City of Ate from p17 ▼ OPENING AND CLOSINGS HEY, SHUG T SHUG’S BAGELS MOVES INTO ICONIC SPACE ON LEMMON. BY DANIELLE ZACHARIAH he Great American Hero sandwich shop at 4001 Lemmon Ave. is closing its doors later this month. It will be re- locating to Timber Creek Crossing Shopping Center at Skillman and Northwest Highway, with plans to open again in September. Shug’s Bagels will open its second Dallas location when it takes over the eye-catching pink and yellow building on Lemmon. The popular bagel shop made its debut near the SMU campus in 2020 and became known for its freshly baked bagels and customiz- able options. Justin Shugrue, owner and operator of Shug’s Bagels, says construction will start soon, and one major change is coming to the location. “We will not keep the colors of the property the same. But the shape, feel and vibe of it, I aim to keep the same,” Shugrue said. “There is a tremendous amount of charm and sentimen- tal value in the property and it is my intention to salvage as much of it as possible. The iconic roof shape, large monument signage and cozy patio will all be very similar in design.” This change will be a hard goodbye for fans of the pink and yellow building, espe- cially those who use the outside as a back- ground for Instagram-worthy photos. While Shug’s may not be keeping the building’s bright colors, they’re hoping they can use one feature that will allow them to reach more customers. “Having the opportunity to use the drive- through as a pick-up window for online or- ders will be tremendous for us. Already a third of our orders at Shug’s first location are ‘online order pick-up,’ and our first prop- erty is not designed to handle that,” Shugrue said. “With a drive-up/pick-up window at the second location, it will be super efficient and offer an amazing product and service to the community.” Shugrue is hoping to have this second lo- cation open in the summer of 2023 once construction is up and running. ▼ DRINKING CAN-DO SPIRIT N ENTER TO WIN TICKETS 18 18 PETICOLAS BREWING HAS FINALLY FOUND ITS WAY TO LOCAL RETAIL SHELVES. BY DOYLE RADER orth Texas beer drinkers rejoice. The long wait is finally over. Petico- las, the beloved Dallas brewery, is making three of its beers available in stores throughout North Texas. This is the first time in its 10-year history that the beer- maker is branching out and embracing retail distribution of its beer. The decision to sell canned beer beyond the brewery’s walls is something Michael Peticolas, the brewery’s eponymous founder and owner, has always envisioned. But why start now after a decade in business? The timing just seemed right. “I’ve kept an ace in the hole,” Peticolas says. “I’ve kept a card up my sleeve for the sole reason of being able to really pump life into the brewery when it needed it. Having been through some really tough rows to hoe the past two years, it certainly made playing that card seem much more beneficial than it would be to hold onto it.” For now, the scope of distribution will re- main small, with products available only in select locations. Peticolas does all the work canning and delivering its beers in-house, rather than relying on one of the two giant distributors in the area: Andrews Distribut- ing and Ben E. Keith. Beer lovers can find Velvet Hammer, Golden Opportunity and Sit Down Or I’ll Sit You Down in 10 stores in Carrollton, Col- leyville, Dallas, Euless, Fort Worth, Irving, McKinney, Plano, Richardson and The Colony. Dallas residents can meet their Peticolas needs at Craft Beer Cellar, Parkit Market, Pogo’s and North Oak Cliff Beer & Wine. Peticolas has released a complete list of where to find its beers on Facebook. “I’ve known Mike before he even had the brewery,” says Mike Todora, a manager at Parkit Market. “He was getting his CO2 from us so he could brew beer. So, we’ve had a long relationship with Mike, and we are extremely happy to sell his cans. We’ve been selling his kegs since day one. We’re cur- rently his largest distributor in Dallas. We sell more kegs than anyone else.” Retailers selling Peticolas cans must ad- here to certain quality control guidelines. Namely, they must always store the beer cold. Still, distributing canned beers to places like Parkit Market, which is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year, opens a whole new rev- enue stream for Peticolas. Selling kegs only to restaurants, bars and retailers accounts for just 35% of the overall beer market. “The other 65% is the off-premises pack- age beer market — bottles and cans in gro- cery stores, bars, restaurants, convenience stores, liquor stores, whatever,” Peticolas says. “Typically, a brewer can rely upon the ability to double its production by getting their beer into a packaged product.” The brewery produces around 5,000 barrels of beer annually. Once it ramps up production on packaged beer, Peticolas says it will be producing some 12,000 bar- rels per year. The increase in production and distribution will not happen overnight, though. Peticolas Brewing is coming to store shelves. Lauren Drewes Daniels “It’s going to be a slow burn,” Peticolas says. “It will continue to pick up steam and start to enter into some of those other retail- ers — your grocers, your convenience stores. Those will kind of be the last ones. It’s about making sure we don’t get in over our skis, making sure that we’re still able to provide the product, which is A+, world-class, ex- ceptional.” The one thing he wants to avoid is un- leashing his product haphazardly into the world. He would rather take the time and energy to control Peticolas’ growth. He has always been keen on emphasizing quality and protecting his brand over everything else, even if it means the demand for Petico- las beers often exceeded supply. Peticolas has always been a brewery that has done things differently. Even as the Texas Legislature began loosening regula- tions surrounding beer distribution over the past decade, Peticolas didn’t dive headfirst into untested waters. Instead, Michael Peticolas focused on the brewery’s reputation. He didn’t leap at the opportunity to build a taproom at the brew- ery when it became legal in 2013. He took his time and built one that best suited his vision. When the Legislature allowed breweries to sell to-go beer in 2019, Peticolas began its first real foray into canning. Doing so proved to be a lifesaver when the COVID-19 pan- demic and subsequent shutdowns struck the following year. Now, Peticolas is taking the lessons it learned over the past decade and embarking on a new chapter. Widespread distribution is a potential windfall for the brewery. With canned Peticolas more readily available, the brewery can further solidify its place as a fa- vorite of North Texas beer drinkers. “I challenge you to find another brewer that has this opportunity in front of them,” Peticolas says. “I don’t think you can be- cause everybody has already played this card. Everybody has already been out there. They’re dealing with whatever it is they’re dealing with while I get to enjoy — I’m not going to call it automatic growth — a close to guaranteed revenue stream that we haven’t tapped into. That’s going to be hugely bene- ficial for us over the long haul, and we’re definitely excited about it.” AUGUST 11–17, 2022 DALLAS OBSERVER CLASSIFIED | MUSIC | DISH | CULTURE | UNFAIR PARK | CONTENTS dallasobserver.com MONTH XX–MONTH XX, 2014 DALLAS OBSERVER | CLASSIFIED | MUSIC | DISH | MOVIES | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | FEATURE | SCHUTZE | UNFAIR PARK | CONTENTS | dallasobserver.com
