to dedicate a wall in the tavern to history - that is the history of this space and some Peekskill history. We'll hopefully be getting more old pictures soon (and if anyone out has others, let us know: bh@birdsallhouse.net).
We've been focusing on the basement for the past week. Lots of dust and dirt, but it's coming along. Our draught tower has been put on hold for the time being as we re-design it. I don't think we'll be able to build what we had originally intended. It's still going to match the decor in the bar, but it's going to be less complex. If you've been following our renovations you know that we can only use a very small section of the bar to support our 20 line draught tower. We're going to build it out of mahogany, which we have, but we're going to wait untill we have some of our draught parts before we start cutting wood. We'll post some pictures once the process starts.
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As much as the Birdsall House means to me, I have another satifying endeavour - helping Brandy raise our 2 children - our son who is 3 1/2 and our daughter who is 8 weeks. So I spent yesterday with my family. It can be a difficult balancing act, as most days (except Sunday) I'm gone before anyone wakes up and I'm often home after the kids have gone to bed. I'm a small business owner, but I'm also a father. My family and I went into Manhattan yesterday and as anyone who has a toddler and newborn knows, going anywhere, especially on a belowing freezing day, can be like moving a small army. You must have a plan of action (as well as a plan B), be well stocked on supplies & patience and have eyes on the back of your head. But it's always worth it. My son is still young enough that going just about anywhere is entertaining to him, which I'm thankful for as his happiness and laugh are intoxicating to me. We left the house at 8am and returned home just as the sun was setting. After making dinner and reading my son two books, everybody got a good night sleep. It was a great day.
Today I'm back at the Birdsall House (after waking early to wash my sons pee soaked sheets and make his bed) cleaning out the basement and trying to fix an old ice machine. We still have a laundry list of items to check off before we open, which is why we haven't been able to set an opening date as of yet. But this little tavern becomes more beautiful to me everyday and hopefully, in the near future, to the patorns who frequent the Birdsall House. We are building a good place and after over a decade of being in the this buisness, I like to think I know a little about what it takes to build a good place and a successful business. As owners, John and I can only do so much. We can control what the place looks like and who we hire and keep a close eye on the product we serve. But it's the people that frequent your establishment that make it a great place. If culitvated correctly, I believe that bars and taverns can build bonds almost as stong a family and for some it can replace the family bond. A great tavern should not just be a place to get a cold beer and meal, it should be one of the centers of the community, a place where news and information are shared and heard, good or bad.
It can be dangerous, but we have set our expectations high. Hopefully we will have it all: great beer, great food & great conversation. In my opinion, all three can be inspiring.
Due to overwhelming demand: Pictures of Mattie's expert painting job in the Ladies Room.
The cold box has been rehabilitated and heavily insulated. Just waiting for draught system and kegs!
When we started cleaning the cold box out we discovered 1/2 the floor and the light soffit was rotten. We pulled out all of the bad wood, re-framed the soffit and replaced the 2 x 10s on the floor. Then we bought a six pack of Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale.
Unfortunately, we're not open. But we're here working. We've gotten the paper off the floor now that most of the dirty interior work is done and we've put the booths and their tables back in place. Focusing on the basement today, clearing out a work space to building the draught tower and finish the renovation of the cold box. Also, just got our first bit of press in the Peekskill Daily. See you in the New Year!