A Look at the Newest Houston Brewery: Senate Avenue Brewing Company
Cody Miller
The pandemic has hit certain industries hard, with bars and restaurants being severely hit due to limited capacity regulations or being told to shut down. Houston has seen its share of restaurants, bars and breweries that have shuttered permanently. Though one brewery, Senate Avenue Brewing in Jersey Village, recently had its grand opening recently despite the pandemic.
Andrew Mitcham is a man with many hats — former Jersey Village council member, current mayor, and founder, owner and head brewer of Senate Avenue Brewing Company. Mitcham started to put a business plan together two years ago after the city sought out someone to start a brewery.
“The original plan was to try to open in April, but in March when everything started to shut down, and we were still under construction, all the trades also shut down,” said Mitcham. “The electricians shut down for a month. The mill work people shut down for two months, and construction had to stop.”
Once the brewery finally opened at the end of September, the support was massive. Mitcham anticipated just family and friends showing up. However on opening weekend, there was a line of excited patrons wrapped around the building. Senate Avenue is in an area of town that doesn’t have many brewery options with Klaus and 11 Below being the closest, so people were excited about a new offering in northwest Harris County.
The brewery itself is in a retail space of a new office building in the city limits of Jersey Village. The inside space is large enough to hold 12 picnic tables that are separated enough for social distancing purposes while the outside space holds another eight tables. The brewery has rotating guest taps to accompany its own beer. When I went in, I had a flight of their beers that were currently on tap.
- Ready. Aim. Fire. is a belgian wit with hints of coriander and lemon
- CD7 is a well-balanced amber ale that is malt-forward but also a little sweet
- Don’t Hassle Me I’m Local is a classic blonde ale. This is a perfect summer beach beer
- HD135 is pale ale and easily my favorite of the bunch. It’s smooth with a good amount of bitterness
What sets Senate Avenue apart from other Houston breweries is its in-house food options. Mitcham was inspired by small production breweries in Oregon that served really good food to bring out different flavors in the beer. The brewery offers a wide range of small bites such as crab cakes and empanadas but still has classic bar food like burgers and wings.
All in all, Senate Avenue Brewing is a great place to have lunch or dinner with a beer. The atmosphere and employees are friendly and unassuming. Mitcham hopes that Senate Avenue can be a trailblazer in pairing good food with good beer, because we all know that Houston has both, but not always in the same location until recently.
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