- November 23, 2024
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Husband and wife Peter Szungyogh and Jennifer Hawkins have a lot of work to do to open Tomoka Brewery by June — including find a place to live.
BY MIKE CAVALIERE | ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Peter Szungyogh and Jennifer Hawkins are beer snobs. And they mean that in the best possible way.
Restaurant veterans (Szungyogh was a five-star pastry chef in Budhapest; Hawkins co-owned a pizza shop) turned real estate agents, the couple pride themselves on taking a creative approach to food and drink. Take their soon-to-open Tomoka Brewery's specialty beer, the Elvis’ Peanut Butter & Banana Sandwich Brown Ale, for example.
They also make a brew that has an alcohol by volume of 18.5%. That’s almost 4.5 times stronger than Bud Light.
“Our beers are very experimental,” Hawkins said. ““We love pushing the boundaries.”
And that’s exactly what they plan to do at the Tomoka Brewery, set for a soft opening, at 188 E. Granada Blvd., mid-June. But before they start tapping any kegs — they plan to feature 10 draft beers at a time, five of their in-house brews and five from other Florida breweries — there’s still a lot of work to be done.
The couple's space, which they just signed papers for last week, needs to be repainted. New tables and chairs will be moved inside and out to the beer garden. The bar needs to be constructed. Appliances need to be installed, as does the walk-in cooler. Licensing. Inspections. And the décor — which they envision as a funky mix of blacks, whites, woods and dream catchers — needs to be put up.
“The whole concept we started two years ago,” Hawkins explained, adding that they also considered opening in Gainesville and Orlando. “But this felt like home. … I want to live here; it’s not just that I want to work here.”
And although the soft opening is planned for next month, brewing won't start until federal permitting comes through — maybe around August or September.
So it’s a good thing they also hope to be known for their food.
“The food is just as important for us,” Szungyogh said. “The best brewpubs that we’ve been to had great food, too.”
Tomoka Brewery plans to specialize in handmade, never-frozen fare, made with as many local ingredients as they can get their hands on. Look for fresh gator tail and California-style pizzas.
“When I look back through the different jobs that I had, the one that I loved most was working in (the pizza shop),” Hawkins said. “That was just my favorite thing … so I wanted to get back to that.”
Szungyogh feels the same. Going from a five-star kitchen to a desk job was rough. So whenever he got home, he would cook, “to get his creative juices out.” Then when the two discovered craft beer and home-brewing about three years back, they got the chance to really get creative.
“It was like, ‘Oh, wow, I can actually make this!’” Szungyogh said. “I buy the same malt, I buy the same yeast, I buy the same hops… So we just became passionate … and obsessive about it.”
It’s the manipulation of flavors they like most, the control. If they want to add peanut butter, they had peanut butter. Pumpernickel? Absolutely. Iced tea? Why not?
Once the place is up and running, Tomoka Brewery should be able to produce about 200-300 gallons of craft microbrew per week. But first, the set up.
“Everything is left (on the to-do list),” Hawkins laughed. “There’s never enough hours in the day. … That’s how it feels.”
Email tomokabrewery
Drink specials
Some of the brews to appear on Tomoka Brewery’s beer list are as follows:
Orange Blossom Special Hefeweizen
Elvis’ Peanut Butter & Banana Sandwich Brown Ale
Southern Iced Tea Red IPA
Pumpernickel Bread Porter
Peter the Great Bourbon Barrel Aged Russian Imperial Stout
Follow the brewpub on Twitter, at @TomokaBrewery.
