Tidbites | Week of September 10, 2015

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OUT WITH THE OLD

The 3 Margaritas restaurant on Hover Street in Longmont closed last week. The area around the restaurant was the site of major development after the Twin Peaks Mall closed.

The chain restaurant’s Hover Street outpost was in business for five years. There is still the 3 Margaritas location on North Main in Longmont, as well as other locations throughout Boulder County.

IN WITH THE NEW

And in the vacant building left by 3 Margaritas comes GoodBird Kitchen, the latest creation of the Big Red F restaurant group.

GoodBird Kitchen, or GBK, is the spawn of The Post Brewing Company in Lafayette, which has been cooking and serving acclaimed hot chicken and sides for more than a year now. GBK will be bringing The Post’s beers on tap to Longmont with the chicken.

Fare’s going to be moderate, with a chicken sandwich starting at $7 and full dinner platters rolling up to $13. You’ll also be able to grab chicken and sides to go.

“GBK will be the ultimate no hassle picnic,” said General Manager Eric Hulme in a press release. “Come in, order, get some bird and an ice cold Post brew or a cocktail and get your grub on.”

The opening is estimated for late fall of this year.

UPSLOPE EXPANDS

Upslope Brewing Company announced plans last week to build an 11,000-squarefoot brewpub at 34th and Valmont in Boulder. It will likely be completed in late 2017.

The new facility will be used primarily for Upslope’s experimental brews and barrelaging program. There’s also going to be a restaurant, patio and mezzanine.

The building will be placed in the S’PARK (short for Sutherland Park) development area, which constitutes the square of area between 30th and Foothills, and Valmont and Pearl. The addition of Upslope to the area is in line with the developer’s goal of providing housing, entertainment and food options in a dense area.

More important for us beer drinkers, the new facility is likely to birth weird beer concoctions from a brewery that has been rewarded for exploring the depths of craft beer production.

“The innovation emerging from our Lee Hill brewery has never been more important than it is today, and has become essential to stay relevant in today’s quickly evolving craft beer industry. In an effort to expand the experimental brewing, piloting, barrel-aging and collaboration beers that are going on there today, we need to move the brewery to a larger location,” said Upslope Founder Matt Cutter in a press release. “We have fortunately been able to combine that expansion effort with being part of a one-of-a-kind project taking shape in central Boulder, just north of Boulder Junction. Having worked with Element Properties for many months on the design of this brewpub, we couldn’t be more excited to be a key component of the S’PARK project and Markt building.”

The completion of the new facility will also, unfortunately, mean the end for the Lee Hill taproom, which currently houses Upslope’s experimental and barrel-aging program. That taproom will stay open until at least 2017, when the S’PARK facility is completed. Upslope’s newest taproom at Flatiron Park will continue to operate.