THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, June 30, 1996 TAG: 9606280234
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 47 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JEWEL BOND, staff writer
DATELINE: MANTEO LENGTH: 93 lines
THE OLDEST restaurant-brewery in America will turn 10 this week.
On July 4, 1986, the Weeping Radish Brewery and Bavarian Restaurant in Manteo became our country's first restaurant-brewery and North Carolina's first microbrewery, producing, serving and selling its beer on the same site.
This year, with the burgeoning popularity of mini-breweries, it would be easy to emphasize what a great idea owner Uli Bennewitz had when he opened his business at the start of a trend.
``Well, guess what,'' Bennewitz said last week from his bustling brewery, ``I didn't know at that time it was a trend - let alone the beginning of one.''
Most of the breweries, called brewpubs, were on the West Coast at that time. But Bennewitz had never been to the West Coast. North Carolina was the only state he really knew.
And though it was legal on the West Coast to sell beer where he brewed it, he didn't know that. Nor did he know it was illegal to produce and sell beer on the same site in this state.
So while on a visitor's permit from Germany, this farm manager by training who was hired to clear 9,000 acres of swampland in Englehard, decided to call North Carolina home and go into the beer business for himself.
``The whole thing is amazing,'' says Bennewitz, ``I mean, just incredible. Nowhere else in the world could you pull this off. With a visitor's permit, no money, and only an idea, I hit the banks.''
His idea was to open a sausage stand and a mini-brewery. Just a tiny building to brew a little beer, serve a little sausage. But to do this, he realized the laws had to be changed.
He made many visits to state representatives. And in 1985, North Carolina became the 8th state to allow on-site brew sales. The only stipulation was: You had to bring in as much money in food sales as in alcohol sales.
``I had to have the restaurant to get the brewery,'' says Bennewitz. ``That's why it's a full-size restaurant. I never envisioned it to be so big.''
The restaurant-brewery continues to grow in size and popularity. Bennewitz has contributed that success by creating a family atmosphere and even bringing in outside entertainment for children.
``There is no brewery in the country that has a playground,'' he says. ``That, I think, has been our biggest success.''
Bennewitz says the thing that shook him more than anything else when he came to this country was the stigma attached to beer. In Bavaria, he says, it's at every family event.
``I wanted to be very sure that this project became a family-type affair,'' he says. ``And, it has. We go through more crayons than anything else.''
And this year for the kiddies, and adults, there is root beer. The Weeping Radish keeps running out of that new delight. And next year, lemonade. It's going to be served with a little different twist: beer.
``The lemonade concentrate is from Germany. And this drink has been popular there for a long time. It's the best thirst-quencher in the world,'' says Bennewitz.
For 10 years now, Bennewitz has seemed to have the Midas touch. Every product he's introduced has been successful, from the ever-increasing on-site brewery sales to supplying Outer Banks restaurants and grocery stores with three of the most easily identifiable brews on the islands.
The bottle labels, created to instantly identify the beer as local, include lighthouses at Corolla, Bodie Island and Cape Hatteras. That's ``a big selling point for tourists who want to take home something made locally,'' says Bennewitz. ``We will bottle the root beer as soon as we can find a suitable bottle and label.''
Last year, a Weeping Radish brewpub opened in Corolla and was an instant success. Bennewitz had felt his market was going further north, that the customers who used to come to the Manteo restaurant from the beach side in Nags Head were now vacationing in Corolla and Duck.
``They can't just pop across the bridge anymore. It's a 50-mile drive to come here. And these are customers I didn't want to lose,'' he says.
Among the many recent ventures Bennewitz has become involved in is the Internet where he advertises his flip-top bottles. The refillable 1-liter bottles have become a hot item for home brewers and the marketing of them has become a separate business. He recently sold a container load, 21,000, of these flip-top bottles to Japan.
``They found us on the Internet,'' says Bennewitz. ``That's remarkable for little Manteo. This will open up a whole new world for us.''
A cardboard box in the back of the store that once was used as the shipping and delivery point for the business is no longer needed. Now there is a warehouse, forklift trucks and even a back-up brewery in Durham, N.C. - just to keep supplying the demand.
``All I ever wanted was a little sausage stand and to sell a little beer,'' says Bennewitz. ``But sometimes when you try to do something, something else happens.''
Only in America! ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by DREW C. WILSON
Uli Bennewitz, owner of the The Weeping Radish Brewery and Bavarian
Restaurant in Manteo, is brewing a special 10th anniversary beer
this summer. by CNB