In the days before a public hearing and a vote by the Maplewood City Council on a liquor license for Cory King to operate The Cellar (a tasting room), a community Facebook group, ‘Maplewood YIMBY’ (Yes in My Back Yard) is buzzing with comments.
King is head brewer for Perennial Artisan Ales, a St. Louis craft brewery. He has declined to comment on the project until after the vote.
The proposed location is the west end of Marietta Avenue. Houses line most of the south side of the street, and the Marietta parking lot is to the north.
Most comments on Facebook are supportive. Some are about how to deal with Marietta Avenue residents opposed to the operation.
Maplewood City Council meets Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. at 7601 Manchester Road.
A sampling of the Facebook comments:
- Perennial Ale is a leader in the craft brew community. The tasting room would bring affluent St. Louisians and important people from the national craft brewing community to our beautiful town. With the amount of establishments that already have liquor licenses in the immediate area I am hopefully that this application will be approved.
- I Like! I Like! I am just buried and am not sure I will be able to make it! I will give it my best however!
- Half our street is occupied by craft beer fans and we can’t wait for the new tasting room to open.
- Specifically, this is the head brewmaster for Perennial, Cory King. There will be Perennial Beers on tap in addition to Side Project Brewing, which are barrel aged beers that Cory makes.
- One of the reasons we love living here because of all the new, fun stuff that’s going on in the neighborhood; it’s very vibrant right now and that’s good for everyone.
- Strange Donuts has teamed up Perennial Ales as well. This is the type of business Maplewood is all about.
- I’m in favor of this business, but I have to chime in that I’m not a fan of ‘The NIMBY’ as used in context here to mean the villain or the bad guy. I don’t see that anyone here knows why a person may oppose this venture, but in general I think we shouldn’t fall into the trap that ‘opposition = bad’. We should hear out everyone in Maplewood, encourage discussion and participation. I would rather this group be PRO community (ie YES), without the demonization of those who might hold opposing views.
- The neighbor who opposes the license is concerned about noise, parking, and the presence of alcohol on the street.