2 PARTNERS TO CREATE HUB
FOR BREWERS, DISTILLERIES
By JIM KEVLIN • allotsego.com
COOPERSTOWN – They hadn’t thought of creating a retail hub for Otsego County’s growing beverage industry, but when Augur’s Books “at the flagpole,” perhaps Cooperstown’s most desirable storefront, became available for the first time in a quarter-century, the creative juices started flowing.
Now, Cooperstown Distillery proprietor Gene Marra and Steve Harris, owner of Royal Chrysler in Oneonta and an investor in the company, are planning to open Local: Cooperstown Beverage Exchange, on the ground floor of the imposing three-story brick building at Main and Pioneer streets by mid-June.
From 10 to 5, the Exchange will sell Cooperstown Distillery products and those of the six other members of the Cooperstown Beverage Trail – Ommegang, Cooperstown and Butternut breweries, Rustic Ridge and Bear Pond wineries, the Fly Creek Cider Mill – plus the new Pail Shop Winery, which is expected to join the Beverage Trail partners when a required probationary period is complete later this year.