How about a beer garden party to celebrate the first day of summer?
Springdale’s Leaning Cask Brewing Company is holding a grand opening of its new outdoor beer garden, “The Courtyard,” on Sunday.
The entrance to the beer garden is directly through the pub on Pittsburgh Street and has seating for up to 50 people but room for nearly 100 for those who don’t mind standing.
Oddly enough, the inspiration for the beer garden came from the pandemic.
“We always envisioned having an outdoor space. We always wanted a beer garden. It wasn’t part of our initial opening,” said Stephanie Lipke, who co-owns the brewing company along with husband Josh Lipke. “Then, during covid, people were wanting outdoor space and so we kind of kept looking at it and thinking ‘Oh man, this would be great.’”
Courtyard Grand Opening Countdown = 2 days away
Pub is open 4-10pm tonight (weather permitting you can visit the Courtyard and see the progress for yourself ?)
@pghtortas out front tonight. Happy Friday! ? pic.twitter.com/TglFwtnBvx
— Leaning Cask Brewing Company (@leaningcask) June 18, 2021
Lipke said the space they were coveting is adjacent to the pub and belonged to the borough and it wasn’t being utilized.
“It’s a beautiful space and, working with the borough, it’s a plan we put into motion during covid,” said Lipke, who adds that she has no doubt a beer garden inspired by English tradition will work in Springdale.
“We’ve been doing it with an inside space for the last few years and we’ve found that people are really interested in it. We serve traditional cask ale as well as more English style ales so we have people that will seek it out,” she said. “It’s unique to the Springdale area and Pittsburgh area at large, so having seen that it’s going well in our pub space, we’re really excited to extend it outside.”
Food will be provided by a variety of food trucks serving everything from Indian food to pizza and burgers and fries. The outdoor space also has two fire pits and room for games such as giant checkers and Jenga, a game where people build a tower out of wooden blocks. Patrons can bring their pets as long as they are on a leash.
“We’ve already had some people out in the space because we did a sneak peak for our fourth anniversary this week. So, it’s been great, a lot of positive feedback and people are really excited,” said Lipke.
Lipke said she also envisions developing another outdoor space on the roof of their Pittsburgh Street building though that’s probably a few years away.
