Millvale brewery Grist House makes plans for expansion
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Grist House Craft Brewery plans to open a production facility and taproom inside a Cold War-era missile command center in Collier.
The brewery’s nearly five-year-old Sherman Street, Millvale, location will remain open.
“This being the place we call home — that’s not changing,” marketing manager Bailey Allegretti said.
She said that a large brewing system will relocate to Collier, freeing up space. Plans for that area, as well as a timeline for the expansion, have yet to be determined.
Contractors built the 55,000-square-foot Collier building in 1957, according to Allegretti, who is researching the site by speaking with township officials and people formerly employed at missile command centers.
“The site itself is incredible because it expands quite a bit above ground and there’s a half basement and a full basement. So, there’s two levels below the main level.”
Some relics remain, which Grist House owners Kyle Mientkiewicz and Brian Eaton and Allegretti plan to preserve for visitors.
“There’s one large panel that still has a lot of dials and monitors on it that if you open up the back panel and push buttons, you can still see the mechanisms moving. You can still see how the switchboard kind of works.”
The panel features a red button, but she doesn’t think that it was “the” red button that one could use to launch a nuclear missile.
Another device possibly measured seismic activity.
Her sources confirmed that remaining wall brackets were used to mount bunk beds “if there was ever an accident or an incident so it could be used as a shelter or a bunker of sorts.”
Collier Manager Kyle Thauvette said the township is excited to partner with Grist House on an endeavor that he hopes will bring more businesses to the area near the community center.
“We look forward to Grist House kind of being that first domino to kind of get the properties adjacent to it sold and see a little more commercial development and really make the area where our community center’s located a hub for the township,” he said.
Allegretti noted that outdoor space is important to the dog-friendly Grist House. The Millvale brewery has a patio with fire pits, seating and food trucks. The Collier facility is located on a hilltop on one of Allegheny County’s highest points.
“It’s amazing. You can see just an expanse of hills, but if you are standing on the roof of the building looking out on this incredible valley, just to the left you can see the city,” she said, noting that she would like to place viewfinders on the property.
The facility will have a dog-friendly area.
Allegretti said this opportunity comes down to the brewery’s success in Millvale.
“We’ve found this incredible community of people who love being here and love bringing their dogs and being here on weekends. … It’s not a bar, but we have people who come in regularly and people who always have us on tap in their homes and stuff like that. I don’t think someone would go into something like this expecting to be where we are in five years. We are just incredibly honored.”
Erica Cebzanov is a
Tribune-Review contributor.