The Beertown Public House brand continues to grow with the opening of its latest location in Whitby, Ontario.
The Charcoal Group, based out of Kitchener, Ontario, owns the brand which now has 11 locations.
“We just opened our tenth location last year and it feels like we are surpassing a huge milestone and moving on to something bigger than we ever imagined,” said Jody Palubiski, partner and CEO of the Charcoal Group. “We are excited to build off this momentum and to continue our goal of creating a dining revolution.
“We’re also in the midst of building number 12 which will be our second unit in London at White Oaks Mall.”
He said that location should open in early November.
The first location opened in Cambridge, Ontario in April 2012. All the locations are in southwestern Ontario – in order of opening, Cambridge, Waterloo, London, Burlington, Oakville, Guelph, Barrie, Toronto, Etobicoke, Newmarket and now Whitby.
“Two of my partner’s parents founded the Charcoal Steak House in 1955. So we have quite an extensive legacy and history within the company. Lots of relationships built over that time. My two partners bought that business from their parents back in the 90s. And back in 2003-2004 I joined the group with the idea that we were going build on the history of the Charcoal Steak House and build the Charcoal Group of Restaurants,” said Palubiski.
“At the time, Kitchener-Waterloo was in the middle of a big tech boom with Blackberry, Open Tech, all of those businesses. We opened Wildcraft (Grill + Long Bar) as an extension of that. When it first opened it was known as the RIM cafeteria – Research in Motion which became Blackberry. We opened Wildcraft in 2007. We opened The Bauer Kitchen in 2009.
“The recession hit and we started looking at who was doing well and where the needle was going and where the puck was going. The results were saying we really felt good about this beer orientation. The craft beer we thought was an emerging market.
“We’ve come from a background of quality food, quality dining experiences and then we married that with craft beer. Although it’s called Beertown, we’ve worked really hard to make sure the food and the program around hospitality and the level of detail management has lived up to everything else in our history and continue to carry that forward.”
The Whitby location is a repurposed former Montana’s location.
“We’re actually actively in discussions on two more. We want to continue to grow but in our world we don’t have a lot of the pressures that competitors have. We’re not a public company. Everyone in this company is focused on excellence before growth and we always joke internally that excellence comes before growth in our group not just in the dictionary,” said Palubiski.
“There’s nothing that says we have to grow. We grow based on opportunities, taking our brand of hospitality further and farther, but when we feel as if we want to we do and when we feel when we’re in a position to do it in keeping with our history we do it. Right now we’re feeling very, very empowered.”
He said the company is energized by the reception and the performance of that business.
The Charcoal Group includes The Charcoal Steakhouse, Martini’s, Dels Italian Kitchen, Wildcraft Grill & Long Bar, The Bauer Kitchen, The Bauer Bakery & Café, Moose Winooski’s, Beertown Public House, and Sociable Kitchen & Tavern.
