Wormtown expanding into former simjang space, plans new distillery
Photo | Grant Welker
Wormtown Brewery in Worcester is expanding its taproom space.
Wormtown Brewery in Worcester is expanding its Shrewsbury Street footprint by nearly 8,000 square feet, stretching into the former space occupied by Korean restaurant simjang, as well as moving into a 4,000 square-foot warehouse and production space, all in the same building, Managing Partner David Fields said on Tuesday.
The company is in the early stages of pursuing a distillery license.
The simjang space will serve as an expansion of Wormtown’s current Worcester taproom, expanding the company’s taproom area from 1,000 square feet to just under 5,000, Fields said. The space, which includes a kitchen, will be used to serve finger food and appetizers, with plans to include area restaurants in weekend pop-up events.
“Our goal is not to be restaurateurs,” Fields said.
Rather, Wormtown would like to use the kitchen space to allow other local food establishments to reach customers. He liked the idea to a food truck without wheels.
The ownership group behind simjang, which also owns the restaurant deadhorse hill on Main Street in Worcester, closed the Korean restaurant at the start of 2020, with plans to reopen as Luci’s, a taco eatery.
Jared Forman, the chef and part owner of deadhorse hill, said Tuesday that the ownership team is focused on deadhorse and that plans otherwise remain unsettled because of the pandemic.
Wormtown needed the expanded taproom before the pandemic, Fields said, but social distancing underscored the importance of providing customers with spacious options to gather.
At the same time, Wormtown has also taken over a 4,000 square-foot production space on the property, in which Wormtown plans to expand its barrel beer aging capabilities, as well as potentially make room for future distillery operations.
Fields said while the distillery idea has floated around for quite some time — the company originally hoped to be up and running last summer, before the pandemic hit — it’s still very much in the preliminary stages. First, Wormtown needs to receive a federal distillery license, then it will need state and local approval.
If all goes as planned, Field said the company would like to be as varied in its spirits options as they are in beer options. Whether they expand to area retailers with their spirits will depend on how products are received, he said. Otherwise, distilling is a natural extension of brewing, using much of the same equipment.
“It’s an interesting time to be doubling down and betting on your business, but it’s just such a natural extension for us to do it,” Fields said.
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