Becoming the boss of Brewery Lane

New Brewery Lane St. John’s owner reflects on unique path to taking over business

Back in 2003, Mike Burke started a part-time gig at Brewery Lane in St. John’s. The university student needed to earn a few extra dollars.

He ultimately didn’t stick with university, but getting to know the world of winemaking and homebrewing sparked something in Burke. It helped that he already knew the business’s owners, Bill and Bernadette Reddy.

“They were great people,” he said. “Then when I started learning about brewing, I got the bug for it, and it’s never left me.”

Twenty years after becoming a part of the Brewery Lane team, Burke finds himself in a new role. Earlier this year, he became the new owner of the St. John’s location on Torbay Road, allowing the Reddys to retire from the business. The St. John’s store first opened in 1993, and Bill’s brother, Ken Reddy, opened a second location in Mount Pearl — which continues to operate under separate ownership — in 1994.

“It’s one of those things in the back of your mind, a lot of people have it — oh, I’d love to own my own business one of these days,” Burke said. “Now that it’s here, it’s like, wow, what do I do? It’s a little bit overwhelming, but luckily Bill is an extremely good mentor. He taught me how to do stuff. He didn’t want to sell until he felt I was 100 per cent ready for it. Also, he is always a phone call away whenever I’ve got a question.”

A DOZEN YEARS IN THE MAKING

Burke, whose own expertise leans towards the beer-side of homebrewing, actually stepped away from the business in 2007 to peruse a skilled trades career. It turned out not to really be what he was looking for.

“I stopped in and chatted with Bill and Bernadette one day,” he recalled. “They know me extremely well, and just by talking to me, they knew I wasn’t overly impressed with my current job situation.”

He then got a call from the Reddys and was asked to come back to the store. A pitch was made for Burke to return to work to Brewery Lane, with the Reddys willing to groom him to eventually take over the business. He accepted the offer and got back to work in 2011.

“The trade industry, unless you really, really like what you’re doing, it’s not a fun industry,” he said. “I missed the environment of here. Bill and Bernadette’s goal — and I’ve carried it on — is to make this place a fun place to work. You can ask any customer. It’s very often someone will come in and the staff’s laughing about something or carrying on.

“I guess that foolish old saying is if you love what you’re doing, you’re not working. It’s true, to a degree, because to me there’s nothing better than sitting around talking to customers about brewing or helping them out, working on a recipe with them, and just making sure they’re happy when they leave.”

Burke emphasizes the importance of having knowledgeable employees. Brewery Lane’s staff — six, including Burke — routinely take on training and educational opportunities to up their game when it comes to wine, beer and spirits.

“Between all the staff, we have a lot of knowledge and can help our customers with pretty much any question they have or any issue they have,” Burke said. “Customer service is top of my list.”

INDUSTRY TRENDS

Winemaking in particular has grown in popularity over the last few years, Burke says. Homebrewing beer was big too, but he admits the rise of craft breweries in Newfoundland and Labrador affected interest in homebrewing.

“Beermaking was huge before the craft breweries opened, because it was hard to get good beer here in Newfoundland, so a lot of people brewed their own,” he said. “Once a lot of the craft breweries opened, some people stepped back from brewing, because they could get access to good beer.”

Fortunately, just as homebrewing started to trend downward, winemaking experienced a resurgence of interest among Newfoundlanders. Burke credits a regulation change in 2019 that permitted business’s like his own to handle on-site fermentation for helping matters. Brewery Lane has also started offering carbonation services for beer and wine, something no other business on the island is offering, Burke says.

“Most places, if you do a beer, you’ve got to take it home, wait two weeks for it to carbonate in a nice warm area, and then you get your beer, but you’ve got the sediment on the bottom,” he explained. “Now when the beer or carbonated wine leaves here, it’s perfectly clear. You can drink it that day. It makes life a little bit easier for the brewers.”

Looking ahead, Burke is keen to modernize the business a bit by introducing an app-based customer rewards program. He’s also exploring expansion opportunities to increase the business’s reach beyond St. John’s metro.

“There’s a lot of places on the island that don’t have access to brewing supplies, so it would be nice to set up a smaller location in those places,” he said.