Tom Schlafly Christens New Patio; Home Brewers Bring the Beer

A rabbi, a pastor and Catholic father walked into a bar.

But seriously, Tom Schlafly invited three local religious figures to the christening of the new patio outside on Saturday to bless the structure.

He also invited homebrewers to a home brew festival under the patio. More than a hundred tasters came to sample local beer and help celebrate.

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“We wanted to give them an area to show off their beers,” restaurant general manager Scot Smelser said. “We decided to share that with the christening of the patio.”

Chip Stone, a Maplewood homebrewer, said the homebrewers were kept out of the recent Heritage Fest, a craft beer event downtown, so he was happy Schlafly invited them.

“We were all bummed out that we couldn’t do Heritage Fest,” he said. “This is our own private event. I like it.”

Rabbi Andy Kastner and Father Gary Braun, both associated with Washington University, and Rev. Matt Miofsky, lead pastor at The Gathering UMC took turns on the stump and blessed the Bottleworks’ new patio.

Maplewood alderman and architect Barry Greenberg designed the patio.

He said he started from the existing 40x40 footprint and added the metal structure, then Schlafly’s Paul Casey, the general contractor, was involved after that. Maplewood electrician Eric Philipp designed the lighting and Frontenac Engineering did the structural engineering.