On August 1 Switchback Brewing was scheduled to present plans to Burlington's Development Review Board for a relocated and expanded taproom and restaurant in the historic brick building to the north of its production facility at 160 Flynn Avenue. Gretchen Langfeldt, Switchback's plant engineer, said the proposal will more than double the size of the current taproom, which opened in 2014 in the brewery's southwest corner. Completion is projected for summer 2024.
The new taproom will have 60 indoor seats plus covered outdoor seating, 16 taps and a full kitchen producing an expanded food menu, Langfeldt said.
"We're bursting at the seams," she said of the current taproom. "We only have 10 taps here and many more beers to showcase. We could have an entire bar that only serves our smoked beers."
Switchback will celebrate its 21st anniversary with a ticketed party on Saturday, August 12. Last year, when the company bought the building where it had been headquartered since 2002, it announced no plans for the newly acquired 5,800-square-foot portion of the property then occupied by Momentum Physical Therapy. But an expansion of the taproom and its outdoor seating space seemed likely in light of all the beer buzz in the area around Pine Street, which has been nicknamed Pint Street.
Langfeldt noted that Switchback shares many customers with Burlington Beer's taproom and restaurant, which opened next door at 180 Flynn Avenue in 2021. Switchback's new taproom will be slightly closer to Burlington Beer.
"We're cutting the commute between breweries," Langfeldt joked.