[Editor’s note: Neighbors all over New England are supporting their local businesses, where possible, through online purchases and home delivery or grab-and-go orders like those offered by this gay-owned one profiled in our March/April 2020 issue. Dorchester Brewing Company and M&M BBQ are taking to-go orders online, including curbside pick-up, daily from 11:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Here’s also what they were doing before the COVID-19 pandemic and hopefully will eventually resume, once it’s safe to open gathering spots to the public again:]
The Dorchester Brewing Company has been brewing something more than beer over the last several months. The gay-owned beer company, like the neighborhood from which it borrows its name, has been growing. In January it opened its new rooftop solarium, extended event space and kitchen. It also expanded its offerings to include cider and wine. If the rooftop add-on is any indication of the brewery’s future, the clear message is that the sky’s the limit.
“It’s such a fun thing to be working at a brewery and also working with cider and wine. It’s all the things that make people happy, right?” says CEO Matt Malloy, 51.
The original idea for the brewery came to Malloy while on a trip to Munich, Germany; a place famous for its love of beer and Oktoberfest. During that trip, he and his husband, Mike, visited a beer garden where Malloy witnessed people from one to 100, enjoying a liter of beer together. It dawned on him: Beer is community and community is beer. This is a principle that is the base dogma of Dorchester Brewing Company.
“We had been living in Dorchester for eight years at that point and we asked ourselves; ‘Why can’t we have this in Dorchester? Why do we have to keep going to other places to have this?’ So then I started down the path of figuring out how to make this place a reality,” says Malloy.
The brewery has been a boon for Dorchester. It currently employs 34 full-time employees and has created a communal space for locals and a destination for tourists. The space, which was formerly a sheet metal manufacturing company, can hold over 350 people in its expanded state and it has given the iconic neighborhood some iconic signage.
“The sign outside only says ‘Dorchester.’ It doesn’t say ‘Dorchester Brewing Company’ and that was done on purpose. The first person who caught onto that was the mayor. He got out of his car for a ribbon cutting and he looked up and said ‘Nice sign! We should landmark this.’ The sign and this brewery is a celebration of Dorchester. Which is really how we sell this thing,” says Malloy.
Malloy knows something about selling. He was in marketing before he was a brewer. That experience informs much of the thought process on how the brewery has and will continue to evolve. Malloy knows that in order to sell you have to give the customers and the community what it wants.
He has done this by offering a wide array of choices in beer that constantly rotate in and out. A regular visitor to the brewery could come back every day and potentially experience something new on tap. He also recognized that the brewery was missing out on nonbeer drinkers. Malloy shared that in his family he has three siblings who don’t drink beer and therefore never were able to support the brewery in the way they wanted. The next thing you know Dorchester Brewing is in the wine and cider business. That business appears to be booming.
On any given afternoon the brewery is filled with people. They can be found all over the large space. Some are enjoying arcade games on the first floor. Others are celebrating in the event space. And a few can be found cozying up by the fireplace in the solarium on a snowy night. In the spring a rooftop patio with views of downtown Boston will likely be the go-to spot for the community where they can enjoy the sun and maybe even some barbecue.
“When you ask customers what they want, they will tell you. It is as simple as that. You address needs, you can’t create them. So we thought, lets have some good wines and a good cider on tap. Also let’s add food to it. How about barbecue and beer? It’s the most obvious combination.” says Malloy.
Malloy reached out to Geo Lambert to help with the food after noticing that night after night his M&M Ribs food truck was selling out. Lambert is a third generation Dorchester native whose family has a long history of serving great barbecue to the community. Lambert ran M&M BBQ as a catering and pop-up operation, following in the footsteps of his grandparents. The location inside of the brewery is the first permanent brick and mortar for Lambert’s incarnation of his family business.
“We didn’t just want to serve food. We wanted to serve good food. And now we are.” says Malloy.
For online orders, go to dorchesterbrewing.com.
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