Barley’s Brewing Company is redoing much of its main floor this winter and closing Brewcadia, the arcade bar upstairs, for good. General manager Ian Boyland told NBC4 that work at 467 N. High St. will begin in late December, once the holiday banquet season is over.
Barley’s will remain open through construction. Restaurant service will move upstairs, where the current menu will be available until the main floor reopens. Boyland said the goal is to have it back in mid to late February.
Brewcadia is a private-event space these days, with vintage arcade games and 40 beer taps. It won’t return when the work is done. Its games are leaving the building, Boyland said. The room will eventually become a cocktail and beer lounge with a smaller food menu. Those plans are still developing, and the lounge won’t open until after the main floor does.
What’s Changing On The Main Floor
“If you can touch it, it’s going away,” Boyland said. The exposed brick and the structural supports are the exception. The raised seating area is coming out and the bar is moving farther back, which opens up the floor and leaves room for more communal seating. A long banquette along one wall will handle groups, and there’ll still be separate tables and booths. Boyland pictures a livelier room up front that gets quieter toward the back.
Barley’s opened in 1992, before Nationwide Arena and the convention center opened nearby, and says it’s Columbus’ oldest operating brew pub. Boyland has been there since 1999. He said the pub has considered changes for several years as its neighbors got brighter and more polished and customers started expecting something different. “We’re not going to copycat what other people are doing, but we do notice what consumers want, and we’re going to bring them some of that,” he said.
What’s Staying
The grilled wings and sauerkraut balls will still be on the menu, and so will the turkey nut burger. New dishes are still being considered, and the drink list is getting more cocktails and nonalcoholic options.
The brewing isn’t changing. Every house beer is still made in the basement, and traditional British ales will stay at the center of the lineup next to lighter and fruit-infused beers. Barley’s did just finish brewing its first seltzer, which Boyland called “the antithesis of what our DNA is,” but he said he wants to give younger people what they’re looking for.
