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The Brewhaus
A Tale of Beer and Entrepreneurship: The Unfolding of Bentonville Dive
Get ready for a thought-provoking journey into the world of craft beer with our special guests, Kyle, Darah, and Kyle (aka: Grover); the dynamic driving force behind the renowned Bentonville Dive. Hear their fascinating tale of transforming a petite, 450-square foot venue into a thriving community hub, all the while nurturing their shared passion for craft beer. Hear how Kyle’s unexpected foray into the craft beer industry and Darah’s ascent from taproom manager to ownership shaped their entrepreneurial journey.
The second part of our conversation takes you deeper into the unique culture and camaraderie of the craft beer industry. Learn how the trio’s ethos to foster community and amplify each other’s ambitions have shaped Bentonville Dive’s reputation. Listen in as they discuss the significance of learning from people and adapting to evolving tastes to build a successful business. We also take a peek into the thriving dynamics of their local community.
And just when you thought it couldn’t get any better, we wrap up with a tantalizing glimpse of Bentonville Dive’s future. Our guests unveil their ambitious plans to expand their craft beer business, including a massive 8,000-square foot building that houses a bar, a brewery, and distribution services. {EDIT: Due to unforeseen circumstances out of their control, this option became unavailable. That said, Bentonville Dive is still happily located right in the heart of Bentonville at their original location and THRIVING).
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The Brewhaus is a production of Remnant Media. To learn more about The Brewhaus or its host The BeerdBro, visit http://thebrewhaus.show/
Hey everyone, what's going on? It's the beard bro. This is episode three of the brew house, and today I did things a little bit differently. I sat down with the owners of Bentonville Dive, a locally named dive bar here in Bentonville, arkansas Appropriate right. So they are three folks that are very, very familiar with the beer industry and, to be honest, they all kind of got started in it by accident. So today we're going to learn about Kyle's resting busy face, we're going to learn about how Dara didn't really want to hire Kyle in the first place, and we're even going to figure out what the future holds for Bentonville Dive and the 450 square foot venue. So stick around, welcome to the brew house and let's get going. Cheers, friends.
Speaker 2:Live from the rolling hills of Northwest Arkansas. It's the show for beer lovers, beer makers and, most of all, beer drinkers. We're pouring up the best in beer, podcasting Straight from the mouths of today's top brewers to your thirsty ears. Get ready to hear how they're pouring their heart and soul into making the best pint possible. This is the brew house.
Speaker 1:All right, so with me I've got. It's another great day for an episode, right, mm? Hmm, how do you?
Speaker 3:feel in there Dar. Oh, fantastic Sun's out yeah.
Speaker 1:I'm great, kyle, you got your lip balm, so you're good. Sure, dude, brian, you're going to have to be more specific and the famous Cal Grover. Oh, what's that? This you do, bro.
Speaker 5:Oh, pretty good, how you doing hey B, hey B. How?
Speaker 1:you doing B.
Speaker 5:Yeah.
Speaker 1:No, we're good. So we're here at Bentonville Dive today. We're recording live on site and I was really excited to sit down with you guys because you know it started out as the vision of two and now there's a third. We'll get into that conversation, but I guess we'll just jump in with the, with the, the, the man up front here and Mr Kyle Brady how are you? No, buddy.
Speaker 4:I'm good. Are you delighted to be here? I'm so delighted to be here. This is actually my first podcast ever to be on amateur.
Speaker 1:Oh my Well, very cool man. So tell us a little bit about like. Tell us a little bit, first of all. Who are you Like? I know you've been in the beer space a lot around here and the bar scene, but tell us let's rewind a little bit before you got into that Like, where'd you come from? Are you local here?
Speaker 4:So I have been in Northwest Arkansas for, let's see, 33 years now, for the most part off and on, started in Harrison, Arkansas, which is not necessarily considered Northwest Arkansas, but moved around, did some traveling and in 2012, I ended up in Bentonville on accident. I was running a PR company for international artists called the, the Honest Arts PR Group, and after eight years of doing that, I got burnt out. I was in Colorado working, also working on a kind of a demo for Zach Brown's record label, which I can't remember the name of right now, but my company essentially plummeted while I was in Colorado Springs and I called one of my best friends here who was running a restaurant, asked him for a bartending job and I just said if I come back home, can I have a place to live and a place to work? He said, yes, it started there. I ended up working at a small restaurant here in Bentonville that was really successful, still is very successful and met my wife, Erica. She's beautiful. That was the kicker. That's what kept me here.
Speaker 4:Within my first couple of years here, I was just bartending at what is called the press room what was the old press room and from there I started working on a concept that I had had for about two or three years. It's called destination craft beer and it was a TV pilot. And finally, after a few years of actually putting some thought into it and then some courage into it and acting on it, I started meeting all of these brewery owners and while I was working at press room, and even before that a little bit, I started really getting into the craft beer scene just as a whole but just as a consumer. That's all I had to do with it was just drink it, spend a lot of money and drink a lot of it.
Speaker 3:Yes, we all agree.
Speaker 4:We can all agree on this fact.
Speaker 3:And then we learn lessons or we got jobs there and didn't have to pay as much.
Speaker 4:Yeah, there's different ways of looking at it. For sure it helps reduce the tab. There's blessings and curses to everything, but in doing this, this TV pilot, one of three breweries in Northwest Arkansas that I highlighted was Bycrack Brewing Company and they had just opened their original tap room that week, the week we shot, which is why I thought it would be cool to involve them in it, because they're all brand new to it and through that the TV pilot didn't flop. It actually just didn't. It never got finished, unfortunately.
Speaker 1:So what you're saying is that's our next project.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I decided that that's not for me.
Speaker 5:I know an actor.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's not for me. I thought I was going to hop on screen and be like Anthony Bourdain, like that, and I'm just not that cool A year, that's what I was looking for.
Speaker 2:See.
Speaker 4:But yeah. So anyways, through that, my wife and I, we both got offered a job to bartend at the old Bycrack Brewing Tap Room the original one. So we started there and within two months she got promoted to the GM of the spot and I got promoted to head of sales, essentially for Bycrack, and in doing that my literal job was to go around and drink beer with people, create relationships, make friends. For four and a half years, best job, best job. This is where I met Dara, by the way, that all comes into that. Then, you know, when the original brewer from Bycrack decided to split off and start his own brewery up in Missouri, I became a co-owner of that brewery. It's called Hungry Hollow Brewing Company.
Speaker 5:Hungry.
Speaker 4:Hollow, yes, shout out for Hungry Hollow.
Speaker 1:And so that's when I really started getting into it, and that's when I really started getting into thinking about opening places in Northwest Arkansas that I thought would tend to not just the craft beer industry itself and the craft beer culture, but culture itself in general, absolutely Something that embraces Northwest Arkansas, because we have a good melting pot here, yes, people, yes, and all different walks of life, all different ethnicities, all different you know, regions that they grew up in, yes, so, yeah, I could see wanting to build something that truly embraced the spirit of Northwest Arkansas.
Speaker 4:Yes, so that started in about 2018 and gone through a couple business startups and have since sold. But, like I said, we'll get to the dive in a moment, but it kind of all led here and to where we're going from here. Totally so long answer, so long answer.
Speaker 1:That's okay, man, that's okay. I'll tell you a little bit about you and if you know Kyle, you know he is. If you've ever met him here, you know one gentle giant loves everybody wants to take care of people. So the idea that you wanted to create a business that truly brought people in, not just customers, but people who are truly all about the beer, the beer industry, the area, the region and just building community right.
Speaker 4:Yes, community and culture are the two big words for sure.
Speaker 1:So, going back to I think it was 2015-ish, 16-ish, some more, I met this lady over at the end of the bar, ms Darra Martin. And so now, speaking of community, you were in a hotspot within the Bentonville community. Tell everybody like it was Bentonville Brewing.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 1:Right, yes, now was that your first brewing industry job.
Speaker 3:Yes, so I had been a bartender before like a full bar bartender, but nothing real big scale and I was wanting to move into the craft beer industry and something that had good hours for, since I have three kids babysitting you know Bartending hours are great for that if you were knights. And so I had seen Bentonville Brewery put out an ad on Indeed and I applied, not knowing anything about craft beer but hoping someone would give me a chance. And I met with Katie Boykin, one of the owners of Bentonville Brewing Company, and I knew going into it. I don't know anything about this but I'm a quick learner and if I like something and I believe in it, then you know I can go for it. And she decided to give me a chance and I don't remember how long it was. I worked there from before they opened.
Speaker 3:We got opened and probably six months or so later I became the taproom manager and I loved that spot because it was so small. I saw so much community building, like Kyle said, so many people coming in for Walmart and JB Hunt and Tyson from all different walks of life. We would have somebody come in and sit at the bar and be like you know, I'm alone. I don't know anybody here and I'd say, hey, I know these people at this long 16 foot community table, go sit with them. And I now today, still see some of those friendships that were built there and that abyss, yeah, and which I think is really cool.
Speaker 3:And, like Kyle said, something we wanted to do here is a small, very intimate, community based bar that brings people in. Yeah, so I saw that, I loved that, so I became BBC for life, you know, and I moved up into head of sales. I was a sole salesperson for that company, which was fantastic because I love being behind the bar, but I found I really like being able to go into these places and meet all the servers, the bar staff, the managers sell them the beer, and I got to brew with Bo one time. I brewed the home record IPA, which is one of their staple beers, and I started learning the science behind beer and I really fell in love with craft beer. Then is that's when I saw how it was made and the flavors you can make off the different kinds of molts and you know stuff. It's that's where I really got into that.
Speaker 1:Now being in the head of sales, did you ever throw all those with that? That sales guy over the jerk over the bar, the jerk over at bike rack?
Speaker 3:So I met. Actually the first time we met, him and his wife came into the tap room at Ben Wilburin company.
Speaker 4:You had blue hair.
Speaker 3:I had blue hair and it was around March or so, so cold outside I had no voice whatsoever. I was whisper, screaming and I had a whiteboard behind the bar in case I lost that amount of sound. I could make. Yeah, yeah, they came in, yeah they came in.
Speaker 4:That's real.
Speaker 3:And they came and they got beer and I thought it was funny because no one's inside, it's warm inside, they wouldn't sit on the patio in the cold and drink. But I was like hey, cool, and they ended up coming back in because they were like we want to see what you sound like for real.
Speaker 1:I was like this is so cool. You know that thing that you're embarrassed about, yeah, accentuated All we've been talking about outside is what does she sound like?
Speaker 3:Yeah, she's whisper, screaming the whole time. So they came back in, they met me they're fantastic people and then I found out, you know, he's head of sales for bike rack. So the thing that the brewing community here says is that it is a brewing community. But one thing that Kyle Reedy and I noticed is there's not a whole lot of working together in way of selling beer together, doing dual tap takeovers together. So we started kind of forging this relationship on bringing that to fruition.
Speaker 3:So we would go to a restaurant and essentially he would sell Bentonville Brewing Company beer and I would try to like hey, this bike rack beer is really good, and a lot of times people want to pick IPAs but they don't want to put IPAs head to head on a tap takeover. So we would say that's fine, Do it. Whatever IPA wins is fine. You know we are here to support each other. We're both going to show up for the tap takeover event. We're both going to do our best and whatever beer your customers prefer, then that's great, because one of us got in. And so then other people in the craft beer business were like what are you guys doing?
Speaker 4:This isn't how it's normal. Even our bosses were not opposed in the least bit. I think the best way it was ever put to me is from one of my bosses was well, that's outside of the box. I was like it is, Let me show you how it works. Yeah, and we kind of proved that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we made it work and it made people more apt to want to take on our beer, because they saw that we had a united front, that we're not competition, that we're here for each other. And that's where our relationship began, because we would do big tap takeovers and it really didn't matter if his beer won or my beer won. We got in there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we both celebrate for each other.
Speaker 3:Yes, yeah so.
Speaker 5:Let's do a soul beer yeah.
Speaker 3:And that kind of helped. I've been in sales a lot in my life, but being in beer sales was something different, which brewing with Bo helped me gain a knowledge of what I was selling. But teaming up with him helped me have more confidence to like, hey, we can do this and I'm very much a. I can be behind the bar and people paying attention to me. That's fine, but I don't like being the center of attention outside. So the hardest part of selling beer was when I had to go do educational classes for bar staff. Yeah, my face would turn red because I'm like these 15 people are staring at me right now. What are they?
Speaker 1:supposed to do right now? Nobody look at me.
Speaker 3:Nobody look at me. They all need to pay attention, but don't look at me. Yeah, I had a fantastic introduction into the craft beer world and seeing all of the community that was being built through events we had or just regular day by day things and watching people come together. I really liked that because in retail you get a very short amount of time with people, whereas here you can know somebody's life story, you know their dog's name, you know their kid's name, you know, and I really like that because I'm a very relational person. And so when I had moved over to natural state Bear Company from Bentonville because sales were getting a little hard, being out all the time with three kids and doing events, I was also an event specialist, I guess you say.
Speaker 4:And that was also not to interrupt. That was the newest brewery at the time.
Speaker 3:Yes, yes, yes, they had just. I actually got. I had left Bentonville Brewing Company. I love them, but it was just getting a little too hard with my kids and natural state had reached out and asked me to be the manager over there. So I moved over there and we opened. I was there for about a year. It was a fantastic experience. You know, they have a beautiful space with the pond.
Speaker 1:I used to sit on that patio for like three hours easily.
Speaker 3:The water the sun going off the water and all the bikes you see go through and that's a big biking community bar cycling, I guess I should say you need to stop off the Greenway, because it's right there and exactly the main.
Speaker 1:If you're not familiar with Northwest Arkansas, there's a thing called the Razorback Greenway and it goes all the way from like the north end of the whole region all the way through and it winds its way through to the south end of the region. It's this nice paved, super wide trail. It's great for running, it's great for jogging, it's great for biking, rollerblading, you name it, and you can go from city to city on this Greenway. And natural state that she's talking about is right on that Greenway. Literally it passes right outside of their patio, so it's prime spot.
Speaker 3:And you know they were my introduction to German beer, which I hadn't known a whole lot about, and so I got to learn a little more, which was nice, because I'm now upping my craft beer experience into something new, and that was great. Covid hit tore up everybody, obviously, and so I no longer work there after COVID.
Speaker 1:Yeah, everybody had to make shifts, yeah.
Speaker 3:and then Kyle had gotten a hold of me about coming in and helping make this dive a real thing, you know, bringing it to fruition and I was on your mind before that, kyle, like how long had you been kind of brainstorming this idea of a dive bar?
Speaker 1:That's actually it's okay. If it was like two weeks, that's fine.
Speaker 4:No, no, no, it wasn't actually.
Speaker 5:It was two minutes before he texted Darrell. Yeah, I had a great thought and I thought you know what I'm going to call her and she'll make this happen for me, right?
Speaker 4:No, actually, this was premeditated for quite some time, so I guess the best way to put it, the easiest way to put it is I was in New York City for about a week in 2012 or 13 I think it was probably 13 and right across from my hostel was this bar called the Manhattan Dive. And did you say?
Speaker 5:it's a great movie because I said the word hostel pretty much, yeah, yeah yeah, I love that movie Wow weren't you in that movie.
Speaker 4:We'll get back to that. It's a rom-com.
Speaker 1:If you have seen the hostel, watch it. It's a rom-com. It's a rom-com.
Speaker 5:It's great movie.
Speaker 4:It's fine.
Speaker 5:It's great for.
Speaker 1:Valentine's Day Very light hearted.
Speaker 4:But I remember going to this bar. So I'm in New York City for a week, like I can go anywhere I want. Yeah do anything I want, but my choice is to continue every. I maybe shouldn't say this every morning, afternoon and night and vacation. You do what you want.
Speaker 4:Yeah exactly every morning, afternoon and night I would go to this particular bar and I explored some other ones, but the Manhattan Dive just had this feel about it. It was very homie, very for lack of better words cool. Something that is was definitely missing even in 2013, was definitely missing in Bentonville. That I thought Bentonville was ready for.
Speaker 5:Yeah, they just gotten been able to have alcohol in the county.
Speaker 4:So yeah, yeah literally just became like a wet county, maybe the year before, maybe two years before, I can't remember exactly. But yeah, I always had this place in mind, knowing that Bentonville was already ready for something like this, but the timing couldn't have been better. So what I, what I wanted to do? And you know, I looked all over the place for properties and you know partners, investors, like stuff. You know all that kind of you know bullshit that goes into the business side. Yeah, essentially, I mean it's necessary. Yeah, it's necessary you have to have it.
Speaker 4:So 2000 correct me if I'm wrong, darah please 2019. I was, I owned and ran a bar in Rogers and decided that I was. I was kind of done with that. It was just too much of an undertaking for me, in different reasons that, like you know, bentonville brewing was for Darah I don't have kids or anything like that. It was just too much of an undertaking for me and so decided to start focusing on Bentonville, which is my home, and ever since I've lived up here, I've lived in downtown Bentonville, and so this, this spot became available and the spot the spot where we're currently at is 430 square feet.
Speaker 4:Yeah, which is cozy cozy is a great word.
Speaker 1:Kyle's sitting on my lap right now.
Speaker 3:We're piled on top of each other, right?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm glad there's no video for this one which Kyle yeah, all of them.
Speaker 5:Yes, all the Kyle's. I mean you do have two knees.
Speaker 3:He's been working out for this interview to hold all of us.
Speaker 1:He's hanging out with me long enough. I'll squat later, so plenty of you over each shoulder.
Speaker 4:But anyways, this, this particular property was purchased by a friend of mine and after he purchased it he actually saw me at a pizza place down the road and I was in the middle of my meal and he came up to me and said hey, I just bought the old barbershop down on the corner of second and A. I want to rent it out, would you like it? And I paid my bill and said let's go now. Yeah and the. The property, like obviously to this day, is still prime.
Speaker 4:Yes, yes super prime, to put it mildly.
Speaker 3:Much more prime than it was when it was a barbershop.
Speaker 5:Yes yes and only open for three months a year.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and so I found this place. I questioned whether or not it was going to be, you know, too small to actually put a bar in, but I guess that that didn't stop me from at least trying or at least putting like some effort into it. So, unfortunately, unfortunately, unfortunately. I signed the lease on this place about six days before all the news channels came on and said y'all have to stay home. Yeah, it's probably going to be for like two months. Yeah, it's 15 days, right?
Speaker 4:Yeah yeah, in the beginning of covid, it wasn't quite as covid, that's what it was. That was the thing. Yeah, big C word.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, oh which is change from what the C word used to be.
Speaker 1:There's an extra letter now Wait what's he?
Speaker 5:What's the old C word?
Speaker 4:We'll just let that go for now. Sorry.
Speaker 1:I'm just curious. I'm trying to learn Cotton candy.
Speaker 4:Oh OK, but trying to turn this place into a bar, trying to do it by myself essentially I'll just go ahead and admit on this podcast in front of everybody I am worthless by myself. So what I needed was strength. I needed someone to push me. I needed someone that I could trust, someone to keep me accountable and someone that had vision. Thank you, I just know what. No, we talk about you later. But obviously I got in touch with Dara immediately. I, you know this. It it may sound bad, I wasn't like trying to, you know, remove her from from another brewery or another job or anything like that, but just naturally, because we had been friends at this point for about four years and, like I said, trusted her with my life and would go into business with her any second, asked her if she would be interested and I feel like it didn't take very long.
Speaker 3:No, I said yes, and he takes back. Do you want to think about it? I said fuck no.
Speaker 5:Oh man cool. I was the first person.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's like that scene in Tommy Boy, where he's like Tommy Boy, I need you to come up here and sing. He's like oh, dad, I could OK. Yeah, that's it, ok, signed, done. That was good. When do we sign papers?
Speaker 3:I looked at the next five years, and that like three words. You know I was like yep, ok, I thought about it, we're done. Yep, let's go.
Speaker 4:Yep, and so now, losing track of the original question, it all ended up that in Dara connected on this. I could not let me repeat that I could not have done this without Dara, and so she, she, you are so like we're going to you.
Speaker 5:No, that had nothing to do with that.
Speaker 4:On the next podcast. We'll get to you. But no, in all seriousness, best decision, yeah, that I've made professionally, not only like procuring this, this place that we're sitting in right now yeah, but also bringing Dara on board, partnership and started with Dara. Absolutely, that just brought me like comfort and joy and peace and like I can breathe, yeah, because I feel good. And yeah, we just kind of took it from there and essentially the we never had a mission statement.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no.
Speaker 4:But I believe, if I were to make up the mission statement, for what her and I had in mind for this place was let's actually listen to people. Let's listen to what people in downtown Bentonville want, in the surrounding area want and, after we listen, let's give it to them.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:And then we did.
Speaker 3:What a thought yeah.
Speaker 4:The most the craziest thing happened. It worked. Yeah, people showed up and they keep showing up, yeah.
Speaker 3:So we want to be your bar, like. If there's something that you like to drink and you like to come here, yeah, tell us. That's why we have bushlight and tall cans.
Speaker 1:I was going to say, even sitting around here right now while we're recording. So I've got a craft beer in my hand. What do you? Got Water.
Speaker 4:Is that straight vodka, club soda and lime.
Speaker 1:Okay, club soda and lime. We got Miller High Life and we got Coors Bank with right on the bar here. But yeah, I mean you got local beers that are craft, you have some local ciders, you have the throwback beers that are just staples. There's really no telling what you guys are going to have.
Speaker 3:And people are impressed with what we have. They come and they're like, do you have a beer menu?
Speaker 3:and we're like it's up on the wall and people have said they can find some of their domestic beers that they can't find at other places here. And that might be because somebody said, hey, I want bushlight and tall cans. And we say, okay, we'll try it, we'll get a couple cases, we'll see how it goes, and if it sticks or if it does well, then we'll keep it. If it doesn't, we at least tried it. And now we have that trust and that like, hey, this is my bar. I could say, hey, I want this screwball peanut butter whiskey. Let's try it out. If it doesn't work. It didn't work, but they tried, yep.
Speaker 4:Absolutely. I just want to add in a quick note that she makes a great point with the tallboy bushlight cans, because that has been on the menu since day one and we're still looking at it on the shelf. So whoever you listen to there, well done.
Speaker 1:What we're doing is asking you for a sponsorship, please. No, I'm joking, all right. So now we've got two partners here that launched out in the dive. But now Kyle two. I've got to give you Grover.
Speaker 5:You can call me Grover. Yeah, they can go.
Speaker 4:Grover, just don't call him little Kyle or Kyle. Junior, or I just did.
Speaker 1:Oh, you did. But so, grover, you actually had a slightly different journey in craft beer and beer and stuff like that. I know it's similar. That was a good one Around here in Northwest Arkansas. Let's walk through your journey real quick of like where'd you come from? Were you local?
Speaker 5:native here? No, not at all actually. All right, get out. Cool, it was great guys. See you later.
Speaker 4:Next episode.
Speaker 5:Deuces. No, I got into the beer industry completely by accident, from being honest. I'd worked as a server bartender at several different places and I had worked out at the airport too and I decided that would been. I didn't want to do that for the rest of my life. So I decided to go back to school and I was like, well, if I'm going to go, I got to quit my full time job to be able to go back to school, but I can pick up a couple serving jobs or bartending jobs somewhere.
Speaker 5:So I applied at a bunch of different places, bicrack being one of them, and Kyle's wife Erika generously hired me there. So and then I started working there. I was going to school and quickly realized what I was going to school for is not what I wanted to do. But I had fallen in love with Bicrack and the craft beer industry and I was doing pretty well there and because I eventually became the event coordinator there and then from that I also got to be the taproom manager of the 8th Street location and the 8th Street location both, and was running those for a while and having a great time doing well for myself and just I met most of my best friends pretty much. Yeah, all my friends and best friends from around here there.
Speaker 3:As we most did. I feel like now.
Speaker 5:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Originally. I think that's. Another great point about this North West Arkansas community is because we tend to stick to similar places that we, like you do, develop this friendship.
Speaker 3:Oh, 100%. Yeah, yeah, we all play a met through craft beer.
Speaker 5:Yeah 100% yeah absolutely yeah, but I'm originally from Nebraska.
Speaker 5:go big red which is something that you don't have to be. Sorry, I don't take offense to that, but it's something that Kyle and I both kind of bonded on. When I met Kyle because he has family up in Nebraska and is also Cornesker fan, but not as big of he's a bigger Razorback fan, which is his one fault oh man, I just got hated by the entire, by all of NWA right there. Sorry, that's fine. Love you guys.
Speaker 5:No, yeah, kyle and I met through bike rack when he was doing sales and I was in the tap room and we hit it off and became really good friends. He eventually, when he decided he was going to move on from bike rack, was originally taking me on sales calls for me to take over the sales position, but then they decided to offer me the event coordinator position, which I think was probably more suited for me. Yeah, which, in taking that position there, I had to. You know any events that we did, I was there. So, like any offside events that I was able to do, I did, which is how I met Tara. Yep, because if bike rack was there, I was there, and if Bentonville Brewing was there, she was there yeah.
Speaker 5:Yeah, oh, yeah, we have.
Speaker 3:I tell you, really get to know the other people in the beer industry.
Speaker 5:Yeah, you realize who's like yeah, you got a question or something. Like your equipment's fucked up and you don't know what to do. You can be like, hey, this is broken, do you have this? Yeah, and you can tell who you know is Awesome, cool and want. You know like somebody you would like to work with, rather than all right, well, that guy just didn't want to help at all. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but yeah, you can see who's truly in it for the craft of it and that community element versus who just wants to make money.
Speaker 5:The big thing about, like the craft beer industry around here, is that when you, when you look at all these places, all these craft brews around here yes, we're, we are, they're all in the same market but when you look at what they're making, not a lot of these places are actually making the same types of beer.
Speaker 5:Everybody has their own styles that they're doing. Yes, yes, Everybody's got an IPA, but it's. Is it a New England style? Is it a West Coast style? Is it something this person made up, this brewer made up? That are all different. So in that sense, we're looking at you, Bradley. It's. It's better to you know, it's just better to work together than try to work against each other.
Speaker 3:And, and especially in events like that's a great, we had a guy that Kyle actually that's how he met him was he didn't know what he was doing. He's like this is my first event and he's like bro, I got you.
Speaker 5:Yeah, he's like I don't know how to set any of this up and I'm like, yeah, man, here you go, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, see, that's really cool because, like you'd usually think, like in a lot of I come from more of a corporate and agency background, so you'd see people looking at you from across for a trade show or something like that, going, wow, it sucks to be them right now they don't have their setup. Yeah, and, but in the community, the craft beer community, that's not an issue.
Speaker 3:No.
Speaker 5:Oh, hey, man, my CO2 is out, Are you gonna? You got a spare Bronco pump? Yeah, man, here you go. Now make sure I get that back.
Speaker 1:That's on that a little bit more, and you guys, all three, feel free to jump in on this, but, like the ones who you know you mentioned, there are some people that they were a little more sand offish and they didn't jump right in and help. Are those people still around in the industry?
Speaker 5:Yeah, okay, I mean, I don't think it was so much that they like didn't want to help out. It's just in industries like the like that like you're so used to, that's the competition. Yeah, Like you don't know how, like I had shirts from New Province and Bentonville that I would wear, people were like oh, they know me from bike rack. Oh, wearing the competition, I'm like, is it though?
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 5:I mean like at bike rack. Personally, I know for a fact, because I'm the one that put it on there, that we've had Bentonville brewing ears on tap at bike rack. Yep Tap rooms.
Speaker 3:Uh, Bentonville and bike rack Christmas party together.
Speaker 5:Yeah, yeah, we used to do joint Christmas parties with Benville brewing and bike rack so like, yes, it's a competition in a sense, but it's, we both want to win. But well, we, well we, it's better. It's better for that industry if there's more around, absolutely yeah.
Speaker 1:Absolutely yeah, and I think that this area especially has grown so much. I mean, there's been what like a 400% increase or five.
Speaker 3:Oh gosh, yeah it's insane over the last like anybody who was home brewing was like yeah, that was our time. Yeah, yeah, we got to do it now.
Speaker 5:Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's kind of the story here. And then you know, of course, like Dara said, covid hit had to make some changes, yeah, um. So you know, money wasn't as great as it was before and I needed to supplement the income that I had lost. And me and Kyle were hanging out and one day and he was telling me about this place and it was about a couple months before it was supposed to open, yeah, and by the end of that conversation he was like hey, do you?
Speaker 5:want to jump open up over like oh yeah, I mean like a couple of days away, yeah, man, yeah. That sounds good, and then I just kind of evolved from there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you started out here pretty much from the beginning. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you were your day one like opened up. Yeah, so I for those of you who don't know, I was kind of watching this whole thing unfold. And the Bentonville dive it used to be a. Kyle mentioned a while ago that it used to be a barbershop here and before that was an automotive shop right, I think it was like a gas station, like maybe one point.
Speaker 4:It was the first gas station in Bentonville.
Speaker 5:Wow, I think it was an antique shop. After that, before it was a barbershop. And when we moved in.
Speaker 3:The bell was still. There used to be a window above the toilet and there was a bell for when you would pull in on this backside.
Speaker 1:The hose that was Yep the stintings.
Speaker 3:So we still had that old bell in there from when it was a gas station and service station. Yeah, yeah, that's right, so we ripped it out, yeah, so I wanted to leave it, but they said no, or the construction workers said no.
Speaker 1:Why? But it's been. It's been really cool to see this place go through kind of the stages and you know I definitely have been here in Northwest Arkansas since 2006. And to watch this place go from a barbershop and kind of watch some of the shifts that the area has done around it. Now it's if you're not familiar with NWA, here it's there's a lot of growth, there's a lot of progress, a lot of forward momentum, and sometimes places like the dive really almost get forgotten about, like not not the dive, I'm saying like places. You forget, these little home places that you can set up as kind of your own base camp.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And it brings back that, that down home feeling.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Even in the midst of all the progress that's going on, you can still come in here. It's, you know not to compare it to the TV show, but everybody does know your name here. You actually have people who walk in and you know them.
Speaker 3:And this place is is kind of so. We have people from all over that come in for mountain biking or just vacation to Bentonville, that are from Wisconsin, that are from Alaska, that are from anywhere and everywhere Michigan was, you know, and I've had so many people come in here and they're like, oh my gosh, this is like that little dive bar in Homer Alaska, or this is like a bar I grew up in in Wisconsin and this is, and it's like, very familiar, familiar, yes, and people feel at home when they come in here or they come to town and they search dive bar and we're the first one to come up and they come in here and they're like this is exactly what we wanted. You know, we don't want to come here and spend the money that we do at other places where we're from, like around us. They want to come and have a crappy domestic beer and just hang out and get to know people, and this is a spot for that.
Speaker 1:Well, and, and you know, to be honest, like with seeing the growth in the brewing industry and like the distilling industry around here, there's a place in time for that, which is awesome, you know. And and if you want to sell amazing craft beers six, eight, ten dollars a piece that's fine, yeah, but sometimes you just want to go in and enjoy a high life or something and we've learned a champagne of beer.
Speaker 3:I personally have learned a little different tweaks to do on different beers from people or drinks that from people that have come in. Some people came in from Wisconsin and they asked for a Wisconsin old fashioned Okay, and I didn't exactly know what that meant and they said you either use cheese or sour, old fashioned, with a piece of cheese in it With some cheese curds in it.
Speaker 3:Like you use a sweet or sour soda on top and me doing that, I'm going to do that and making that for them or us. You know doing those things like hey, let's make a drink you want, because we don't have it necessarily set, we won't do crazy, you know mixed drinks, but if you want something with the ingredients that we have, we'll make it. And that made them actually not go to their reservation at the fancy restaurant and they stayed here and they ate nachos and they were wearing gold and nice clothes and you know like, but they had a fantastic time here and that's what I love that you can see people from any walk of life. We literally have a homeless guy that drinks here, up to men in suits, yeah, and everyone is welcome and everyone feels comfortable in the same capacity and they're probably drinking side by side too, oh yeah, yeah 100% and
Speaker 5:it's like just to add on to what Dara said about like those drinks it's like you go to a fancier place or a swanky place and you ask for something and they don't know what it is. They're going to go I don't know what that is or I don't. Yeah, we don't have that here. Yeah, here. It's like.
Speaker 3:Let me Google it.
Speaker 5:Yeah, they're like If we have it, if I have, if we have the stuff to make it, I'll make it for you. Or if you don't know, but you know the name of it we can look it up and if we have, I can tell you. If we have, we can tell you. If we have the stuff for it, yeah, but we don't.
Speaker 3:And people have been very kind, yeah, and they're not. Like you're a bartender, you don't know how to do this, so like, oh yeah, I'll wait two minutes while you look this up. If you're going to make me that drink, heck, yeah, that's super cool. Like, let's go for it.
Speaker 5:You know Great. And then it all depends on like what time of day. It is yeah, if it's a Friday night in June and you're like hey, can you make this specialty craft cocktail for us? We're going to look and go. This is a dive, I don't have time for that, yeah. That's the. If it's a Monday night, we'll do it all night long yeah.
Speaker 3:Friday night maybe not.
Speaker 5:Yeah, any other time, man, yes, but right now no. How about a? How about a course light?
Speaker 1:You came. You came into it as an employee and then, not too long ago, we had a little transition for you.
Speaker 5:Right yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. So so tell us what happened there. It was a wild ride. Let me tell you a, b. Well, actually, before you start telling, I got to say what's going on in your mind, leading up to what he's getting right here.
Speaker 4:I feel like he manipulated his way to the top.
Speaker 5:I don't disagree. I've done it before and I'll do it again. He inherited it because at first you know.
Speaker 4:No, I'm totally, totally kidding.
Speaker 1:No, no, I actually Tell us about his journey into the dive.
Speaker 5:I seduced Kyle and then blackmailed him.
Speaker 4:It was your eyes, really how you doing Wow, yeah, yes, sorry, what was the question?
Speaker 1:No, it was just like give us the brief, the brief part of, like what did you see in him? You know, that kind of sparked this thought of like, hey, there could be more here.
Speaker 4:Yes, well, I mean honestly, I mean he's Grover. So we know that he's Grover, so, yeah, but you know, kind of with Darra, you know, same thing but different. I had known Grover for, you know, at least a few years, three or four, at least Three or four years at the, at the, at the time that I signed the lease on this place. Yeah, and so, once again, when you find good people that you trust with your life, you don't, you don't let them out of your life easily. Yeah, and so just the fact that he wanted to work here, I mean that that was a great compliment.
Speaker 4:I was selfishly, it was a great compliment to me that he wanted to work here, not so much Darra We'll get on that later, we'll get back to her again. But, yeah, but no, kyle, as I expect, sorry, kyle Grover, as I expected, you know, even without getting paid, like he, he, he was here before we got going. He was here to like listen to ideas, like give thoughts, give opinions, and a lot of those opinions and thoughts and ideas were great, and so it just kind of kind of morphed into a. He's more than just someone who wants to work behind the bar to pay his bills here. Yeah, he believed, yes, and he made it very, very clear that.
Speaker 5:Got that word tattooed on my wrist.
Speaker 4:But, yeah, he made it very clear that you know, he, he, he did believe, he did believe in this, in this concept and this project, 100% yeah In the future of it, definitely yeah. So when, when there were, when there was, sorry, not chances but opportunities for for someone to kind of step up in a more like managerial role because, dara, you know, can't do like literally everything- she's miraculous.
Speaker 1:She's not that miraculous, she's miraculous.
Speaker 4:She is super human. You are a finite she's. But yeah, grover's passion for this place was was so obvious.
Speaker 3:Yeah, shining through yeah.
Speaker 4:And so.
Speaker 5:Where's his pants here, jesus Christ?
Speaker 4:Holy shit, I mean that's. That's really my only preface. I believe he can take it from there. He did not manipulate his way to the top, no, he just did a great job. That's what he did.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Grover. What did that leave to you? Lead to there, Um you know, like again.
Speaker 5:Uh, at that time I was before before I started actually like bartending here. I was in that another crossroads in my life, with what seemed to my time, up by crack, seemingly ending, um, and not knowing what I was going to go do. I was going to go back to school again and I was, and I just needed a couple like just a little little jobs that'll get me like allow me to go to school and stuff, which I was part of that. Yeah, then, when it was time for me to like, I got, I got accepted into the school, I got, I you know, I had all this stuff ready to go for me and didn't have a whole lot of money, so I was hoping on some like student loan stuff. But that's when they came back and we're like, hey, you've been like going to school off and on for like 12 years now, so we're not gonna give you any more money.
Speaker 2:So I was like cool that was.
Speaker 5:I'm like, oh cool, man, I have one class to take before I actually get a degree, but that's fine. So I was like, well, that's not happening. And I went to mean Kyle, I've been talking, and Darryl as well, we were talking and I was like, I want in on this place, like is there a way, like I know, like it's not that easy to just say, hey, what on this place you can be like, yeah, sure, here, just give us some money. There's other things you have to go through to get the okay and and make it happen. And my background check still don't know.
Speaker 1:Still don't know how bad boys, three felonies, then they're not hiring, but tattoos okay I make up with them and and then how the tattoos.
Speaker 5:But yeah, they, but they both were super on-board with it. Took me a while to win Darryl over, but that's another story but you did yeah, but yeah, and then went through it to the investors and stuff and everybody was cool with it. So we made it happen and here I am, being part owner of the dive now it's great and I'm excited.
Speaker 5:It's terrifying but also exciting, and it's yeah, it's not. I'm super excited, coming from like where we started, like I don't know if any like we're really only three. They really know this is. Darryl didn't want to hire me. Yeah, that's how. Yeah, kyle had to like convince her to let me work here. Manipulation, let's get into this terror. Why did you not want to hire me? We?
Speaker 4:actually don't have to. I want to time.
Speaker 5:We just actually already talked about it and it's actually like a super funny story.
Speaker 3:So the reason I didn't, I wasn't on board at first was because I like people who were when when behind the bar and when busy. You can ask like, hey, what can I get you with a smile when?
Speaker 1:Grover is in the zone. He looks pissed off he's got resting busy face.
Speaker 3:Yes, resting busy face, it's great and I was like man, I just I don't know, and that was the only thing like I've seen him, barton, I've seen him do events. I know he's graded everything, but I was like that face though, yeah, like the busy face he has a face for radio.
Speaker 5:You got a ugly face, man.
Speaker 3:I don't like it it's just, I was like I want people because, again, with the community and the people feeling comfortable and wanting to come here, I was like man. If somebody's behind the bar and they look just pissed, I don't know if people are gonna want to go up, be like, hey, can I get it? What do you want?
Speaker 5:you know I was like man, I don't know granted only times you ever like really saw me working was when he was busy.
Speaker 3:At my credit, he was great at events.
Speaker 5:But at a busy bar I'm just, I just care, like hunker down and just look at people go hey, what do you want? What do you want? Yeah, what do you need? What do you need? Your man, your reaction yes, he gets, he gets stuff done.
Speaker 3:I was just nervous about the face and the way he actually found the sound is cow reedy. When we have birthday parties or any type of party at his house, they like to play games and they like to say if it's a birthday, you go around the table. I think it's alternating years. One year you say everything you like about that person and then the next year somebody has birthday it's the next birth, so, yeah, the first, if your birthday I know okay, yeah, I've only been to this one so it's.
Speaker 5:If it is your birthday, everybody goes around and tells their favorite thing about that person. Now the person's birthday who is next, you tell one thing you don't like about that person.
Speaker 3:It was your face, right so this was even the worst one that I've heard about me, so this was a fun party I believe I remember what he was but that. So Erica got a bowl and put our base name in it and you tell a story about that person or how you got to know them, or you know whatever your favorite story about this person. And I got Grover's name and so I decided to spill the beans because of his face.
Speaker 5:Yeah, because of my busy.
Speaker 3:Face is resting busy which is not the first time I've been working together did six months at that time, probably. So it was, it was funny, but it was just like yeah, you're resting busy face.
Speaker 4:I didn't know, about it story but, it's not, it turned out also like best of friends now, it's true, that is true, when I'm around, I hardly get any attention from them hey, this is our time, can you please? I guess I forgot that I already talked hey, darren, I are talking, please.
Speaker 1:We talked about this before we started this. Man, sorry, we're not in the trust.
Speaker 3:No, we love you reading.
Speaker 5:Yes, we do but yeah, no, that's not even the first time I've ever heard that. I used to be a biker, I can. People who had known me for years would be at the bar and they'd be like hey, hey, I'm like what are you okay? I'm okay, man, yeah. I'm fine, I'm good, I'm just busy. What, what, what's up, what you just look real man, I'm like, do you want a beer?
Speaker 1:you're not helping.
Speaker 5:I'm like, I'm busy, I'm trying to clear this out yeah do you want a beer? Yeah, no, not move over that, thank you honestly, like we'll talk later.
Speaker 3:I'm glad that they had the friendship and brought him on board. Our entire team has been amazing through this whole thing and through being since we opened to now, through the different variants of COVID and all that stuff, we have kept our OG team, except one guy that moved to Hawaii. But you know, so we have a viable reason. These amazing people that through all of everything has worked for, worked with us and given us. They're all and it's amazing yeah, we couldn't have.
Speaker 3:I don't think we could have asked for a better team than what we have right now and seeing other restaurants needing help and other bars and like we have been so blessed that we don't have to worry that honestly yeah yeah that is.
Speaker 4:That is another cool fact that that I'm glad you guys brought up because it could sound a bit, a bit arrogant, but I'm very proud of it and it's not because of me, it's because of me and Dara and Grover and just the whole culture we have, literally, besides losing someone to Hawaii which I mean he posts pictures and it's beautiful and I don't blame him.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah if I had the opportunity, I would leave you for Hawaii right now but our one-year anniversary is coming up in just a few days and we are literally at a zero percent turnover rate in our first year which is insane, yes, and. I love that so much.
Speaker 1:Dara, you're about to tell him you were gonna quit though, right, so yes, yes.
Speaker 3:I figured this would be the great time to do that, yeah cool, we have a girl that we're gonna fire you anyway and she was telling somebody where she lives and somebody was like you drive all this way for your work and she said, if I didn't love my job and the people that I work with, I wouldn't do it. Yeah, she's like I drive all of this way because I love this place, I believe in this place and I'm like that is just. I was in the kitchen when she was saying that and I was like, oh my god, so amazing it's probably a good time to give a shout out to those guys.
Speaker 5:So yes, thanks George and thanks Grace and thanks Sydney and thanks Julia and thanks Erica.
Speaker 3:Sometimes and Julia, who is six months, six months pregnant, so working behind the bar serving you, you know that's so cool believe in loving it yeah yeah well.
Speaker 1:So we're gonna cut the commercial really quick. So stick around, because we're going to come back and we're gonna talk about just a little bit about dive how it is now and maybe maybe get a little hint of kind of some future workings or something like that. I don't know and I want to ask some like this news to me, possibly embarrassing questions for you guys oh, hell yeah, yes. I love you all and we will see you here in a second on the brew house word all right?
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Speaker 2:Cheers friends you're listening to the brew house, the podcast for beer lovers of all types.
Speaker 1:Now back to the show all right, welcome back to this episode of brew house. Uh, I, I'm super excited because we've got now some fun questions coming up. Uh, we've gotten to know, uh, kyle and grover, aka other kyle, aka the most amazing new story in my life. Yeah right, yep, it's okay, my last.
Speaker 5:My name is brian, so I'm like the whitest of white guy names when you, when you have the same name as kyle reedy and you're involved in a lot of things with him, you're never kyle, you're the kiles. No, no, no, I'm never kyle, you're grover. Okay, all right. People coming in here like, hey, what's your name? I'm like grover and they're like grover. Okay, well, I can't go by my first name, yeah, but you're not blue. Oh, oh, never heard that one before.
Speaker 1:Wow yeah, right, yeah, with the last name, like chrome, trust me, we can have a great conversation about all the insult jokes and, of course, darryl martin down here at the end. So, uh, welcome back guys. Uh, thanks so much for sharing your stories about how you guys kind of came to know each other and and then we got the dive bar here and we're talking about uh, here in bentonville, arkansas, if you're not familiar with it. Very progressive, very exciting, a lot of growth in our community and yet there's this one little fun place called bentonville dive that you can come in have a beer, have a natty light if you want to, and and just enjoy some good conversation. With disclaimer, we do not sell natty light here.
Speaker 5:I know, don't come here looking for natty light bush light yes bush light, bush light, fine bush, lot of life don't have to be alive but, not natty light I am very thankful you do have the 60 ounce bbr's yes, they're very popular, yeah
Speaker 1:yeah, so that said so, so we've got kyle. You are quite the entrepreneurial spirit. Um, we, we, we've launched the dive bar here. I've got to ask, uh, what would you? And this, this will be a question for anybody, but let's, let's have kyle started out here. So far in your, in your career and your journey along this path, what would you say is your greatest achievement? Uh, and that this can be a learning, this can be an accomplishment. Whatever it is, what would you say is kind of like one of the highlights I mean, yeah, grover's over there pointing to him and dara. So what? What would you say is your biggest achievement, though, along your journey to growing into the person you are today? Owning the dive bar you are today, and, uh, and knowing where you're headed uh, great answer.
Speaker 4:Thank you, all right yes, pass I'm just kidding um, no, I, I, I think, uh, honestly, the, the, the, the biggest uh learning experience, the best learning experience that I've had here in north west arkansas is, uh. It alludes back to, uh, what I was saying with uh 20 minutes ago, with me and dara talking about, uh, the whole, the whole concept for this place is that, uh, northwest arkansas, uh, is becoming uh for lack of better words just kind of cooler and cooler as the, as the weeks, the months, the years go by. But at the same time, there are a lot of demographics. There are a lot of people that are still not getting exactly what they want. Yeah, um, people in downtown bentonville um, there's a lot of money in in downtown bentonville. Yeah, um, there's a lot of professionals in downtown bentonville that make a lot of money there. There are also a lot of service industry workers that that work six days a week down here.
Speaker 4:Yeah, there there's a wide demographic of people to reach and the goal is to reach everybody. And, yeah, I, I think the biggest uh, the biggest learning process for me and most important, has been listening to people. Yeah, like, legitimately listening to people. Um, like, uh, like grover and dara, we're saying, like, you know, someone wants bush light. We're going to give them that option if it doesn't work. It doesn't work yeah people want coors banquet.
Speaker 4:If it works, it works great we'll give it a shot.
Speaker 4:No, we'll give it a shot and we'll do that with, uh, you know, our, our, our whiskies and our bourbons and our tequila's and all that kind of stuff, but but the the overall picture is is more wrapped around. Uh, just what is missing? And uh, I think that there are still a lot of things missing in northwest arkansas and uh, you know, especially when I, when I talk to people who are from austin, la, new york, uh, nashville, uh, any number of places, they come down here, uh, whether they're working for, you know, one of the big businesses here, whatever brings them here, uh, they all have something to say about. Well, back home we had this, back home, we had this, and uh, you know, you can't adapt to everybody's uh dream yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, you'd constantly jump through hoops at that time, yeah, but you can try to give some form of home yes, it's.
Speaker 4:It's impossible to make everybody happy all the time for sure a baseline, yes, of things you find but I I think that has been the most important thing is that, um, with this community being the way it is in northwest arkansas, still being, uh, you know, comparatively pretty small in population and, and you know, land size, yeah, to all of these other enormous places that people are coming from. Uh, yes, there there's got to be a a, not just a compromise, but there's got to be a way to make all of these things possible and, uh, and we are equipped to do that now I feel like you guys are a really good conduit for kind of passing those ideas through and and, like you guys are saying, see what sticks we're not afraid of trying stuff to see how it goes.
Speaker 4:Yes, absolutely, I mean, I, I think that that's honestly, if that, that might be a little bit of a shallow answer, but, uh, no, I I think, uh, if you want something to work yeah, it's not it can't be financially focused. You cannot, you cannot be money driven when you ask these types of questions, yeah, to people. You have to be culture and community focused.
Speaker 4:I know that I've said that six times already well, that's what we're trying to be but that's what we're trying to do and, um, yeah, just I want, I want personally to keep elaborating on on that and building on that, yeah, and creating more of a culture, more of a scene, whatever that scene is. On that fact alone and I, I feel, I feel good about the you know, the dives future success. Because of those reasons, because of the team that I have Surrounding me, we have, we have, we we have I.
Speaker 4:Was alluding to. This is why you're the other Kyle. I'm just you better be, I'm just kidding. But yeah, long answer, short, short answer, long. That that's it. That's my answer to that question. That's super cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean it's. It's been really cool, also Just because of our friendship, to watch you grow and to watch you kind of progress through figuring things out and and and just watching where you guys are at and where you're headed. I know you guys got some, some cool stuff on the horizon, which is neat, and you know just, I can't wait to see what you guys do here as the dive and not only, not only the building, but the brand, the, the actual name that you guys are doing here and that you're building and and you're investing in people, you're investing in lives.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You know, and I love seeing that.
Speaker 3:So I think we're one of the businesses around here that's a lot more people focused than Business focused. In a way, you focus on your people, you build your business, rather than vice versa.
Speaker 5:Well, one of the things that we really wanted to focus on in this place is, from the beginning, of what you guys Told us when we first opened this place was that you know, yes, we are a bar, we're here for the community and the people, but the people we want to do the most for was the other people that are in the service industry, like we are, which is why we have a service industry discount, why we do all these things, like we want to be everybody's bar, but we want to be here mainly for them, because they work down here and sometimes not as affordable in other places to you know, blow off steam and and go get a drink there without Wasting all your days like yeah like like spending a lot of money.
Speaker 5:We want to give that outlet to the service industry of here's a place you can go and be yourself for anybody. Yeah this place. You can come here, be yourself, let loose. You know you, you play in the corporate world all day, but that's not really you personally. You can come here in your suit and just be yourself. Yeah, you don't care. That's a great point.
Speaker 5:Well, it's nice because I don't have to wear pants right now, which is yeah, which we thought was weird that you took them off as soon as you walked in the door, right, I uh, but it's okay. Yeah, we're not judging you.
Speaker 1:Welcome to the dive bar. Yep, oh so welcome home, as you are.
Speaker 3:That maybe wear pants of it's if we're open.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it is cold outside.
Speaker 5:Only if we're open. If we're not open, it's pants free.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you guys have, like you said, you've tried a lot of different drinks. You tried a lot of different things for sale in here Is is there any beer, spirits, anything that you would love to have featured here, that you just haven't been able to maybe collaborate with them yet or or bring on board yet?
Speaker 5:Is there anything missing that you guys are just and this would be awesome if we could oh, I would love to collaborate with Teramana tequila, because they're owned by the rock and I just think he's a great guy. Yeah, sup rock.
Speaker 4:I have no comment.
Speaker 5:That's it. That's it I was gonna say mainly with beer.
Speaker 3:We like to deal with cans, so we have to select people that have a can option, which Some of them do, bottling and stuff. So some of the people we'd like to until we get More space to feature bottles and stuff we would love to, but right now, yeah, it's kind of hard because we we don't want to mess up their bottles.
Speaker 1:That's fair yeah that's true, yeah well, let's, let's go around the circle. Here we're start, start over with Dara and I'd say, of all the things, the opportunities that you guys have here at the dive, what do you, what are you most excited for right now?
Speaker 5:That's a loaded question. Loaded that's a loaded question.
Speaker 1:You couldn't tell, I'm starting to wrap up the episodes.
Speaker 3:I like the, the future that we could have, that we've built on community, yeah, and we're trying to build that community and being able to grow in whatever way that looks like to have room for more Musicians in the community, more beer in the community, more people in the community, having just a continued growth of people coming and finding their home at the dive and having space for those people and those events and things. Because, again, like Bentonville Brewing Company, I've seen friendships forged at these picnic tables that are still going and I love seeing that. And to be able to grow with that and having people grow with us is something that we want to have. Being community-based, yeah, so I'm excited for growth.
Speaker 1:I feel like that could be your new slogan. Bentonville dive better than tender right. True, we actually last.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's great. I actually have a lot to say that and I'm not gonna get into it.
Speaker 3:Also be your safe space for tender over what are you excited for in this?
Speaker 1:next, what are you excited for coming up, man? I mean as far as just being a part of it. Now You're an owner, which is awesome, thank you. So, um man say congratulations. I just said that's awesome.
Speaker 5:Yeah, thank you for saying it's awesome. I mean Kali man just kidding, slow down. Okay for being so condescending.
Speaker 5:You real fast, man. I like it's kind of the same thing as dare here. You know I'm excited for the you know Potential for expansion. You know, like the thing about like the dive and being like community-based, like like we are, like we hope to stay, is, you know, it's not just this community of Bentonville there's, so there's more out there that we feel that we could help or give to. You know, whether it be here or in a different town, if it's yeah if it's.
Speaker 5:Springdale or Rogers or like you know, expanding, like if that's an opportunity that comes to us, like exciting to me, because I think, in the short time that we've been here in just just a year, like the dive is a place people know and a place people go to and a place people tell people to go to. So there's a that opens up a lot of stuff for us as a company and I'm really excited to see where it leads us. Awesome, yeah, awesome.
Speaker 1:No, kyle. What about you man? What's uh? What's on your horizon that you're? You're just going. You just asked me. Sorry, other Kyle.
Speaker 5:Now it's other Kyle, kyle senior. What's on the horizon, man? I mean, what's, what? Are you excited?
Speaker 4:about most right now. So so this yeah so this will be the fourth owner. That's this whole thing was about alright.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's why we brought you here, brian.
Speaker 4:Alright, I'm out. That's why we brought you here, brian. Thank you, uh.
Speaker 1:Alright, so so Kyle, uh, original Kyle, um, I mean first born. Oh, gee, kyle.
Speaker 5:First born.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's the parents favorite. Yeah, the Kyle who gets away with everything. Um, sounds about right. So what about you, man? What's what's? Once you stop crying tears of laughter, uh, what are you excited about? What are you? What's on your horizon, man? Alright, well, we've kind of Hinted at some stuff. Just get to the point, come on.
Speaker 4:I'll just, I'll just get to the point. So this is what it's looking like, um, we're, we're getting everything together to set this up properly, but, uh, yeah, I'm not reluctant at all to say, uh, that that the dives expansion Um is going to be, and I don't know if this is in the last part, oh, part of a, you know, 8,000 square foot building. Uh, we have the honor essentially of of merging with uh hungry hollow brewing company which, uh, as I said before, I used to be a co-owner of Um. I then sold my shares to uh kind of help out this place when, when we were getting going the dive, uh, well, I'm, I'm reemerging with them and and that also involves we, we, yes, that also involves the Bentonville dive, uh, so hungry hollow is going to be moving to uh, bentonville.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, that's official. We've made that announcement that is official.
Speaker 5:Give me that. Give me some of that, jasmine ale. Oh.
Speaker 4:Yes, the jasmine ale.
Speaker 5:I hope you still made that so we are going to have.
Speaker 4:We're going to have the same uh concept essentially in this new location, because, uh, it's it's kind of hard to put into words without looking at the, the new space itself that we're going into yeah, it's so big that on the left side, um, you know, you will have the hungry hollow Uh brewing side. He's moving his entire facility down here, plus some, so we can uh actually distribute Uh in stores if we would like. We're not doing kegs or anything like that, we're just just distributing, selling uh taps from the the dive side of things and then uh beer to go. Um, on the right side there is already this uh pretty Dope bar that no one knows what it was.
Speaker 3:That's fantastic lighting. Yeah, that's fantastic.
Speaker 4:It's just like, literally like.
Speaker 5:Random lighting, but it's just no one knows what this?
Speaker 4:place was, but uh, yeah it's. It's kind of already equipped and set up for a lot. Um, so the, the dive will kind of be taking over the the the right side of the building that's the best way to put it, okay, and in the middle there will be, uh, a music venue. Let's leave the walmart amp out of this, but it would be. It would be the second largest Uh capacity venue in northwest arkansas after george's majestic, Okay.
Speaker 1:Um, wow, that's a that's a sizable thing, because I've I've definitely been to both of those places and and I know george's has Quite the capacity.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, once again, let's leave. Let's leave walmart amp out of that we're not gonna have and we're talking like one side of george's yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, not the entire both stage side, yes, exactly.
Speaker 4:So we're probably looking at like a five to six hundred person uh music venue Uh, and we can get some good names in there. Um, um, you know, this is uh, this isn't aside from the dive, because again it's gonna be a trifecta of companies, it's gonna be the bettonville dive uh, hungry, hollow and and no bad juju all kind of coming together and uh Kind of paving their their own ways to make this place spectacular.
Speaker 5:It's awesome, um, kind of in a sense. I'll just sorry to interrupt, but it's, it's, it's. It's gonna be a really cool experience because you're gonna have, like, the vibe of the dive, you're gonna have the music that no bad juju can get and you're gonna have the beer of hungry hollow. So you got the sense of a small town dive bar with your Like, with your domestic beers, your high-life cpbr's, your, your course, light, your mic, ultra. Then you got the side of hungry hollow that you know is making that wonderful jasmine ale and all these craft beers that we can also have, and then paired with music that has been Can't think of the word yeah, yeah the music that that no bad juju can get in there.
Speaker 5:It's gonna be an even even bigger destination. It's like people who, people who don't aren't even from around here, are gonna hear about this music venue in this place and Then gonna want to come here. Yeah, people, people are gonna want to play there.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:Yes, so you know, that's that's another thing. That's important to me is having a background in music for 16 years, um, having a music venue here that doesn't rival georgias. We don't need to rival or challenge or compete against georgias or any any other music venue that's here. It's just that this one would be in bentonville, and that is necessary.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's necessary in benton county.
Speaker 1:We don't have that yet.
Speaker 4:Yes, so, uh, while georgias is doing great things, like the best things, honestly, for northwest arkansas music scene as a whole, there are still these, like I said, when things are missing, there are these gaps. There are these. There are these artists that are going from dallas to kc, from st Louis to tulsa, uh, you know, little rock to omajana braska, like we are in a perfect place, uh, to uh to bring these artists in that people around here, like would be like what are you serious? We got them. Yeah, like, we got them, and you know some of them are probably more like, uh, you know, uh, not subtle acts, but not the big names.
Speaker 1:You know we're not bringing in more independent Artists that are really kind of playing for their audience, and their audience knows who they are exactly, and they're well known.
Speaker 4:And if we, you know, if we have 500 tickets available To this show, people will come from hours away and we will sell out those shows you know what I mean and become the destination.
Speaker 5:Become the destination Absolutely even even around here in north, like there, there is this divide of people who who want to go and see these people at george's, but they're like it's all the way in. Faithful, I live in north bella vista or center ten or a gravate or a gentry drive.
Speaker 5:Man, you know, like I don't want to, I don't want to, like I want to go down there, I want to go have a good time, but I don't Want to have to limit myself in that good time. Having it a little, having another venue yeah, a little bit closer is good for everybody.
Speaker 3:Yes, we're gonna be Absolutely. I think a cool Thing that we're gonna do is we plan to anyways have the craft beer bar and then like the dive bar. Yeah, so you have the bar where, if you want domestic beer and mixed drinks, you can go over here, if you want craft beer, you can go over here. So it's like having a local brewery, but with a full bar feel and getting all your things in at once, yeah, which I think is really cool and something that this area does not have. Really.
Speaker 1:Yep, yeah Well, guys, thank you so much for for sharing about that. I'm excited to see what comes of Benville dive as you grow, as you shift. I know, kyle, you've got a ton of stuff going on in in your world right now, which is super awesome, and and the fact that you guys you have the dream team here yes, really do so. I'm excited for everything to come. Thanks for hanging out with us here on the brew house. Uh, absolutely, that's probably gonna wrap up episode three here.
Speaker 5:Thank you, brian, thank you for having us, thanks B. That sounds good, man. Thank you, brother.
Speaker 1:Thanks, man, you guys have a great time. And uh, be sure, if you haven't subscribed to us here on the brew house, be sure and smash that button now, because you're not gonna want to miss what's coming up next. And uh, yeah, we'll see you then. All right, cheers.
Speaker 5:Yep Cheers.
Speaker 1:Hey, thanks again for listening to this episode of the brew house. I really appreciate you being here and I want to give you the recognition that you so richly deserve being a follower. So do me a quick favor leave us a review here, on whatever platform you're listening on right now, and at the end of each new episode I'll be reading one or two of my favorites, so you might be able to hear your own review read soon. Thanks again, cheers, friends.
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