Kathy and Anthony Abate plan Devil's Creek Brewery in Collingswood this spring.
COLLINGSWOOD -- From the time when they first met, Kathy and Anthony Abate knew they wanted to open a business.
It would be a place where the self-described "social couple" could really get to know their customers on a personal level and entertain them like they were friends.
"We talked about our ultimate dream," Kathy said. "We wanted to open a restaurant or a bar."
Over the last three years, that dream merged with their love of craft beer and home brewing and turned into a dream of opening their own brewery.
Late last year, they announced they had an agreement in place to take over a retail space at the Lumberyard on the corner of Haddon Avenue and Powell Lane with a plan to open Devil's Creek Brewery.
Anthony has been home brewing for about 20 years and introduced his wife to the world of craft beer after they met.
"We're beer lovers," he said. "We go to a lot of beer events, and obviously, we love drinking beer. We felt like it was a natural fit."
Kathy works as a freelance graphic designer and plans on handling all of the aspects of the brewery that are connected with that -- like labels -- as well as the marketing side, including running the company website and social media.
Anthony is a network engineer and started an internet service provider company that he later sold. He said his background of starting and operating a business has helped with getting the brewery off the ground. However, a few things about the process even caught him off guard.
The couple put in their application to the state in June 2015, but before they could start that, they had to find a place to put it.
"The first thing that goes on the application is the address," Anthony said. "So you have to have that locked down.
"The Lumberyard was nice enough to let us pay a commitment fee rather than rent, but other landlords might not be so friendly. They might say 'if you're going to have the space, you're going to have to pay for it.'"
On top of the location, breweries need to have all of their banking, security measures and equipment in place and inspected before they can get their license from the stated to brew.
The application for Devil's Creek was submitted in June and the Abates hope to have their license in February.
"When you finally get your license and you start brewing, you're typically six weeks away from when you can actually start selling your beer and making money," Anthony said. "You're putting out a lot of money before you can recoup any of it."
Kathy said even this far into the process, things are popping up that catch them off guard.
"There are little things you don't think about," she said. "Who thinks of glassware or kegs? They're so expensive.'
The Abates got a key piece of advice from another New Jersey brewer when they were starting to get their plans together.
"Get more financing than you think you need and give yourself more time," Anthony said.
Delays mean plans for a Mach opening regularly turn into a May opening, so securing as much capital as possible at the beginning can help offset any setbacks.
Kathy and Anthony Abate check out the retail space in the Lumberyard in Collignswood, where they plan on opening Devil's Creek Brewery this spring. (Alex Young | For NJ.com) They already have everything they need to get started, but the Abates started an Indiegogo fundraising page as a way for people to contribute and maybe even get their names on the wall of the brewery. The $35,000 they hope to raise won't mean the difference of them opening or not, but Kathy said it would help them make things a little bit better from the very beginning.
"It's just for a few things on our wish list," she said. "It's for things we wish we could have but don't need to have."
Rather than a large-scale production brewery, the Abates want Devil's Creek to be more community-oriented. One of the reasons they picked Collingswood is because that wanted to be connected to its downtown.
"Hopefully, we'll get some foot traffic," Kathy said. "People can make it a whole experience of shopping, eating and then coming to us."
Once they get things up and running, Devil's Creek might do some small-scale, self distribution to get the name of the brewery out there beyond the borders of the town.
"We see a good part of the business being people that come in, grab a growler and go to dinner at one of the restaurants," Anthony said. "Maybe they'll eat first, decide the night is still young and come here to sit down for a beer."
The brewery will have eight taps that will include three to four core beers -- like an IPA, a porter or a golden ale -- with the rest rotating through various seasonal and specialty brews.
The suds they serve will obviously be a big part of what the Abates do at Devil's Creek, but both are just as excited to become part of the community. They already have a list of causes they hope to partner with and raise money for by brewing something special just for them.
More than anything though, they want the brewery to be a place where people can meet and socialize.
"I'm excited that this is finally coming to fruition," Kathy said. "I'm excited to get in there and actually serve people our beer. It would make me really happy to see repeat customers coming in."
Alex Young may be reached at ayoung@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @AlexYoungSJT. Find the South Jersey Times on Facebook.
