By Jef Rietsma
The company spearheading redevelopment of the former Simpson Lee Paper Mill in Vicksburg have plans for the project’s first phase to include a brew pub.
Old Stove Brewing Co. currently has two locations in the Seattle area; the Vicksburg site will be its first operation outside the state of Washington. It is owned by Vicksburg native and Seattle resident Chris Moore, who also owns Paper City Development. Paper City is behind redevelopment of the project, simply called, “The Mill.”
As he has at the two Seattle locations, Moore plans to subtly incorporate a part of Vicksburg into the local Old Stove brewpub.
Greg Bjarko, an architect who works with Moore, said the tables and bench seats at the Old Stove locations in Seattle are made from wood harvested on Moore’s family property just outside Vicksburg.
It was a process that started more than four years ago, when the trees on Moore’s father’s property on VW Avenue and Moore’s property on 24th Street – just south of town – were cut. They were warehoused in the Mill for curing until the first portion was shipped to Seattle in 2016 for use in the first Old Stove brewery. The remaining 40 tons or so was loaded for shipment to Seattle in May 2017 for the opening of the second brew pub. Once in Seattle, a portion of the 40-ton load of wood was fashioned into the tables and chairs used by Old Stove patrons today.
“Chris was really excited to repurpose this lumber into what would turn out to be an artistic style of tables and benches … that connection to Kalamazoo County and Vicksburg is important to Chris,” he said. “And they turned out very nice.”
Bjarko said a pattern was used to maintain a uniform design, but no two tables and benches are exactly the same.
“The wood was harvested and rough milled in Vicksburg, where it did a lot of its drying,” he said. “It was fabricated here, then cleaned, sanded and the finish put on, and connected to bases and supports here.”
A team of four area men, including John Kern and Richard Barnes, were on hand the day in 2016 when the trees were eventually loaded onto a flatbed trailer. Once in Seattle, a portion of the 40-ton load of wood was fabricated into the tables and chairs used by Old Stove patrons today.
The wood pieces are nearly three inches thick and range from four to 16 feet in length. By design, the tables and benches are set up to create a communal seating arrangement at Old Stove. An average table can seat 8 to 12 people.
Kern said the wood includes white and red oak, cherry and quite a bit of walnut.
Kern added he is not surprised Moore went to the extreme that he did to incorporate family timber into Old Stove.
“Chris may live in Seattle but he is a Michigan guy through and through, he’s very proud of where he’s from,” Kern said. “The tables and benches may not mean as much to the people at the restaurant, but I know they represent a special connection to home for Chris.”
Tad Dallas and Louis Armstrong work for Moore, and were the muscle behind building the tables and benches.
Dallas said he is proud to have had a hand in such an integral component to Old Stove. He said what would eventually be the final product, however, took some time and effort.
“We met with Chris at the workshop and we had some really nice slabs of walnut. I remember we flipped the slabs in multiple directions, end-over-end, and we were kind of all over the place,” Dallas said. “We came up with a design that included an old steel plate that serves as the inlay piece, so what we had in the end was something that I’d say actually designed itself.”
Dallas said there is still quite a bit of wood left, though he’s not sure if the tables and benches for the Vicksburg Old Stove will be designed in Seattle then sent back to Michigan, or if the wood will be returned to Vicksburg and the furniture created here.