Wichita brewery’s first year was tumultuous, but owners plan changes for year two

Augustino Brewing Company is celebrating its first birthday with a big party this weekend, and as they prepare to move forward with year two of the business — which had a tumultuous first year that included a brief shutdown — owners Augustine and Bianca Iacopelli are making more plans for how they want to retool their operations.

It’s been almost a month since the Iacopellis reopened their west-side brewery, 756 N Tyler Road, which had been closed down for about four weeks. They decided to reopen just the brewery side of the cavernous space at Central and Tyler, and at the time, they said they wanted to find someone else to run the restaurant side so they could return their focus to beer.

After a few weeks back in business, though, they’ve adjusted those plans. Although they’re still open to someone taking over the kitchen, in the meantime, they’ve decided to start moving toward reinstating a food menu that would be appetizer-focused and would bring back some of the most popular appetizers from their previous menu.

“In the longer term, that’s the direction that we’re taking the food side —really making it more fast-casual, which oddly enough was kind of what Bianca and I wanted in the first place, but a lot of people talked us out of it,” Augustine said.

Augustine said they’re not sure yet when they might add the appetizers back, but having food at the brewery is important to them. For the past several weeks, they’ve had a schedule of food trucks serving there, and they’ll continue to do that, he said. One benefit of having an empty kitchen is that, on colder days, the food truck operators can cook and serve his customers inside.

They’re also making plans to turn the giant dining room space on the south side of the business into a more casual, hang-out spot by adding dart boards, pool and Foosball. They’ve also added a new jukebox and Golden Tee video game to the brewery side of the business.

For now, the brewery is still open 5 to 10 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays and 3 to 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.

The Saturday hours will be extended this weekend for the anniversary celebration, when Augustino’s will open from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. During the party, people get get $1 off pints and $2 off if they bring in a donation for ICT SOS. The Flying Stove will be serving lunch from 11:30 a.m. until 2 p.m., and Homegirl’z Kitchen will be serving dinner starting at 3 p.m. Cake and ice cream will be served at 8 p.m.

This story was originally published November 15, 2018 at 1:55 PM.