Today we’d like to introduce you to Matt Schlabach.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Matt. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Since I made my first successful batch of homebrewed beer 16 years ago, I was hooked and knew I wanted to do it professionally. I was in college studying to be a mechanical engineer. I finished up my degree and began working as an engineer but kept working on my vision for what would become City Acre. I’ve always been obsessed with food and cooking so it was important to me to have food available at the brewery as well. We began working with architects, engineers and the City of Houston in earnest several years ago and while it took much longer than anticipated, we opened the doors to our brewery, taproom and restaurant in July of 2016.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
It was quite the rough road for us to open our doors. We experienced numerous delays and false starts and it took us a couple years longer to open than expected. We had to scrap parts of the project a few times and start over. The City of Houston didn’t have much experience in opening brewpubs (rather than breweries) and so we learned together.
Please tell us about City Acre Brewing.
We are a fully functioning brewery, taproom and restaurant. In the restaurant, we use locally sourced food as often as possible and we grow much of it onsite, as well. We have a beautiful, extensive garden and we also have a miniature orchard with about 60 perennial fruit-bearing plants onsite. The restaurant serves unique twists on classic dishes while maintaining a laid-back and unpretentious vibe.
We continuously have 10 different taps of our beer available; five standards and five rotating specialties and seasonals. Because our beer is made and served onsite, there’s always something different available since the last time you came. We utilize our wonderful fruit trees to create unique estate-style specialty beers. City Acre is located on an acre of shade tree-heavy land right off Highway 59 just 10 minutes north of downtown Houston. It gives the feeling of being far out of town without having to go too far.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
There are a million different ways that things could have gone differently over the course of our project, but we wouldn’t be where we are now without those challenges. I feel like everything that happened shaped City Acre into what it is today, and I really can’t imagine the place any other way.
Contact Info:
- Address: 3418 Topping St.
- Website: http://cityacrebrewing.com/
- Phone: 832 377 0237
- Email: info@cityacrebrewing.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/cityacrebrewing/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CityAcreBrewingCo/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/cityacrebrewing
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/city-acre-brewing-houston
Image Credit:
CAB Team Photo: courtesy of Gary Borders, all other pictures courtesy of City Acre Brewing
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