Nine Spot Brewing on Monroe Ave. showcases best of New York

Rochester's latest brewery features both cuisine and beer highlighting regional New York flavors and traditions

Note: This newsletter is supported by Donnelly’s Public House, a wonderful canal-side establishment in the village of Fairport.

Construction is nearly done. Everything has been framed out. Drywall remains to be hung. The equipment is there, it just needs to be put into place.

But there is a finish line in sight. And within the next few weeks, Nine Spot Brewing, 190 Monroe Ave., will open its doors. When it does, patrons will experience beer and food that showcases every single corner of New York state.

It hasn’t been an easy journey, but brewery co-founder Marina Nothnagle, who boasts more than 20 years of experience in craft beverages at some of the best breweries in both Buffalo and Rochester, said there was never any other option. Marina and her husband Chris Nothnagle are the driving forces behind the brewery. They bootstrapped the project for the past five years.

“This is a scrappy effort,” Nothnagle said. “There isn’t a big-money backer here. This is very grassroots. I am very thankful for this team. This core group here has been wonderful.”

Photo: Nine Spot Brewing, 190 Monroe Ave., hopes to open in the mid-August.

The space, originally constructed in 1940 as an automobile dealership, was most recently home to Towners Bicycle Shop. (There is even a freight elevator in the rear that was used to lift cars from the first or second floor.) The rear garage door makes for easy loading and unloading for the 5,000-square-foot first floor. It’ll feature a tasting room, kitchen, private lounge-like event space (with a half-garage door that opens onto Monroe Avenue), and a 5-barrel brewhouse brewing system.

When I first met with the Nothnagles, the space was dusty and empty. It’s still dusty, as construction zones always are, but the bones are in place for a really inviting brewery and restaurant. Everything is now progressing at a quick, quick pace. Marina said the goal is to be open by mid-August. Some staff have been hired, including Mike Beebe, who will be leading brewing operations.

The brewery name, again, reflects New York state. The nine-spotted ladybug is the state’s official insect. As Marina noted in our earlier interview, the nine-spotted ladybug is pretty rare and thinks it perfectly symbolizes Nine Spot’s uniquely New York outlook — both in its beers and its foods.

“We're like a hardcore family here, trying to change the whole scene,” Marina said. “In a few different ways — embracing local, embracing New York, trying to promote that, and also increasing diversity in this (beer) community that is lacking.”

The mission

One of the brewery’s driving and fundamental missions is to increase the diversity within the craft beer industry. Representation matters, Marina said. Through her 20-plus year career in the beer and hospitality industries, she has seen firsthand the lack of respect many women get. She’s experienced unfair wages and advocated for herself and others. The industry can be better.

“I want to take up the appropriate space that women deserve in the beer industry,” Nine Spot brewery liaison Emily Baker said. “I want to encourage that and I want to help promote that and I want to tell people about that.”

“And not just women, too,” Marina said. “African Americans, too. … People just get so pigeon-holed in this industry and I think it gets hard for people to branch out.”

Being in a leadership/ownership role now, Marina said she is in a better position to uplift others. “We need to do better for our staff,” Marina said. “I have literally lost my job fighting for other people who were being mistreated. Twice. We’re trying to create an environment that is supportive and nurturing. Fair pay, fair treatment for everybody.”

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All tips will be pooled and Nine Spot is promoting cross-training among all positions.

The Nothnagles couldn’t be more effusive in praising the brewery’s neighbors for help along the way. Whether providing storage or technical advice, places like Roc Brewing, Strangebird, and Marshall Street Bar and Grill have been instrumental. Nothnagle called Marshall Street the brewery’s unofficial office while construction takes place.

“Everybody has helped us in a million ways over here,” Nothnagle said.

And once open, the brewery sits in an ideal location for a neighborhood tour. It’s a 1,000 feet from the Strong National Museum of Play, a few hundred feet from Strangebird, across the street from Marshall Street and the Bug Jar, and within blocks of Roc Brewing.

The cuisine

When Marina moved from Buffalo to Rochester, she saw a drastic difference in restaurant menus. Places in Rochester didn’t feature many of the same regional delicacies offered in Buffalo. Foods like stuffed banana peppers and pizza logs weren’t available in Rochester, she said. And just try to find chicken French in Buffalo.

The Nine Spot kitchen will produce a wide range of rotating, seasonally appropriate dishes, ones that will reflect different regions of the state. That could include Utica-inspired chicken riggies, hot dogs from across the state, and, of course, chicken French. Also expect appearances from maple products, different cheeses, and yogurt, the official New York state snack. There are even different regional meat sauces.

“People move around New York state, often not very far, and there are very specific regional foods,” said Allison Wassink, who will work in the kitchen and help in recipe development. “People are often very nostalgic for these foods. We’ll just play around and we’ll try to put our spin on it.”

“Being able to support and represent New York state in every way, across all channels — food, beer, our website, Instagram, everything, it’s critical,” Baker added.

Nine Spot is also planning to partner with neighboring Rochester Pedal Tours, perhaps offering a curated flight for bikers and serving as a stop on all trips.

The beer

For Beebe, a Rochester native, Nine Spot offered the chance to come home. He has spent his career as a professional brewer, working across the country in spots like San Diego, Los Angeles, Denver, Alaska, and New Jersey.

But Nine Spot presented a unique challenge he wasn’t certain he could overcome. As a New York state farm brewery, Nine Spot is mandated to use at least 60 percent New York state ingredients in its beer. So Beebe wasn’t sure if the quality and variety of state-produced ingredients, both malts and hops, would allow him to brew the types of beers he wants to produce.

“The whole using New York state ingredients was a little daunting,” Beebe said.

He said the brewery’s first pale ale, called NY Grains, Trains & Automobiles, a “proof of concept.” It features a hop blend from the New York Hop Guild and was brewed at Battle Street Brewery in Dansville, Livingston County. That’s not to say the recipe won’t be tweaked, but Beebe expects the beer will be in regular rotation. “You don’t have to order all your malt from Germany and all your hops from the Pacific Northwest necessarily, which is great,” Beebe concluded.

After a few test batches and collaborations with other regional breweries, he is confident Nine Spot will feature the type of easy-drinking, traditional styles he loves.

That’s something you couldn’t say just 10 years ago, when the variety and quality of ingredients grown here was limited. With a renewed emphasis on agriculture (and more work currently being done to investigate what works here), there’s little doubt New York state ingredients will continue to get better and better.

“The regionality of this is great for beer also,” Beebe said. “We have an opportunity, because we’re going to have guest beers on draft all the time. So whatever region of the state we’re gonna focus on with food, we can also bring in beers. We can bring in smaller breweries from out of town that don’t have a presence in Rochester.”

With more than a decade of experience, Beebe said, “I know what I’m good at and that’s clean, accessible beers without a lot of added frou-frou ingredients. Those are fun and I can make those. But at the end of the day, given our menu and given our overall concept, it’s about good, easy-to-drink beers.”

Title sponsor: Donnelly’s Public House

This work is made possible through support from Donnelly’s Public House, 1 Water St. in Fairport. So make sure to get out to Fairport and support one of the best establishments in our area.

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