Speaker 1: 0:09

Hey, well, welcome back to the Vero Beach Podcast. I'm Brian and I'm Shawna, and today we are sitting right here at the Walking Tree Brewery with Brooke and Mike. You guys, thank you guys so much for allowing us to come and hear your story, get to know more about both of you and about the Walking Tree.

Speaker 3: 0:25

Absolutely. Yeah, we're excited.

Speaker 1: 0:26

Well, right now we're sitting in the. This is the restaurant section you said. Is that correct?

Speaker 4: 0:31

Correct. So this is Salvador Deli, which has been here in our facility since August of last year. We went our first eight and a half years without food on site, and so we were food trucks and that fun for quite a long time. And after some work with the city to get our parking figured out, we put the restaurant in last year and it's been a lot of fun. It's great to have food now and I don't have to bring my lunches often.

Speaker 1: 1:02

So that's good.

Speaker 4: 1:03

So, yeah, it's great, they're doing a great job. So it's Courtney Cotherman, and then Linda Moore and Rick Norrie. Rick and Linda own Kilted Mermaid downtown. Rory, rick and Linda own Kilted Mermaid downtown, oh yes. And then Courtney has worked for them for the last 10 years, and so this is Courtney's, and Rick and Linda are a part of it and they're doing a great job. The food's awesome. We're just excited to have a restaurant here. You drink more beer when you eat food that is true, it's longer?

Speaker 1: 1:28

yeah, absolutely. We've been to the Kilted Mermaid several times and love it out there as we get ready to go into your guys's story, I got a couple things to ask. This is the first time we've been to the brewery and I was surprised of how big it is. That is huge out there and is very well put together. I love the whole atmosphere, so we're definitely gonna have to come here while you're open, because right now you're closed. Uh on, you're closed on mondays, right? Yeah?

Speaker 4: 1:50

we are. Are you open?

Speaker 1: 1:51

on tuesday.

Speaker 4: 1:52

We're open six days a week, so Tuesday through Sunday.

Speaker 1: 1:54

Tell me a little bit about it before we get into your stories. There's something special about this building because this is a big building.

Speaker 3: 2:01

So architecturally the space is very, very unique for Florida. People that visit from up north don't expect to see a structure like this still standing or existing down here. We are a clear span building of 160 feet, 120 feet wide, 240 feet long. It's 24,000 square feet Built in the early 40s it was a naval aviation supply warehouse when there was a base here during World War II. Oh wow, very shortly after the building was completed, the base was decommissioned.

Speaker 4: 2:40

War was over, right yeah post-World War II, they decommissioned the base and gave everything to the city.

Speaker 3: 2:45

But it is built like a tank and it is. It is. It's just amazing having the people that walk in in here and we have literally had people ask are those faux finished fake beams in the ceiling? And no, they are original World War II era clear span Douglas fir trusses. It's amazing that construction doesn't. They don't build them like that anymore. So when we found this building, I think that we all kind of decided that this had to be home and it was potentially being slated for demolition. It was in possession of the city. It had been empty for the better part of seven years. Very difficult to find a tenant for it. It had been split down the middle for two different tenants for a very long time. A tenant for it. It had been split down the middle for two different tenants for a very long time, but it had been sitting empty for a significant time.

Speaker 4: 3:45

It needed a lot of work and then we came along and we were like we'll just take it as is and do it all. So it was a lot of work to bring it up to what it looks like today. We did two years of renovations and construction before we opened. So we actually acquired the building in the middle of 2014, but didn't open our doors to the public until June of 16. I had nightmares about construction for quite a long time after getting it done Well.

Speaker 2: 4:07

Thank you for saving this beautiful building, because I did not expect this at all. So when we walked in, our jaws dropped, I mean, we did not realize. So we were looking around and, oh man, just what a vibe. I can't wait to come hang out here.

Speaker 4: 4:20

Yeah, I can always tell when people who come here for the first time because they do they walk in and they stop and they just look up at the ceiling and like kind of just look around and they're a little bewildered for the first couple of minutes because there isn't a lot of structures like this, with a clear, open building like this, where you can see all the brewing equipment and everything's just wide open. So there's it's. It's pretty unusual, but we love it. It's a, it's a, it's a labor of love for sure.

Speaker 1: 4:46

We just caught a glance, right before we walked in here, about the old living room.

Speaker 2: 4:50

Yeah, the vintage living room Looks super cool. So yeah the vintage living room looks super cool.

Speaker 4: 4:53

So most of that furniture used to be in this room. So before it was a restaurant, this was. We called it the arbitrarium, because it was just random things that people dropped off or she had found. So this used to be a private event space so we would have baby showers and birthday parties and stuff in this room. So when we turned this into a restaurant, we were like, what are we going to do with all this furniture? So we created that. That is so cool.

Speaker 2: 5:17

So what did you two do before you acquired this building and got the brewery going so?

Speaker 3: 5:23

immediately before this. Mike and I married about six years before the doors opened here, and it only took us about three years to realize that this was something that we were going to do. So we spent a lot of time business planning and trying to figure out how to find money, because we needed help there to make this happen. I homeschooled our children. He worked with a rail spur in a lumber yard down south in Fort Pierce. I lost my job during the housing crash with an interior design firm, so the timing on that was about the same exact time we got married. I basically became unemployed and got hitched.

Speaker 4: 6:09

Yeah, about what was it about a month before the wedding? Yeah, yeah, a little bit of a change, yeah.

Speaker 1: 6:14

Yeah, really, what really encouraged you guys to go all in for this?

Speaker 4: 6:18

So I had been homebrewing since 2007. I'd always loved to cook and a buddy of mine had moved up to Seattle for a handful of years and then moved back. And when he moved back, he came and we were hanging out. He goes, mike, you know, we can make our own beer, no. So I started home brewing with him and was immediately hooked. And in the early you know, 2008 to 2011, the brewing industry in the United States, the craft brewing industry, was just on fire. So when we were writing business plans in 2012, 2011, there were 50 breweries in Florida. There are 430, I think, currently. Wow, so back then that was it. Like people were opening breweries. They were doing great Seemed like a good idea at the time. You know, we wanted to do something else. I was in a job that was boring, I just wasn't being fulfilled and she actually encouraged me to quit and I did. I just left. We were doing art and selling it on at street fairs and stuff like that, and we made this happen. So it was.

Speaker 1: 7:23

It was a big jump what you're sharing about the economy during the economy crash because that was the first time and only time I've lost a job was, and that time is, in 2010.

Speaker 2: 7:39

He can't say the word, but it was the first and only time he got fired. Yeah, fired.

Speaker 1: 7:43

Yeah, I laid off. Yeah, they fired me. Yeah, same thing. Yeah, it's the same thing.

Speaker 3: 7:48

I basically had to look at my boss and go Are you just going to rip the Band-Aid off? Can you just do it? Just get it done with? Nobody wanted it to happen. But there was no work and it was pretty rough. But this was the fortitude of I call them the rice and beans years At the very, very end, construction and construction projects. Much like the industry I came from, I would always tell a client it's going to cost twice as much as you think. It's going to take me twice as long than I tell you, because that's just the nature of the business People want what they want. They're going to get what they pay for. And it was the same thing here. Things took longer than we expected and towards the end, you know, of trying to get these, the doors open, we were literally selling artwork at sidewalk fairs so that we could keep food on the table. I had threads in my coming out of my tires, like it was. It was the end. You know it goes crash and burn time. Are we got to make it?

Speaker 4: 8:59

Yeah, it was a year and a half from when I left the lumber yard until this started paying us. Wow, yeah, it was rough, but I got really good at turning bowls on the lathe and making rice and beans.

Speaker 1: 9:11

and making rice and beans, what were some of the thoughts going through your guys' heads? Because I think a lot of times people look at businesses and they only see the highlights, especially with social media. Today, they see the highlights and they were happy and they were. You know the basic you had the basics.

Speaker 3: 9:41

You only needed the basics because all you could get were the basics. So it was easy to have fun because you had to create fun. You know we're raising two little kids that that walked through this and you want them to be optimistic and know that we're we're going there's this trajectory coming that we're heading to be optimistic and know that we're going. There's this trajectory coming that we're heading towards and this is what we're working for. We met and we're basically married. 14 months after we met, he proposed to me on our first year anniversary. Sure did, without a ring. Yeah, she still said yes, though.

Speaker 4: 10:12

So that's what matters, yeah.

Speaker 3: 10:14

We're celebrating 15 years this month.

Speaker 2: 10:16

Wow, congrats, happy anniversary.

Speaker 3: 10:22

And so it was a matter of we're a blended family. He's basically adopted our children, and I'd been married before to someone who hated what they did for a living, and they did it just for money, and they did it just for money and I was pretty adamant that there's no way we have a future together if you're not doing something that you like. There's nothing worse than a man who hates what he does for a living.

Speaker 4: 10:48

Yeah, and then we had gotten into business planning. I was homebrewing. I had met the gentleman who helped start this. His name's Alan Drittenbass. So him and I started homebrewing together hard, like every other weekend, crazy writing business plans, and we were both still working full time. And what it really came down to was I knew that if I didn't leave work and focus a hundred percent, that it would never actually happen. It would just stay that that dream like oh, we could have, but I can't take the risk. So. So we had a little bit of money saved and I gave I gave my job a two months notice and I said, hey, I'll train my replacement, but this is it and I'm leaving and I'm going to open a brewery. Yeah, and if you know, if I hadn't left, it probably wouldn't have happened. It was like, okay, now I don't have a job and a hundred percent of my focus is on whatever we have to do to get this done. When we walked in this building for the first time, we all looked at each other and go okay, this is it, we just have to figure out how to make it happen. And we did.

Speaker 4: 11:55

You know it was negotiating with the city, because this is still a city-owned building. They gave it to us, as is a triple net lease. So this we basically own the building, but we don't, so a hundred percent of the renovations, the taxes, everything is on us. So we act like we own it, but it's still technically a city building. But our lease isn't over. I'll be 75. I'm 45, right. So we have 30 years left on a lease and we're 10 years in. Rent is very reasonable and it's big enough that we never have to move. That's what a lot of small startup breweries run into is. You rent that four to 5,000 square feet, you do really well and you're stuck, and then you have to build a whole nother facility three years after you built the first one. This has allowed us to grow in our own footprint and not have to move, which is great.

Speaker 1: 12:37

I'm guessing there's probably a story behind you guys' name Walking Tree Brewery. Now, I did read something about it, I think it was on your Instagram. It says Trees walk.

Speaker 3: 13:34

I've seen it. So it is not some great grandiose spiritual story, it's pretty basic. I homeschooled both of our boys, and the reason I did it is because I had one that just was not doing well in school. I wanted him to be able to slow down and learn at a pace that would keep him interested in learning, because he was crossing this threshold which I think happens to a lot of children these days where, because they're not operating at the same speed that the system kind of requires, it becomes combative. And I wanted him to be excited about trying to figure out what he had to learn next. And the day came where the system was kind of looking at me and saying we're going to issue him a scribe, someone to do his writing for him, and I was like the hell you are. You know he needs to learn to write. Like what, what are we talking about here? And so it just kind of became this no brainer. All we did was Florida studies for the first year, everything Florida, so that we could go there and see it and touch it and be in it. So a lot of local history, a lot of science at the beach, a lot of in the mangroves, a lot of just local environmental learning center and just the local museums, and how could I keep them? Where this is tangible, you can touch it, look, let's have fun.

Speaker 3: 14:48

And we fell in love with this book series called the Adventures of Charlie Pierce. I highly recommend reading them. They are little children's novellas but they're a great adult read also. And it's a beautiful story of the first settling family in this area that gave birth to kids here. So the children were some of the first Florida well, non-natives, but Florida, you know, immigrants moving in, being born right after the Civil War and from these stories is kind of the stem of the Audubon Society these children kind of gave birth to, became environmentalists for Florida, a lot of connections with the Seminole Indians and Tiger Bowlegs who is one of the chief Seminoles from this area, and a lot of post Seminole War kind of stories that were going on area and a lot of post-Seminal War kind of stories that were going on, a lot of cool shipwreck things.

Speaker 3: 15:42

So just really really neat historical books. And in it there was a reference to the mangroves where one of the Native American Indians here referred to the mangrove as the tree that walks, and so we kind of Googled it and we would paddleboard and kayak a lot and and always had an affinity for some of the mangrove forests in the area and catching the crabs and all the creepy, gross stuff that grows in the mangroves and you know, boys and and found that that was actually a reference that the native Americans here referred to it as the tree that walks. Now the walking tree is the banyan, so India, the banyan tree is referred to as the walking tree, but no one wants to go to the tree that walks brewery and then have the same ring.

Speaker 2: 16:28

So we noticed your aquarium with the mangrove trees in it, and our son's trying to do that right now. He loves bonsai and things like that, so he's trying to grow that. So we might have to get some tips from you how to make that work. Don't touch it and just let it go.

Speaker 4: 16:43

Yeah, and keeping your water to be brackish it's the salt content is what you really need to work on. So, yeah, we've grown all of those from proper Yule seeds. So when we opened, you know they were six inches tall, and now they're. We actually have to trim them every occasionally, so they really are like our little mangrove bonsais. They've been here the whole time.

Speaker 3: 17:04

But we've had scientists from like the Smithsonian. You know they're confused, they're like how do you, how do you?

Speaker 4: 17:09

do that Apparently. It's really difficult, but we've never had an issue. I'm not real sure we don't clean the tank enough. They're definitely part of the family.

Speaker 1: 17:17

As business owners. What are some of the things that you've learned and what has been like a memory that really stands out?

Speaker 3: 17:23

So it's kind of like a combo with advice to the world out there, like this is what we've learned. Oh man, so we never owned a business before Not really, and not with people and I think that the smartest thing that I've learned is I don't know shit and don't pretend like you do, because that will get you in trouble. Don't hold on so tight to what you think you know, because that makes you unapproachable and it makes it difficult for staff that you want to be happy and when you screw up, screw up out in the open for everyone to see, so that they can see you stand up, brush yourself off, look around and go. Oh man, did you guys just see me screw up? I'm really sorry. I'll do better next time.

Speaker 3: 18:19

Do you have any advice to keep me from screwing up in the future? Those lessons are the ones that have caused or helped us not lose staff, probably helped some staff make a decision to stay instead of leave, as they've grown with us. We have people that are original, like we. We don't have a lot of turnaround here, and I think that's because well, I know me I have had the unique ability of being able to eat a lot of crow.

Speaker 1: 18:45

So, Brooke, you mentioned about how it was different running a business with people. It is such a different vibe than just launching a business like a self-owned business versus bringing on a team. It's scary. A lot of pressure, you don't know. People, people, all of us bring our own baggage and experiences and past that we don't know about.

Speaker 3: 19:06

Yeah, I had someone, uh, so just a word picture. Talk about, uh, business owners going through life with you know, dragging their little red red wagon behind them, right, like they had their business idea. It's their idea, it's theirs, it's my business, my little red wagon. And they're just walking through life and the next thing, you know, you turn back and you look and like what is wrong with my little red wagon and there's all these little children.

Speaker 3: 19:28

And it's like get off my wagon, but you need them. Some of them are dragging their feet, some are hitting the other kids on the wagon, but nonetheless it's your little red wagon and you've got to get the right parts and pieces and all the right you know in there. Otherwise, you know, trying to drag this little red wagon along without you know everyone being, you know, a disaster.

Speaker 1: 19:51

I love the little red wagon.

Speaker 3: 19:53

I like that, yeah, that.

Speaker 1: 19:54

In college. I remember it was about getting the right people on the bus, but man, the little red wagon. I love that picture. Well, this has been a great first episode, you guys. Thank you guys for sharing your story. I'm excited to get to the next episode, where we're going to talk a little bit about behind the scenes what it's like behind the scenes for you guys. With that, you guys, thank you for tuning in. If you've enjoyed this podcast episode, make sure you leave us a review.