YARMOUTH — The Planning Board unanimously approved the final site plan for the town’s first brewpub.

Brickyard Hollow Brewing Co. will be in the heart of downtown at 236 Main St. It will replace Anthony’s Dry Cleaners, which is expected to move to U.S. Route 1.

Brad Moll and Frank Grondin are co-owners of the brewpub. Grondin, 45, is also co-owner of Handy’s Market & Cafe on Main Street; Moll is a 44-year-old developer,

Ray Kusche, Brickyard Hollow’s chief executive officer, spoke about their plans in a June 30 interview.

“I guess you could define us as a hyper-local brew pub,” Kusche said. “We’re in the heart of the community (which is) a real attribute and it’s something that we are aware of. … We want this brewpub to be something that Yarmouth is really proud of.”

Director of Planning and Development Alex Jaegerman said the panel’s 6-0 vote June 28 was the last board review the project needed. Moll and Grondin’s next step is to get a building permit and start construction.

Major renovations will be made to the interior and exterior of the existing building, according to the site plan.

The interior of the building will be equipped with an approximately 360-square-foot brewery, a 264-square-foot kitchen, 172-square-foot bar, and a 1,290-square-foot restaurant large enough to seat about 50 people.

Exterior renovations will include a fenced-in area to store brewing supplies, a covered “bier garden,” a cold room, food cooler, and kegging cooler.

“We hope to start construction late this summer,” Kusche said.

The business website projects opening in the fall, but Kusche said that may “too ambitious. Our goal certainly is to do this as quickly as possible.”

He predicted an opening closer to early spring 2018.

According to Kusche, the team has identified a brewer and head chef whose names he hopes will be announced in a few weeks.

“(Our brewer) is someone who has been involved in the southern Maine beer scene for a decade,” Kusche said. The chef candidate is a Maine native who plans to move to Yarmouth.

He said the brewer and chef will be working closely together to pair specific beers with the food menu.

“We don’t want to be too crazy about it, its not like matching a fine wine with the perfect cheese, but were going to try to compliment what the brewer is doing with what the chef is offering and vice versa,” Kusche said.

“We want people to come to the brewpub for the food as much as for the beer,” he said.

According to both Kusche and Jaegerman, feedback from the public has generally been positive.

“We’re in the stage where we’ve got the team in place and now we’re getting ready to execute,” Kusche said. “Things are really falling into place.”

The brewpub is named for its neighborhood: Brickyard Hollow historically was a wet, muddy stretch of land that separated Yarmouth’s fishing industry from its inland farming region. In the late 1800s, the hollow was filled in to unite the community.

Jocelyn Van Saun can be reached at 781-3661 ext. 183 or jvansaun@theforecaster.net. Follow her on Twitter @JocelynVanSaun.

The final site plan for Brickyard Hollow Brewing Co. was approved June 28 by the Yarmouth Planning Board. Construction is slated to begin by the end of the summer.

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