Meet Cole Flannery- the owner of "Half-Step Beer & Wine"
Coming soon to the Norwich Square
Good Afternoon Norwich and the Upper Valley:
One could say that this story could be a typical day in the life of story, however in this case it is more of a lifetime of achievements with certainly some diversity thrown in.
As many of you know the Norwich Wine and Spirits location is currently vacant but hopefully not for long. Cole Flannery is the owner of Half-Step Beer and Wine and will be opening his business soon. In the meantime take a few minutes to get to know Cole.
No he is not a painter by trade but simply the artist at work getting the place ready to open just the same.
Please see below photos of the progress thus far after reading this bio.
So I asked Cole to tell us in his own words how he all of a sudden decided to open a Beer and Wine establishment, and here is what he has to say about that.
Hey Demo,
Here's a little bit of my story:
When I was 18 and 19 years old, I had a pretty significant interest in craft beer and the art of brewing (I'm going to plead the fifth on being underage at the time...). When I was 18, I apprenticed at Capitol City Brewing Company in Washington, DC. Then, a year later, I worked as an assistant brewer at Snake River Brewing Company in Jackson Hole, WY. At the time, Snake River was the most award winning brewery in America. I was pretty dead-set on being a brewer at that time and was even considering dropping out of college to pursue brewing; however, over that summer in Wyoming it became clear that craft beer (at that time) was a hard row to hoe. So, I kind of put it on the backburner and would occasionally homebrew some beer.
After college I went to Vermont Law School. My wife (then girlfriend) and I lived in Sharon, and she worked in Norwich. That was our first exposure to this wonderful town. Anyway, after law school I went into the Army as an active duty Judge Advocate. I served with a Reconnaissance Brigade at Fort Hood, and I deployed to Afghanistan for 10 months. After I left active duty, I served in the Texas National Guard and was a litigator and assistant attorney general for the state of Texas. I got pretty burned out by that job, and my family and I decided to move back to Vermont. So, that's how we ended up back here in 2018. As soon as Peter Rutledge announced he was hanging it up after 27 years, I knew I had to jump on the opportunity to pursue my passion of craft beer and open up my own place.
As far as the shop goes, it will be called "Half-Step Beer & Wine" (Half-step being an ode to one of my favorite Grateful Dead songs). The plan for the shop is to increase the cooler space and beer inventory, as well as continue to stock great wines. It's certainly going to be different from Norwich Wine and Spirits (we won't be doing hard liquor anymore), and the space is getting a major facelift (new floors, paint, coolers, lights, etc.). My goal is to serve all the beer lovers in Norwich (of which there are many), and continue to provide exceptional wines for the many wine drinkers in Norwich (of which there are also many). I'm hoping to open sometime between mid-October and that first week in November (it all depends on supply chain issues surrounding the coolers....). I am planning to send out an email to the listserv with more info and a survey.
I am working with all of the same distributors that Norwich Wine and Spirits used; although, some of what I stock will be different (much more craft beer, and maybe a few more natural wines). I am really looking forward to joining the business community in Norwich. It was really sad to think about having multiple vacant storefronts in Norwich Square. All we need now is someone to take over the cafe space!
Best,
Cole
And here are the rest of the photos thus far.
As I first visited the location, I noticed the Valley Floors truck there so I stopped to talk with the floor installer
This photo is the old floor before it was taken up and out
As you can see he is busy removing the old tiles. One by one they are gathered up
And placed in a receptacle to be hauled away and as you can see there is progress being made here
Taking out the old for recycling and getting ready for the new
On my next visit things are starting to look a bit brighter if you know what I mean
Meet Cole Flannery AKA the painter if you will
He is really focused on the task at hand
But I managed to get his attention and a smile at that
And it is coming along nicely and like Cole states in his story the equipment should be arriving soon.
Another view here
Soon you will get to see Cole busy at work providing you with some fine beer and wine products and oh yes!, always with a smile.
Stay Tuned for another announcement ( The grand opening if you will ).
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Demo Sofronas
