I had the pleasure of recording a show with Ebullition Brew Works co-owner Jesse Richardson recently at their new Bressi Ranch location over some tasty beers and a nice sampling of their menu. I should note that the food was spot on, especially the House Cultured Bread & Butter and Traditional Pretzel with choice of beer cheese, vegan queso, and house made beer mustard. These are all very good things to be drinking beer with!
I also sampled the delicious Hot Chicken Sandwich and don’t miss the Cherry Blossom Doughnut for dessert. Jesse was just such an approachable guy who had a lot to share in our radio interview so I thought
I’d share some of that here and let you get to know the guy behind Ebullition Brew Works in Vista and now Bressi Ranch. Jesse also made a special request to change his dream concert lineup that is part of the music episode on Lick the Plate to include Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughn and BB King. So there you Jesse, I am a man of my word!
LTP:
Where did you grow up and tell me how that shaped your relationship with food.
Jesse:
I grew up in a little town in the High Desert called Piñon Hills, just outside of Victorville. Nothing but coyotes and jack rabbits up there so the food options were pretty limited. I grew up with great food at home but the variety was limited. When I moved out of the house and got a place in Orange County I was exposed to a diverse range of foods, pretty much available anytime and within a 10-minute drive. It was at that time that I really got into visiting new restaurants and trying new things and then trying to recreate those things at home.
LTP:
What led to your decision to open a brewery?
Jesse:
I think what ultimately led to starting a brewery was the desire to create and build plus a wanting for change in my life at the time. My wife was working at Stone Brewing as an accountant and we were always surrounded by great beer and were part of a community that was like none other. I was a huge fan of Stone, it was my gateway into craft beer back in the early 2000s so when my wife got a job there back in 2010 and I found out that beer can be brewed at home, I had to do it. I’ve always been a hobbyist so I love the garage engineering side of building your own brew system and creating different recipes. I had a career in marketing and design but I wanted to do something new. My cousin and partner Erik Dyrr and I were home brewing together a lot back then and he was looking for something new as well so I threw out the idea of partnering on a small brewery business and he was all in. We needed a little more seed money beyond what we were contributing so my friend and business associate Jan Buncher were talking one day and he mentioned that he liked the idea of getting into the industry. In 2013 the three of us formed the corporation and began working toward our goal of starting a tiny 3BBL brewery. Shortly after we formed the corporation, the industry really started to explode with many small breweries popping up, especially in North County. We quickly realized that if we wanted to have longevity in the industry, we would have to size ourselves large enough for distribution so we began looking for funding and ultimately went with a larger 10BBL brew house and a larger space.
LTP:
Tell me about the Vista location.
Jesse:
Our production facility is located in Vista business park where we rub shoulders with many other great breweries all within a very tight radius. We were number 17 to the area at the time and there have been several other new breweries that have popped up since we opened. We began build out in 2016 and opened in July of 2017. We have a 4,000-swuare-foot space, which houses our 10 BBL brew house and tasting room. We opened up another 4,000-square-foot next door to support our distribution efforts.
LTP:
The Vista location has a lot of live music going on, tell me about the mix of music you book.
Jesse:
We started out with a few people wanting to have a birthday or private event at our place and they wanted to have bands. The interest started to grow and we started to have bands contact us to play at our place. Our customers started to really show an interest in when we were bringing acts in so we started working with a promoter and putting more into being a place that could showcase local artists and bands from abroad. Our partner Jan Buncher heads up the events and puts in a ton of work finding talented artists across all kinds of different genres.
LTP:
Food trucks are a big part of the scene in Vista, what trucks participate in that?
Jesse:
We have built relationships with some great food trucks and it’s a great way to bring food to the area and have that for customers. Screamin’ Petes BBQ, Grumpy Bear BBQ, El Clamatazo, Phatties and El Jalisco have delicious food. One of the ones that I’m really impressed with is Elote Locos. They take something as simple as corn and do some really inventive things with it. It not only looks spectacular but it’s incredibly tasty too.
LTP:
How did the Bressi Ranch location come to be and what was your vision for that space?
Jesse:
We have lived, worked and eaten in the area for the last 15 years and have seen Bressi Ranch really turn into a pretty cool spot for food and beer. When we saw that they were building a new center, we jumped at the opportunity to be considered as one of the new businesses to go into the center. We liked the anti-mall concept that the property owner had for the center and thought we could fit will among the mix of businesses they already in the build out phase. We initially just wanted to have a tasting room but the city preferred that we have a full kitchen so the inner foodies in us were excited to take on the challenge. We like to use the term “Gastro-lounge.” Food and beer with elevated finishes and design.
LTP:
Tell me about your kitchen staff and their food and wine vision for the new location.
Jesse:
We have an awesome team at the new location. Our chef, Joshua Caprai, brings an insane creativity and inventiveness to everything he creates, and he has a killer team to help execute his vision. We really want this new location to showcase the wildly different flavor compositions that can be achieved when you bring food and beer together. We want our place to be one that caters to the culinary adventurer. Of course, we will have the classics that go so well with beer like our traditional soft pretzel with Irish red ale beer cheese bur we want to take it further.
Some upcoming events worth noting include Bonneville 7 band playing Feb. 14 at 6 p.m. at the Vista location and Cashed Out on Feb. 29. A Valentine’s Day special at the Bressi Ranch location includes Azul Baja Oysters with scratch made Lychee pearls served over aromatic salt and paired with their Whole Hearted Cherry Wheat Ale.
Check out both locations at www.ebullitionbrew.com.
1 comment
Sounds great!
Comments are closed.