enough money for tables, light fixtures, that kind of stuff, so we just built it all. We got the restaurant open in about seven months but we still had to renovate the pub side and install the brewery. There were nights where we were basically putting the pipes together for the brewery, dusting ourselves off and heading back into the restau- rant for the dinner rush, serving, bartending, managing.” While a brewpub was something new to downtown Vernon – a thriving district that’s home to more than 550 business- es, 250 retail and service businesses, 52 restaurants and cafes, three art galleries, four parks, eight transit lines, 115 bike racks, and three public parking lots within 46 blocks, according to the Downtown Vernon Association – it was a culmination of every hat worn by the Martens. “Pearl and I both began our careers in hospitality,” Stefan explained. “We worked in a number of pubs, hotels, and restaurants over the years. I started when I was 18. I went to Germany back in 1993 to work in the beer gardens and one of the first things I noticed was the massive difference in beer flavours and styles compared to what we have here at home. Beer in Germany reminded me of milk: any age could buy it; it had an expiry date on the side; it was treated as a fresh product. I remember once I was back home in Canada, I found a can of beer from a fishing trip the year before, I cracked it open and it tasted exactly
was cursed. “For years nothing ever survived there. It was boarded-up, off-and-on, and people used to make jokes about it. Restaurants would come and go, and years before one side of it was a nightclub. One local bank even refused to grant us a loan because of the building’s reputation.”
“We focus on quality and drinkability.”
When it was theirs, the Martens went in with hardhats and sledgehammers first and hammers and measuring tapes second.
“We renovated the whole place ourselves – well we had a couple guys help us out here and there. We didn’t have
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SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS • OCTOBER 2016
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