City Acre Brewing: A Dream Realized

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HOUSTON — The dream began in early 2009. My middle daughter, Meredith, and her future husband, Matt, drove us about 10 minutes north of downtown, up Hwy. 59 to look at a house they were negotiating to buy. It was a Victorian-style home with a pair of turrets and robin’s-egg blue horizontal stripes below a red roof. The house was visible from the freeway. I had noticed it for years on treks to Houston. The home, built in the early 1980s, was located on an acre of land and contained two very large metal buildings. The neighborhood is working middle class. This was where one day Matt — a mechanical engineer by training — in partnership with Mere, a whiz at social media and communication, would open a brewpub. Its name: City Acre Brewing.

The plan was to open by 2012, converting one of the metal buildings into the brewery and tap house. Matt continued to work as an engineer while Mere is managing editor of Alamo Drafthouse’s website and magazine (birthmoviesdeath.com). Matt began the arduous task of obtaining the various permits and licenses needed before they could legally open. “Byzantine” best describes what he had to go through. “Expensive” comes to mind as well.

I am quite certain that Matt — who, besides being extremely intelligent, is a true Renaissance man handy with a saw, growing produce, or building a beautiful wooden bar out of reclaimed lumber — grew weary of everyone asking him when City Acre would open. They held a number of events to hone their skills — weddings, birthday parties, movie nights inside the screened-in shed — and kept their brand alive through Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. After all the permits were secured, construction began with its usual delays, mishaps and do-overs. Matt toward the end of the process gave up his day job and plunged full-steam into making City Acre Brewing become a reality.

Four years after the planned opening, City Acre Brewing opened its doors in early July. They recruited an old friend, Mandy, to serve as general manager and assist with brewing, and hired a chef from the West Coast. City Acre offers five of Matt’s craft beers, along with other locally crafted brews from Houston and unique non-alcoholic drinks created on site from seasonal fruit and herbs grown on the property — Grapefruit Rosemary Soda, for example. The food menu also features produce grown on site when possible, or locally sourced. Matt adhered to his German heritage in developing the menu, which features a City Acre German Burger made of pork and venison, Swiss cheese, house-made sauerkraut, carmelized onions, apple, mustard and house pickles. Luckily, there is lighter fare as well such as seasonal salads, depending on what’s ready to pluck from the trees and bushes that line the property.

We drove down for a Father’s Day event prior to the grand opening. The featured entrée was the Barbecue Split, a take-off on the banana split. It contains a sausage split down the middle, with scoops of pulled pork, potato salad and house-made slaw inside, topped with a pickled pepper for the cherry.

Getting hungry yet?

City Acre is drawing good reviews and strong crowds in the first weeks of being open full-time. Anyone who has worked in a restaurant knows that it involves long hours and tough work. Anyone who has owned a restaurant understands that the work is unending, and ultimate success requires steadfast dedication to providing consistent quality and service. Matt, Mere and their team thus far are proving more than up to the task. The crowds showing up to drink beer, play lawn games, watch movies and enjoy the food for the most part have no idea of the thousands of hours put in to make this dream come true.

I could not be prouder of Matt and Mere for sticking it out, wading their way through the red tape of the beer bureaucracy. I’m confident that their steadfastness and work ethic will result in City Acre becoming a Houston institution. I can’t wait to get back and try that German Burger.

 

City Acre Brewing is located at 3418 Topping Street. If you’re coming in from north of Houston on U.S. 59, take the Little York Road and stay on the Eastex Service Road to Topping St. Find out more online at cityacrebrewing.com or check out their Facebook page.

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