Union Avenue Brewing Co. Serves Inventive Brews and Upscale Bar Meals

Union Avenue Brewing Co. in Hudson opened on July 15 to a packed home. Situated in a Thirties warehouse in historic downtown Hudson, the brewery is a block away from bustling Warren Avenue. Turning down Cherry Alley, you enter by way of the walled beer backyard, which is decked out with lush inexperienced plantings, four-top tables, and glossy, black Adirondack chairs.

Contained in the taproom, you’ll discover a excessive ceiling criss-crossed with darkish wooden beams, a black U-shaped bar, a poured-concrete ground, and wooden tables of various sizes and styles. A lot of the wooden is reclaimed from the unique warehouse. “We’re simply going to deal with offering the very best expertise for our prospects, [giving] them excellent drinks, nice service, nice meals in a welcoming environment,” says Emma O’Donnell, who based the brewery along with her husband Paul and manages taproom operations.

Neither had been within the brewery business earlier than opening Union Avenue, however they’ve been house brewers for greater than 10 years. At first, they invited family and friends over to pattern their beers—predominantly IPAs, a method that offered them with alternatives to experiment with a spread of flavors and components. Round 2019, as they refined their strategies and discovered extra in regards to the course of, the O’Donnells realized they wished to show their interest right into a career. “We realized we’d wish to take this a step additional and share it with our neighborhood,” Emma says.

The couple, who reside in Purple Hook, discovered their area on Union Avenue in 2021 after scouring actual property listings on-line and driving across the Hudson Valley, optimistically trying to find a “on the market” signal. “It’s difficult discovering the correct website for a enterprise like ours, that mixes each a producing and a client-facing [front],” Emma says.

After closing on the area in October 2021, they broke floor in March of the next yr. The renovation took 15 months, as a result of the constructing and adjoining lot had been in “fairly tough form,” in keeping with Emma. The warehouse area had not been utilized in practically 50 years. They selected to protect the envelope of the constructing and the wooden beams supporting the ceiling to “slot in with a Hudson historic vibe, and [the] look of town,” Emma says.

With 5 faucets, Union Avenue will probably be open year-round, serving summer time ales and chilly IPAs within the heat months and heavier, warming beers like chocolatey stouts within the winter. Present choices embrace a summer time ale with citra and mosaic hops and a spelt pale ale, in addition to stouts and hazy IPAs. The brewmaster Keir Hamilton leans into German- and Czech-style beers, together with pilsners, lagers, and kolschs. The beer recipe improvement is a collaboration between Hamilton and Paul.

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Courtesy of Union Avenue Brewing Co.

Union Avenue additionally serves wine by the glass (hovering round $12), cider from the New Paltz-based Brooklyn Cider Home ($8), and canned cocktails from Southern Tier ($12). Union Avenue beers and their associates deal with utilizing native components, which helps Hudson Valley farmers and reduces the brewery’s carbon footprint.

Whereas many breweries lately are choosing the lower-maintenance meals truck route, the O’Donnells have leaned into their culinary choices with CIA-trained head chef Joel Somerstein. Union Avenue serves an upscale bar meals menu, that includes fusion small plates designed to be eaten together with your arms. “[Our menu] is type of eclectic, type of like [a] world traveler,” says Emma.

Count on choices just like the lamb koftas, a historically Center Japanese dish, inflected with Indian spices and served on skewers. The “greater bites” part of the menu runs the gamut from shrimp tacos served with salsa verde and crema to sausage in puff pastry with beer mustard. Snacks embrace bar nuts and chips dusted with togarashi, a Japanese chili powder.

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Courtesy of Union Avenue Brewing Co.

The flavour profile of the menu was impressed by Emma’s travels in Asia; she moved to Tokyo in 1991 after she completed school. It was in Tokyo that she met Paul. In 1996, Paul’s job introduced them each again to New York, the place he labored in finance. Emma had a profession in human assets, then educated as an inside designer, and later transitioned into the brewery enterprise. “Every thing you do in life helps you with beginning a enterprise,” she displays, noting how her time in HR taught her undertaking administration, and how you can create a constructive work atmosphere. Due to her inside design coaching, as soon as renovations started she was in a position to work carefully with the architects and creatively collaborate on a imaginative and prescient for the area.

Along with the beer backyard and taproom, Union Avenue has a 1,000-square-foot occasion area, and although they’ve been open for lower than per week they’ve already been flooded with requests for weddings and personal events. Within the close to future, they might maintain their very own occasions, reminiscent of beer tastings and seated dinners with beer pairings. When there isn’t an occasion occurring, the area serves as a lounge, decked out with plush sofas and crops.

Beer Vacation spot

Hudson is already a burgeoning beer tourism vacation spot, with three different breweries throughout the metropolis limits, and the O’Donnells are pleased for Union Avenue to turn out to be a part of that. “We really feel {that a} rising tide lifts all boats,” Emma says.

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Courtesy of Union Avenue Brewing Co.

“We love the neighborhood round beer,” she says of her the-more-the-merrier method. “If you go to California, nobody says ‘Oh my God, there’s too many wineries.’”

Don’t miss a summer time afternoon spent stress-free at Union Avenue, open Thursday-Sunday.