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Our Story ... and we are sticking to it:
We've spent years looking for that great place to go, sort of like Cheers, where everyone knows your name. Where you can get away from everything for a few hours and enjoy some great food, good company and some nice, handcrafted local beers. A place where you can be comfortable whether its with your family, your friends or your significant other. Well, since we couldn't seem to find this place, we decided to build it. After all, Steve is in sales and Scott is a Risk Management Consultant-those skills must translate into restaurant ownership somehow! You can probably tell that there were a few beers involved in our decision making process...and not for the first time.
Anyhow, now you have two guys with big ideas, little capital and not much "day to day" experience. (Can you say, "build it and they will come?")
So the adventure had begun; we started visiting other establishments (15 states in all) to see what works and what didn't. "Only borrow from the best" was our first slogan! As you can imagine, this was the fun part, since we basically did our research by eating and drinking (mostly drinking). There are a ton of places in our little state and we've probably been in, and/or tossed out of, most of them. No one said research was easy.
Our conclusion- Surround yourself with Great People!
First step: hire an award winning Brewmaster (seven medals, including three gold medals at the Great American Beer Festival); next, hire the best Chefs money can buy.
Now we needed someone to handle the front of the house (the bar area that is-we actually picked up the lingo during our research), how about someone who has run her own business and has spent the last 10 years running two major restaurants in the New-Haven-county area-it works for us!
Next we needed a location, as the saying goes-location, location, location.
So we narrowed our selection down to three buildings (two in Granby and one in Simsbury) and the winner was 357 Salmon Brook Street, Granby: the former Copper Lantern.
We picked up the building and got another little surprise. If the former Copper Lantern building were a horse, you'd have to shoot it. We almost called it The Lakeside since there was the possibility that on any rainy day, you'd be dining is several feet of water!
But fortunately, there are solutions to just about every problem-can you say "civil engineers" and "curtain drains?" We hope all the people who helped us will take great pride in the fact that a piece of this place is there because of their work too. And it would really help us out if they didn't cash our checks for a while!
Everyone knows what they like and don't like in a restaurant or brewpub. The trick is trying to make it something for the whole area to enjoy and also be proud of. Since it's your place, we'll be listening to you, tell us when something works... and tells us when we come up short on something... like maybe broccoli-flavored beer won't catch on. Or you don't want our TVs tuned to Home & Garden TV while the UConn Football team is winning its first bowl game. Unlike the last presidential election, we believe the majority vote rules.
Steve will tell you that sales is simply "creating awareness" (he loves that line) and if we-The Cambridge House-are not aware that something is broke, how can we fix it?
This website is going to be updated constantly with construction photos, our new brewing equipment, new kitchen equipment and many other things-Please keep checking back!
Also, make sure to sign up for our newsletter "The Cambridge Brew Review." To sign up, simply e-mail and enter "The Cambridge Brew Review" in the subject line.
Drop us an email now and then...
Cheers,
Steve B. and Scott
P.S. And remember to always "Think Outside the Bottle"
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