Make Us Your New Third-Place

Owning a taproom was definitely not some lifelong dream of mine.

My career path has been a little…all over the place. I spent about 10 years as a DJ, and during those years I also waited tables, bartended and worked just about every sales job imaginable. Eventually I landed at Lowe’s, where I spent 15 years, including nine as an Assistant Store Manager.

Basically, I’ve spent most of my adult life selling things, serving people, entertaining people, leading teams and figuring out how to solve problems when things inevitably go sideways. Turns out that’s pretty decent training for owning a bar.

I’ve always believed everything happens for a reason, and Beer Me! is probably the best example of that in my life.

At first, I thought I was getting into the beer business. I figured out pretty quickly that I was actually getting into the people business.

Because I was still relatively new to the area, I started showing up everywhere I could. I joined the Rockwall Chamber and the Royse City Tri-Area Chamber. I went to networking events, met other business owners, asked a million questions and learned from people who had been doing this much longer than I had.

Somewhere along the way, something clicked.

The beer matters. The wine matters. Having 16 rotating taps and a cooler full of interesting things people haven’t tried before absolutely matters. But none of it matters as much as giving people a reason to walk through the door—and making them glad they did.

That’s when the idea of Beer Me! being a true third space really took hold. Home is your first space. Work is your second. Everybody needs that third place where you can just show up and belong.

So we started creating reasons to show up.

The part of this story I didn’t anticipate was how quickly Beer Me! would connect me to this community.

We opened with a splash, and our grand opening a month later was even bigger. Since then, I’ve watched people show up for us over and over again. After our first year in business, we were awarded Best Small Business of the Year by the Royse City Tri-Area Chamber of Commerce! And I’ve become pretty determined to return the favor.

We’ve worked hard to help bring activity into the Downtown Fate breezeway with live music and events. We’ve hosted fundraisers and community organizations. We’ve partnered with other small businesses, breweries, wineries, cigar shops, musicians, vendors and organizations throughout the area.

But supporting local businesses can’t just mean asking people to support mine. That’s also why I spend a significant amount of my week working with other business owners, serving as a Rockwall Chamber Ambassador, participating in the Royse City Tri-Area Chamber and creating opportunities like the Welcome to the Local Business Blitz—literally getting a group of people together, walking into a local business, spending money, leaving reviews and hopefully introducing that business to some new lifelong customers.

I’ve learned that community works best when everybody stops keeping score. You show up for people. They show up for somebody else. Eventually, when you need them, somehow they show up for you too.

In a pretty short amount of time, Beer Me! has become something I never could have completely pictured when I saw that Facebook post and called my wife into the room. And that’s probably the part I’m proudest of.