Garden Path Fermentation opening Bottle Shop and Lounge in downtown Bellingham
Burlington, Washington’s Garden Path Fermentation project has been in the news lately for being the chief plaintiff in a lawsuit against the state of Oregon over self-distribution and direct-to-consumer shipping laws. The acclaimed brewery that specializes in farmhouse, wild yeast, foeder, and spontaneously fermented beers and mead has even more positive news today that they are opening a downtown Bellingham location.
Garden Path Fermentation has announced the upcoming opening of The Great Northern Bottle Shop and Lounge at 1319 Commercial Street in the current location of Uisce Irish Pub. The Skagit County brewery operates a rare specialty bottle shop at their Burlington location, and is one of the best places to find more cult and niche beers, they will extend that model to Bellingham to showcase both their own products and others.
Images gallery from Uisce Irish Pub, future home of Garden Path Fermentation in Bellingham:
“When we opened Garden Path in April 2018, our mission was twofold. We wanted to create beer, cider, wine, and mead using hyperlocal ingredients and native yeast, and we wanted to share our fermented beverages as well as those from producers that inspire us with Washington drinkers,” says Garden Path Co-owner Amber Watts. “Our brewery and taproom in Burlington features a curated selection of thoughtfully made beers and ciders as well as minimal intervention wines, including our own. We love to tell the stories behind them, and we’re eager to expand our customer base and share our enthusiasm. Nothing will change at the Burlington location, but our space in Bellingham is much larger and will allow us to offer a broader selection of guest beer, cider, and wine, as well as more onsite events.”
Co-owner Ron Extract explains the move as a unique opportunity for growth:
“Having a presence in Bellingham will help us to forge a stronger relationship with the city’s craft beer, wine, cider, and culinary communities and to be even more specialized in our retail offerings, bringing in direct shipments from out-of-state breweries and wineries and in time building what we hope will be among the best curated selections of lambic, farmhouse ale, minimal intervention wine, and traditional cider that can be found anywhere in the world.”
Garden Path says the official opening date is still undetermined with licensing and buildout timelines often shifting, but they are determined to open their doors this fall. The Uisce Irish pub is a beatutiful space replete with finished hard wood, a large oak bar, UK beer signs and mirrors, and classic bronze tap towers, even a cozy fireplace, this is a major contrast to Garden Path’s more bare bones production space in a commercial warehouse building in Burlington.
According to Watts, Garden Path will have some very special soft-opening events when they are ready to announce.
About Garden Path Fermentation
Located in the beautiful rural Skagit Valley in Northwest Washington, Garden Path Fermentation makes hyperlocal beer, mead, cider, and wine only using ingredients sourced from our own backyard. We exclusively use Skagit-grown grain, fruit and honey, Pacific Northwest hops, and ferment all of our products in oak with 100% native Skagit yeast. Our process draws on old-world brewing and winemaking techniques from a variety of traditions, which we reinterpret and adapt to take maximum advantage of the Skagit Valley’s abundant resources and temperate climate. Visit http://gardenpathwa.com for more information or follow us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @gardenpathwa. https://gardenpathwa.com