I announced on Twitter (but not here) that Fat Bottom Brewing will open up at 900 Main Street in East Nashville, in part of the old Fluffo/Capitol City Mattress factory.
The space that I've leased is the corner at 9th Street and Main, with the blue awning and small windows, about 5,500 square feet total. It sounds like a lot, but we are going to be packing it in pretty tight. I might have gotten away with a little less space, but not by much.
I've been working with Powell Design & Construction Studios, which has been great. They have worked on other brewery projects, are involved in design and build-out of other tenant spaces in the building, and are based in East Nashville. The team has great ideas for layout and have really helped me think about how the space will be used.
A few things like roof repairs are moving forward and we're close to putting the rest of the work out to bid. Before we begin clean up and construction, I wanted to quickly show what the building looks like today. The place looks like a mess in these photos (and it is), but you'll just have to imagine.
Tap room and courtyard
To the right is a shot from inside the tap room, looking from where the bar will be towards the eventual courtyard, which still has a roof over it.
To the left is the walkway looking from the tap room towards the brewery itself.
I should probably explain that the layout of this building is split across the middle with an old brick wall which that arched doorway goes through.
The whole Fluffo factory was an amalgam of buildings that went up over time. I have leased two (connected) structures in the oldest part of the complex. The brewery will be in the original building on the site, at the corner of 9th and Main. Packaging, storage, and the tap room will be in the next building back along 9th. I neglected to take any shots of the packaging and storage area, but it is just a big empty space.
The brewery
Finally, here are a few shots in the brewery itself. The first is looking toward Main Street while standing in front of the archway shown below.The second is from the front doors on Main looking to the back of the building. Obviously all the walls and wires hanging down will go away.
Finally, this is a photo of a doorway in the brewery that will be opened up. This shot is looking toward 9th Street while standing next to the interior dividing wall mentioned above. This is an old building with a lot of architectural details that have been covered up over the years, which I want to restore where possible.Note the brick archway (structural!) and the window to the right, which I'm also planning to replace. The window was just faced with brick on the outside...they didn't even bother taking out most of the glass!
The other cool thing in this photo, which I hadn't ever seen before, are the tile blocks that were used to the right of the archway. They're square blocks made of terra cotta (or something similar) that were used to build up the wall like we would use cinder blocks today. A lot of the walls in here were constructed like that and we will expose and keep as many as possible.Once we've finished layout and the construction drawings are complete, I'll post a diagram of how it all fits together.
