THOMASTON—Carpenters and brewers Ethan Evangelos and Scott Bendtson built the foundation of their Searsmont brewery  two years ago when they opened Thresher’s Brewing Co. in 2016. And now it’s time for a new story.

The duo had envisioned expanding, but were looking around for the ideal property. Turns out, while Evangelos was building a custom set of kitchen cabinets for the owner of 1 Starr Street in Thomaston (the blue building that formerly housed Billy’s Tavern), he and the owner got talking.

“We’ve always been looking around for another location for a tasting room and we worked out a deal with the owner to take over the building,” he said.

Set to open sometime in May, Thresher’s Brewing Co.’s second location will be a tasting room and restaurant.

However, they hit some snags beyond their control with the recent government shutdown.

“We’ll be able to do some barrel aging there and pour drafts off the taps, and are hoping with the government reopening services, we we’ll be able to have our license approved before the opening so we can sell cans and growlers as well,”  said Evangelos. “We're going to be opening with snacks to start, but eventually want to use the built-in kitchen for a sandwich deli and grow off that."

Evangelos and Bendtson have the advantage of using their carpentry skills to renovate the interior of the building, just as they did for their microbrewery out of the old sawmill in Searsmont.

“We’re not going to have to do a heck of a lot,” said Evangelos. “it’s pretty turnkey inside.”

For more information and to stay up to date on their progress visit their Facebook page or website.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com