Workers remodel the former Grocery Bar at Long and Main Street into new Five Wits Brewing Co., scheduled to open this fall.Chattanooga native Nathan Michaels has returned to his hometown to open Five Wits Brewing Company with long-time Denver brewers Elliot Kehoe and Bryan Harris.
Five Wits Brewing Company will open this fall in the former Grocery Bar on Main Street, which closed in 2015.
The new venture will also house a restaurant incubator, R&D Test Kitchen, which will host a rotating line-up of up-and-coming aspiring chefs and restaurateurs from all over the country. These aspiring chefs will apply for a residency program to occupy and operate their restaurant concepts in the R&D Test Kitchen as the sole food offering for the Five Wits Brewing tap room.
After nearly a decade in the Mile-High city, Michaels said he decided to return to Chattanooga last year alongside two friends and tenured brewers, Kehoe and Harris, who met while working together at Great Divide Brewing in Denver.
“After spending so much time living in Denver and watching craft breweries in the city continue to grow, I became super passionate about not only the craft of brewing beer but also the opportunity to be a part of the community and culture that comes along with it,” Michael said.