“I’ve already changed it twice and this new lockdown created issues,” admits the TAPestry Beer Bar owner, Ian Smith, about opening his brand-new Lower Sackville business last week.

“There are a lot of box stores that kind of answer to Coors Light and to InBev (makers of Budweiser) but there’s no real place to get craft beer,” says Smith of the need for such a pub in the Sackville-area. “I like my beer to taste a little bit better than ordinary tap water.”

“Finding real estate in Sackville is challenging because back then there wasn’t a whole lot being built around here,” recalls Smith. “So I needed to look for vacant places that had just come onto the market but a lot of them are older, a lot of them are just in run-down strip malls around here so while the rent was appealing, it just wasn’t what I was looking for.”

“Somebody was moving out of their space — they were breaking lease — and another place had closed because of the virus,” says Smith of his location at 833 Sackville Drive. “So I was able to sneak in there before the place was even going to market.”

“The majority of the beers are from outside of the city. It’s my opinion that Garrison and Nine Locks and Propeller, they don’t need my help,” says Smith. “I’m a champion for the smaller breweries from outside the city that don’t have a voice here in HRM. So I’m giving those guys an opportunity.”

Smith is planning on having more than half of his17 taps rotational so he can feature lots of local brews. He will also focus on the Phase 2 reopening of his business and is touched by the warm welcome he has already received from the industry. 

“One thing that I really, really love is the community,” says Smith. “You talk to any beer company here in Nova Scotia and they’ll talk highly of every other brewing company. To them, it’s not competition, it’s just family — it’s one big community.”