Robin Shepard
Lead brewer Nick Davidson enjoys making seasonals and hopes to collaborate with other local breweries on special beers.
There’s an added attraction at Madison’s newest brewery: a movie theater. In fact, nine of them.
Flix Brewhouse will open July 5 at East Towne Mall. It’s the Texas-based company’s first venture in Wisconsin. Flix Brewhouses combine the lure of house-brewed beer with a dine-in cinema.
The nine screening rooms at the East Towne location vary in size, with capacities ranging from 33 to 225. It all looks like a modern multiplex, with the addition of brewpub paraphernalia and a restaurant that seats around 100. (So patrons don’t have to see a film when they come to Flix.)
Theater-goers order food and drink on paper check-off menus and summon servers via call buttons from their seats.
Flix Brewhouse is new construction at the rear of the mall in an area that formerly housed a Steinhafels furniture store. It brings motion pictures closer to east side residents. While East Towne long ago used to have a movie theater within the mall, over the years those screens have moved progressively farther east, first to Eastgate (east of I-39/90/94) and now to the Palace Cinema, Sun Prairie.
The brewhouse is composed of a seven-barrel brewing system enclosed behind glass in its own room. It’s designed to make 800-1,000 barrels of beer a year. A catwalk high above the dining room connects the brewery with 11 illuminated stainless steel serving vessels on a platform above the bar. The visual esthetics are quite comparable to most modest-to-upscale brewpub environments.
Robin Shepard
Nick Davidson is the lead brewer for Madison’s Flix. Davidson has been brewing since mid-June in preparation for the early July opening. His brews include six core beers that are served in all Flix locations: 10 Day Scottish ale, Flix Golden Ale, Luna Rosa Wit, Lupulus IPA, Umbra Chocostout and Nebulas (a hazy IPA).
In addition, Davidson plans to offer several rotating seasonals and special brews that will be matched with movie premieres. Among his first special releases will be a honey wheat ale called Killer Bee, made for the theater’s showing of Ant-Man and The Wasp. “Those seasonals are where I get to have fun,” Davidson says. He’s also looking forward to making an occasional barrel-aged beer or a sour, and even a local collaboration brew with another Madison brewer.
Davidson, 39, started as a homebrewer and eventually founded the Indiana-based Tin Man Brewing in 2012. He worked there as owner and brewmaster for five years before selling last summer. Davidson is excited about joining Madison’s burgeoning craft beer scene: “I’ve been coming to the Great Taste of the Midwest for several years and just fell in love with Madison.”
In addition to the roughly dozen house beers that Davidson will make, Flix will keep around 20 Wisconsin and regional beers on draft. Beer prices are expected to range from $5-$7/pint. Flix will fill growlers, but will not offer flights. The restaurant will serve typical pub grub, casual American fare like burgers, wraps, appetizers, pizzas and dessert; there will also be a kids’ menu.
Flix Brewhouse hopes to have up to 18 theater-breweries operating within the next three years. Madison is the company’s sixth location. “We go into markets with an emerging and strong craft beer presence,” says Greg Johnson, director of sales and marketing. “Madison is right there. Beer is part of the culture.”
The Madison Flix Brewhouse will be managed by Nick Toros, a 12-year veteran of the Red Robin restaurants, who spent the last three years at the Red Robin near East Towne. Flix is expected to employ about 200 full- and part-time workers. The estimated construction cost for the brewery, restaurant and theater is nearly $12 million.
