Nearly four months after announcing Roanoke as the location for its East Coast brewery, Deschutes executives are still holding to their opening date of 2021. But residents might gain a downtown tasting room well before that, founder Gary Fish said during a press conference Saturday.
Opening a tasting room will depend on finding the right location, however. And any Deschutes location opened downtown would serve beer brewed at the company’s brewery in Bend, Oregon, Fish said.
“I’ve learned a lot of lessons over the years and one of those is not to predict the future, but that’s what we’re talking about right now,” Fish said. “That could happen in relatively short order.”
At a press conference held inside the Roanoke Public Library during Saturday’s Deschutes Street Pub event, Fish and other Deschutes executives said that they understand local impatience with the company’s five-year plan for opening the brewery. The company plans to spend two years designing the building, and then another two building it. The fifth year was included in the plan as a buffer, Fish said.
