While promoting craft beer in Pennsylvania is a passion of ours, it always saddens us to see a brewery close. Which is why it gives us no joy to share with you that Race Street Brew Works (Clearfield, PA) is closing on December 21st, 2019, per this announcement on their Instagram post below.
As the video says the brewery still has inventory, so you may still see them throughout the market as their inventory comes to a close.
As the brewery shares, they will not be going out on a somber note. Instead it will be a party to celebrate the 5 years. We raise our glass to Race Street and look forward to hearing stories from their former patrons.
A bit more on the story of Race Street from their website:
Well its complicated…it started as a dream … a dream that had started out as one adventure and ended up becoming another out of situation. The original dream was inspired in a basement on Race Street , thus the name, right here in Clearfield. After decades of enjoying the same fondness for this lush frothy beverage two compatriots conspired to create a brewery. After research and with knowledge of the then archaic law, food was a must to have such establishment thus bringing on board the element of tasty bites.
Race Street is now a collaboration between husband and wife Bohb Striker and Steph Rice and if they had known when they met ten years ago that they would be able to try out their passions together they would have laughed out loud. Bohb always was one to work for himself and continues to keep another job on the side to be able to continue what is Race Street and was introduced to craft beer two decades prior and developed a passion and palette for all things of the earth and barrel. He is a master of beer alchemy in his ability to layer notes with just enough balance that sets each flavor experience apart. Steph has loved healthy clean global food for the same number of decades and has been developing her own sense of cultivated palette gravitating towards using food as a visual canvas and taste symposium much like her collages.
The atmosphere was created by family and friends, literally both of our dads helped build Race Street, each contributing what they do best. Detail was created to create the city vibe we were craving, both of us having lived separately in Center City Philadelphia. The decorations and curiosities are us, even remnants of our wedding reception are still hanging and our house is mirrored in many of the odd displays and continuous additions. The interior was pieced together through thrift shop finds and numerous happenstance across many states by Bohb and pieces continue to accumulate through acquisition, gifting from customers, and random pieces of us that find a new home here at Race Street. Things change and are added to Race Street weekly and you never know what you might find.
Everything from our logo, our tag line, our name, our music, our bar top, our little rooms, our changing atmosphere is who we are as an evolving couple, business, and community. Each part has a story, each one with a meaning. The logo, for instance, was an image that was found in a book given to Steph by Bohb when they first met. She did collage art and used vintage images and they both have a fondness for vintage posters and ephemera. Lovers of books, art, paper and thrifting the image fit perfectly and the logo established around this image was created by the original co-founder.
Over the past two years, we continue to change, evolve, and create more of the community that we hope to share. We both loved having dinner parties and hosting our friends prior to opening the brewery, that is why perhaps Race Street has become the community it has and yes, it has a community, just like Cheers yet Race Street is not a bar and in many instances is WAY DIFFERENT BY DESIGN. Regulars often become friends, visitors often become regulars and wanderers usually visit again.
Nothing here is what you would expect in Clearfield, nor was intended to be as such… it is in fact as a customer coined “an oasis” in the middle of something else, a venture off the normal road quite literally. A displaced business in an odd destination. You won’t find a domestic beer or a burger but you will find well thought out brews and food that are created with passion, dedication, and love.
