Cedar Creek Brewery crafts hoppy days

Cedar Creek Brewery has entertained locals for over ten years on Cedar Creek Lake. With over a dozen housemade beers on tap, a familyfriendly atmosphere with activities for children, a revolving seasonal menu and live entertainment four days per week, the brewery is a one-stop shop for fun and relaxation.

Owner Jim Elliott said that the restaurant was never his intention when he started brewing beer at home. When he decided to open the brewery in 2012, it was meant to be just that - a place for locals to come have a few beers. Elliott noticed soon after opening, though, that when customers came in, they’d only have one beer, maybe two, and then leave for lunch or dinner.

Elliott brought a grill from home up to the brewery and began cooking hot dogs and hamburgers for his customers. “That was okay for a few regulars,” he said, “but we couldn’t do that long-term, because it was pretty lame. I always said that if we ever remodeled over there or if we ever moved, we gotta have a kitchen.” Two years after opening, the restaurant had a new building, two doors down from the original.

When Cedar Creek Brewery began work on this building, Elliott hired a professional to design the kitchen, come up with the first menu and help hire kitchen staff. That kitchen staff worked for Elliott for several years, and even through changes in the industry and transition within the brewery staff over the years, Elliott has maintained a talented staff who bring the best in service to the customers. Today, the menu changes seasonally, offering soups, chilis and even more burgers in the winter months. Lush, beautiful salads and a variety of pizzas are available yearround.

Another major change the brewery has seen since its opening is in how customers get their food and drinks. “Everything was bar service,” said Elliott. “You’d come up to the bar, get a beer, get a burger. All your ordering was done at the bar. You could come sit down wherever, and when you want another beer, you gotta go back to the bar. That’s the way we did it for ten years. Last fall, right before Christmas, we changed all that.”

Elliott decided that if Cedar Creek Brewery was going to be a restaurant, it was time to double staff and offer table service. This change increased sales by 30%, and the staff loved the new system.

Elliott also has brewers on staff now to carefully craft his recipes for the masses. Currently, Cedar Creek Brewery has 15 specialty brews on tap, including blondes, pub ale, Helles lager, red ale, stouts, hefeweizen, IPAs, hard seltzers and more. In the winter, Elliott adds Oktoberfest, porters, stouts, barleywine beers and other darker, heavier drinks to the menu.

“We’ve had pretty amazing brewers,” said Elliott. “I’ve been lucky there, too.” Each of these beers is available for to-go sales as well. The brewery also serves Messina Hof wine for those who want to experience the brewery without the beer.

Elliott prides himself on having a family-friendly, pet-friendly establishment where people can meet and mingle. The restaurant seating is primarily in long tables where multiple parties can sit and enjoy the time at the brewery together. Though he plans to add smaller tables for parties of two or four in the future, Elliott still loves the idea of being a hub for community.

Leashed dogs are welcomed in the outdoor seating area, and there are plenty of activities for the kids in the large yard behind the restaurant; there is a sand pit, tether ball, a disc golf course and a large track for belt sander races, which are held the first and third Saturdays of each month. According to Elliott, belt sander racing brings in quite the crowd.

Each year in April and October, Cedar Creek Brewery welcomes locals and tourists to the Cedar Creek Lake Festival, a charity event benefitting local organizations such as the Humane Society, Seven Points first responders and the Cedar Creek Lake Library. The festival features live music, over 60 vendors, a raffle and more. The event is held in the area behind the brewery, and food and drinks are available for purchase.

Aside from these events, the brewery has live entertainment four nights per week. Thursday nights are trivia nights at Cedar Creek Brewery. The kitchen opens at 5 p.m. and the games begin at 6:30 p.m. On Friday and Saturday nights, live music is held 6-9 p.m. Sundays are for 10:30 a.m. brunch and for karaoke, which is held at 2 p.m. There is never a shortage of fun at the brewery.

To keep track of all of the products and services Cedar Creek Brewery provides, up-to-date technology was important. Though Elliott can’t simply press a button to automatically brew beer, changes in technology over the years have allowed him to view data previously unavailable to him, giving him a clear picture of how the brewery is doing through the POS system.

“It’s amazing the reports that generate to make good business decisions,” Elliott said. “It was very hard to figure out at first, but the customer service is amazing. The reports that you can run and the clarity going to the kitchen - they know pretty much exactly what to do. It took a lot of time to set that up, but once it’s set up, it’s great. I don’t know what we would do without that.”

Elliott says that little by little, improvements come every year As times have changed, Cedar Creek Brewery has risen to the occasion and continued to offer fun, relaxation and a sense of community to the people of Cedar Creek Lake and those who are simply stopping by. From great food to specialty drinks to entertainment, there is something for everyone here.

Cedar Creek Brewery is located at 336 E Cedar Creek Parkway in Seven Points.

By Russell Slaton