GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — For 10 years, Grand Rapids has held the title of “Beer City USA,” and for good reason. There are more than 40 craft breweries within a 30-minute drive, but only one of them serves beer in a former funeral home. That’s one of many things that makes Brewery Vivant unique.
“Our pub is in the chapel of what used to be a funeral home. They would work on the bodies in the building next to us, and then the pub was a nondenominational chapel,” said Kris Spaulding, co-owner and president. “Where our brewery is was originally a car dealership in like 1923, which I think is awesome. There weren't many cars in 1923, right?”
The space now occupied by Brewery Vivant has seen many changes through the years, transforming from a funeral home to a car dealership, and at one point even a popular spot for kids.
“We'll have people come in and they'll be like ‘oh, I was here for my grandmother's funeral’ back in whatever time, ‘and then my children were at the daycare here, and now I'm having a beer!’”
The history of the family who started Brewery Vivant is just as interesting, beginning with a passion for beer and a journey around the world.
“I had an opportunity to go to Europe and spent some time over there. It was a soccer trip in college,” said Kris' husband Jason Spaulding, co-owner and CEO. “What that did for me was, I got to experience the culture of beer. Prior to that, in college, we just drank whatever the cheapest beer available was. And then there, we really got to see how important beer could be to a town and to the culture, and that stuck with us.”
“Jason had a different brewery for a number of years, then left and took a break for a couple years,” Kris said. “He was so unhappy during this time away from being a brewery owner that I said ‘dude, you’ve got to open another brewery.’ So then we decided to do it together.”
That was 2008, but there was still a question of where to open a new brewery.
“We thought outside of Michigan sounds fun,” Jason said. “Let's move to like Portland, Oregon, or let's move to one of these cool cities. Then, we started really thinking about it, and we thought ‘well, what makes those cities so cool?’ And we thought, it's kind of the breweries and the restaurants and the community that's around those places that we really are drawn to.”
“We just kept coming back to Grand Rapids. Partly, it's close to our families, close to Lake Michigan. We both really love the outdoors and that accessibility of the lake,” Kris said. “It's also close to an airport, so it's convenient for people who like to travel, which we do.”
The decision was made to open in Grand Rapids, and by 2010, Brewery Vivant welcomed its first customers, offering European-inspired beers and some of the fanciest bar food this area had ever seen.
“Everyone was doing the same thing, either pizza or sandwiches or wings. And we came out with this French and Belgian theme for our beer and the food,” Kris said. “So you could come to our place and get not just nachos, but duck confit nachos, and you could get a really good steak and frites and these like traditional classic European dishes.”
But there’s more to this family-owned operation than just food and beer. Sustainability has been top of mind from day one.
“When we put this brewery together, we wanted to build a business in a way that we think all businesses should exist. So we tried to put these two things together – our love of beer and the beer culture, and then we want to do it in a very environmentally sustainable way,” Jason said. “We ended up being the first LEED-certified brewery in the country.
LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. It’s a rating system for buildings, only given to those that have truly gone green.
“It means we were really focused on using environmentally friendly materials in the building, making sure on the construction side we recycled as much of our waste that we sourced locally. So that's been really important to us,” Kris said. “But we're also a certified B Corporation. So where LEED looks at your building, and whether it meets green standards, B Corporations look at your complete company and how you operate. So we're audited every few years to make sure we're still doing good things.”
“Before we knew it was going to be Brewery Vivant, we called it One Beer at a Time, because we want to change the world one beer at a time,” Jason said.
Their efforts are paying off, but there are still plenty of challenges along the way. Jacob Derylo, the production manager for Brewery Vivant, said the biggest obstacle recently has been supply chain issues.
“I still enjoy what I do every day,” Derylo said. “There's a sense of pride when you get done with your shift and you see people in your pub drinking your beer. That means something still.”
The owners could not agree more.
“I think what I enjoy the most is when we work shoulder to shoulder with our employees,” Jason said. “Everyone works hard, but we get a chance at the end of the day to have a beer together. And it's a beer that we made, and we can be proud of. I think that's really pretty rewarding.”
To learn more about the history of Brewery Vivant and the ongoing sustainability efforts, click here.
►Make it easy to keep up to date with more stories like this. Download the 13 ON YOUR SIDE app now.
Have a news tip? Email news@13onyourside.com, visit our Facebook page or Twitter. Subscribe to our YouTube channel.