Abe Erb wheeled into Guelph Monday, officially opening in the front of The Junction development on Edinburgh Road, just north of Waterloo Avenue.
It's the latest tenant in The Junction and part of a revamping of the neighbourhood.
"Abe Erb is ultimately a brew pub," says director of food and beverage Mark Brown on opening day. "We're designed to be approachable, casual, family friendly with good food and great beer."
The Guelph location is the fourth Abe Erb, following Kitchener, Waterloo and Ayr. They started in Kitchener in 2014. All four brew beer on site.
It caters to families as well as young professionals, offering a menu ranging from wood oven pizza, fried cod fritters and Korean fried chicken sandwich to a rainbow trout bowl and a skinny lasagna. And being from Waterloo Region, there's schnitzel on the menu.
"We do have a core of dishes but we want each location to have its own personality ... a variety of things that you would just want to eat while you were drinking a good beer with it."
Brown said the company had its eye on Guelph for some time.
"We'd actually been looking at Guelph for a long time. We knew it was going to be sort of our next progression. We were planning to do Guelph (before Ayr) but an opportunity arose there that we took advantage of," Brown said of the Ayr location that opened early this year.
"We love the city for its food scene, we see the craft beer competition that's in the city and knew we'd love to be part of that."
As for The Junction as home for the brew pub, Brown said the space just worked.
"The history, the junction building which has been fixed up and now this incredible hub of great businesses and we wanted to be part of it," he said.
They also liked the fact that the businesses is close to families and very accessible.
The brew pub seats 105 inside and 40 on the patio.
"We're very cognizant to try and design a restaurant and food and beverage options for everybody. We try and be as broad as we can, but still keep the quality that we want."
Abe Erb serves fresh roasted coffee out the side door starting at 8 a.m., then opens for good at 11 a.m. Closing time is 10 p.m. weekdays and midnight on Friday and Saturday.
