Does Headlands Brewing have the right recipe to revive a storied Cal gathering place?

Headlands Brewing is betting massive on trivia nights, drag bingo and craft beer to revitalize what was as soon as the Bear’s Lair at UC Berkeley.

Headlands, initially based in 2013 in Mill Valley as a roving “gypsy brewery”, has expanded its presence within the East Bay with places in Lafayette and Walnut Creek. By 2024, it has reopened West Berkeley’s beloved Westbrae Biergarten close to the Ohlone Greenway.

The fourth location, simply steps from Sproul Plaza, has been in gentle opening since September. An invite-only ribbon slicing is deliberate for Thursday, Oct. 23, however public grand opening occasions embrace a viewing social gathering for the Cal vs. Cal soccer recreation. Virginia Tech on Friday, Oct. 24 (attendees who buy a pint will obtain a Cal model glass) and a celebration on Saturday, Oct. 25 with stay music and hours prolonged till midday, Headlands spokesman Jonathan Rosales wrote in an e-mail.

Along with a collection of twenty chilly faucets, menu highlights embrace pretzels served together with your alternative of IPA mustard or beer cheese, seasoned fries, chicharrones seasoned with tamarind and pasilla chili, and carnitas tacos. Burgers, sandwiches and salads are additionally accessible, and wine and cocktails – together with some with enjoyable names like “Oski’s Eyeball” and “Cardinal Sin” – price $10. Present non-alcoholic menu choices embrace glowing CBD water, lemonade and soda. (In accordance with Rosales, mocktails are within the works.)

“We aren’t the bear’s den, [and] we’re not attempting to be the Bears Lair,” mentioned Headlands CEO Austin Sharp, referring to the previous legendary Cal sports activities bar that once signed the likes of Aaron Rodgers and Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Useless, however has struggled lately.

A handful of pub ideas had beforehand tried to maintain themselves within the present house, which is overseen by the Related College students of the College of California, UC Berkeley’s scholar authorities.

“The legacy of the Bear’s Lair goes again many years, however the previous few years have definitely been a bit difficult,” Sharp mentioned. “So there’s a little bit bit of luggage that we’ve to beat.”

The historical past of Bear’s Lair could be roughly divided into two intervals: earlier than and after modernization. The unique location began as a comfy espresso store within the basement of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Pupil Union within the ’60s and became the favored campus pub – and a handy location to rejoice Cal soccer victories on the best way again to the Downtown Berkeley BART station – after acquiring a beer license within the ’70s.

In 2015, after a seismic renovation of the scholar union displaced the unique sports activities bar, a brand new model of the Bear’s Lair reopened on the primary ground of Eshelman Corridor below new possession and with a higher-end idea.

John King, then city planning critic for the San Francisco Chronicle, described it has been ‘up to date’ with graduate college students and older Zellerbach concertgoers in thoughts, in addition to college students with pretend IDs.” Others thought it appeared the half sterile.

In typical UC Berkeley vogue, some college students expressed their dissatisfaction by spreading a message petition lamenting the lack of beer pitchers and the “beat the clock” custom – the place the value of a $6 pitcher of beer would improve by the hour beginning at 5 p.m. till 9 p.m., The Every day Californian, the student-run newspaper, writes, reported on the time.

The preliminary uproar amongst college students proved to be a harbinger of the battle to come back for the modernized Bear’s Lair, which has had 5 completely different house owners since 2015 with minor modifications to the title. (When it closed earlier this year(, it was known as Bear’s Lair Tavern.) Headlands is the sixth and has chosen to ditch the Bear’s Lair model fully and name itself Headlands on Campus.

That was the case earlier this spring talk about whether or not the Berkeley Pupil Meals Collective, a student-run meals co-op that sells inexpensive produce, may enter this house — a proposal that Berkeley Metropolis Councilmember Cecilia Lunaparra, a current UC Berkeley alumna, had endorsed. UC Berkeley’s scholar authorities in the end voted to permit Headlands to take over the house.

Cal roots

Headlands primarily sought to open a location at UC Berkeley as a result of lots of its core crew members have connections to the college — together with alumni, followers and even a former All-American rugby participant, Sharp mentioned. (As well as, the chef and Headlands’ design director met early on after they labored on the Bear’s Lair, Sharp added.)

Sharp mentioned he believes Berkeley residents will likely be extra prone to go to a brewery that’s rooted in the neighborhood. Headlands, which participates in 1% for the Planet, has donated $160,000 to environmental causes since 2022, together with some native ones in Berkeley just like the Alameda County Neighborhood Meals Financial institution, Save the Bay and Berkeley Humane.

It is also why Headlands appointed Mimi Hoang, a current Cal graduate and first-generation school scholar, as its first neighborhood engagement supervisor and “face of the model” on campus.

Hoang mentioned her expertise as a switch scholar — UC Berkeley’s scholar golf equipment are infamous for being selective, and few golf equipment recruit switch college students — motivated her to use for the job, which includes assembly with principally scholar organizations and organizing occasions.

“It was very tough for me to discover a neighborhood… due to the aggressive tradition right here in Berkeley,” Hoang mentioned. “It actually made me assume that there are in all probability so many different college students like me.”

Hoang is hopeful that occasions like sip and paints, theme nights and 2000s dance nights can flip the brand new brewery right into a “second residence” that college students will need to return to even after commencement.

She additionally envisions Headlands partnering with biology and chemistry scholar organizations to show homebrewing to college students. One other thought within the works: Letting golf equipment use the house to host free occasions in change for social media promotion or bringing in a sure variety of visitors.

An ‘earthly’ facelift

Sharp admits that Headlands must be artistic and adaptable to succeed the place a number of others have failed.

It is a problem he is prepared for. “[With] On the different three places, we simply opened our doorways and have been fairly full on the primary day,” Sharp mentioned, whereas on the campus location “individuals have to search out us and we do not essentially have tons and tons of individuals strolling by day-after-day.”

One challenge his crew hopes to deal with quickly with UC Berkeley is the tinted home windows dealing with Bancroft Means, which have the unintended consequence of constructing the house look closed in even when the lights are on. As a stopgap measure, the brewery has used A-frame indicators and balloon towers to make it clear that the brewery is open.

Along with occasions, Headlands has made some changes to the house to present the house a extra “earthy environment,” Sharp mentioned, together with shifting a customized desk made out of reclaimed wooden from the outdated California Memorial Stadium. The as soon as naked concrete patio is carpeted and now options massive teal umbrellas for shade, patio heaters and fireplace pits.

The purpose, Sharp mentioned, was to make it really feel “such as you’re simply sitting in somebody’s yard.”

Sharp insists the brand new location is not meant to be a sports activities bar, although there are just a few Cal football-themed Easter eggs scattered about, together with just a few helmets on the windowsills. Within the gender-neutral toilet, there is a yellow neon signal that reads, “Oh, we had a small social gathering down in Newport…” – Cal followers will acknowledge it as a nod to the opening lyrics of the “California Consuming Track,” a conventional Cal music band music.

It is too early to inform if the sixth time would be the attraction, however on a Saturday afternoon in mid-September, simply hours earlier than a house soccer recreation was set to start out, the indicators have been promising. There have been so many shoppers that the bouncer initially turned this reporter away.

The Headlands employees had rolled out massive outside TVs on the patio so Cal followers – together with just a few regulars from the Bear’s Lair within the basement – ​​may watch the sport exterior. Some Minnesota Golden Gophers soccer followers, wearing maroon and gold, stopped by to play on their solution to the stadium. Whereas their dad and mom talked, teams of youngsters loved themselves with the shiny foosball desk and the freshly polished shuffleboard desk.