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CUISINE CO-ORDINATOR: JESSICA WALLACE 778-471-7533 or email jessica@kamloopsthisweek.com
A NOBLE VENTURE EXPANDS
Kamloops honing its craft
Jared Summers (left) and Maeghan Summers are part of the team behind The Noble Pig. DAVE EAGLES/KTW
Pouring the Pig into the mainland ADAM WILLIAMS • STAFF REPORTER • ADAM@KAMLOOPSTHISWEEK.COM
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rock Rodgers wanted what the Noble Pig has. So, just three months after entering discussions to establish a strategic alliance with the Kamloops brewhouse, Maeghan and Jared Summers are going to try to give it to him. Rodgers, a part-owner of the Lower Mainland’s Mission Springs Brewing Company and Hearthstone Brewery, sat down for dinner at the Pig one January evening, in the River City to explore opportunities for his businesses. Coincidentally, he was seated in a booth next to Mark Tetreau, a part-owner of the Noble Pig, who was in the midst of a conversation about the direction of the Victoria Street restaurant and brewery. “I have to be honest, I’m quite jealous of what you do here,” Rodgers told Tetreau at the time. Speaking with KTW, Rodgers recalled his experience at the Pig. “Everything about the place just wowed me,” he said. “I run a few places and have spent most of my life looking at other places, going, ‘How can I get better?’ I saw nothing but ways to improve my situation.” The strategic alliance resulting from Rodgers’ visit
will now see the couple — Jared the Pig’s chef and Maeghan its general manager — trying to replicate the successes of The Noble Pig in Mission and North Vancouver. The beer program, the scratch kitchen cuisine and the service level the couple has established in Kamloops all resonated with Rodgers, to the point he was willing to offer them a partnership in Hearthstone, his North Vancouver venture. They headed to the Lower Mainland last week with the goal of guiding Mission Springs, located in its namesake Fraser Valley town, through what Jared called a revamp and getting Hearthstone’s restaurant and taproom off the ground in June. “I’ll be honest, it’s super humbling,” Maeghan told KTW, sitting in the very booth Rodgers had occupied months before. “To have an experience like this — where someone seeks out what we do in a destination that people don’t necessarily view as a food hub or a cultural centre, and to see talent in what we do — means a lot. It’s very, very humbling.” “The greatest compliments always come from the people within the industry,” Jared echoed. The partnership creates the opportunity for the companies to do collaborative brews, share in prod-
ucts and provide staff with opportunities to grow or relocate between locations. There’s hope it will help support culinary programs, both at Thompson Rivers University and in Vancouver. Noble Pig beer will be exposed to a Lower Mainland audience for the first time and the brewhouse in the Thompson Inn will have the opportunity to try some new things. “Kamloops, in some ways, will be that pilot project,” Maeghan said. The most popular of the Noble brews will remain on tap, but some new additions should be on the way. “It can be that place where you try something unique and, if it works, they’ll do it on a bigger scale in the other breweries,” she said. Aligning with Rodgers, who also owns a string of liquor stores, may also help The Noble Pig get its beers into bottles and cans. “It’s going to allow Kamloops to really start to expose the Lower Mainland to Kamloops craft beer,” Maeghan said of the alliance. “This isn’t just about the Pig in some ways, I think it’s going to be really good for Kamloops overall. “This will allow that market to be really aware of what Kamloops is about — there’s a reason to come here.”
Joe Wiebe has long said Kamloops is among the biggest and best surprises in B.C.’s craftbrewing industry. Known as the Thirsty Rider, Wiebe travelled the city on a craft beer odyssey in 2012, researching for his book Craft Beer Revolution: The Insider’s Guide to B.C. Breweries. He admitted he had low expectations for his time in the River City. But he was stunned by what The Noble Pig had to offer and it quickly became one of his favourite places in B.C. to enjoy craft beers. Wiebe’s low expectations weren’t entirely unfounded — when The Noble Pig first opened its doors in 2010, there was little like it in town. The restaurant and brewhouse is now part of a burgeoning craft beer scene in Kamloops. Red Collar Brewing on Lansdowne Street started pouring in 2012. Red Beard Cafe has been serving craft beer on Kamloops’ North Shore for two years. Chances Casino on Halston Avenue has nearly a dozen B.C. beers on tap. The culture has grown immensely, to the point that Brew Loops, the city’s craft beer festival, now takes place annually. “It has come a long way in the last five years,” Pig co-owner Jared Summers said. “When the Pig first opened, I think this was probably the only place you could get craft beer. “It has really come a long way. Vancouver is such a big market, there’s obviously a lot more room for diversity, but Kamloops has really caught on and people have been really keen to understanding what craft beer is all about and embracing it.” — Adam Williams