Drift Prairie Brewing Co. to open in Jamestown
May 17—JAMESTOWN — For the founders of Drift Prairie Brewing Co., it's not just about creating beer. It's also about good food and being a family-friendly place where you can stay all day if you'd like to connect with others, hang out, converse or play a game.
"For us and our perspective, we want to be able to create a space that provides for community and conversation, that the consumption of what we're creating brings about community," said co-owner Nick Bruns. "That the space is not just about the consumption of alcohol but it's about those who you're with."
To foster that, they have a large capacity for seating and gathering; games that people can use, and a designated area for children to play while the adults spend time together.
"A gathering space, coffee shop vibe almost more than a bar vibe for sure is what we're going for and what we're trying to create with how we set everything up and what we provide," said Emma Kleingartner, one of the co-owners.
Six households are founding owners of Drift Prairie Brewing Co. and there are also outside investors, mostly from Jamestown, Bruns said.
Drift Prairie Brewing Co. will have a soft opening on May 18-20 for Founders Club members only. People may join the Founders Club for a one-time fee at one of two levels: Settler ($75) or Pioneer ($150). The Settler membership includes a T-shirt, pint glass and $1 off of up to three items every time the member visits for life. The Pioneer membership includes the Settler items, a 10-drink punch card and an invitation to testing of new trial brews, Bruns said.
Founders Club memberships can be purchased at
. They can also be purchased at the brewery on the days of the soft opening and for a limited time when the brewery opens to the general public, Bruns said.
"It allows them .. for life, (to) get discounts," Bruns said of the memberships. "It's really just an opportunity for those that are excited about the brewery to be able to buy into the process a little bit and be a founder of the brewery, help make it happen."
The soft opening on May 18 will be only for Pioneer members; the soft opening on May 19-20 will be for both groups of Founders Club members. The business will open to the general public on Monday, May 22.
Drift Prairie Brewing Co. is located at 121 3rd St. NW, in the former Jamestown Sun building, which was purchased in August 2022. Jamestown Sun offices continue to be located on the west side of the building.
The brewery has a seating capacity of 170 inside the building and 50 on the designated patio behind the building. The brewery has 8,000 square feet of space; the outside seating space is 3,000 square feet.
Bruns describes the decor, which is being kept under wraps until the opening, as "very simple, black and white, clean, modern with some paying homage to the prairie, some aspect of old barn wood being utilized, some corrugated steel .... It's a little rustic chic."
A designated play area for children includes a playhouse, coloring station and toys. Items are expected to change to keep it interesting for them, Bruns said.
"I think that's probably one of the biggest pieces is that young couples, young families, it's hard to engage with one another," Bruns said. "To find time because kids kind of dictate what your time looks like after work. A lot of times, it's hard to go to a restaurant with kids because they're kids, they don't always behave and they don't want to sit still and so we want to be able to provide a space where they can have fun, too, which allows for parents to be able to catch up with their friends just the same."
The production area will be blocked off but still visible to people coming into the brewery. Drift Prairie Brewing Co. will be open from 4 to 10 p.m. Monday through Friday and 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday.
Growlers will be available to purchase and at some point, they plan to can their brews for people to take home, Bruns said.
John Rose is general manager and co-brewer and Noah Rosenberg is the front-of-house manager. Several part-time employees have been hired and the brewery is accepting applications for full- and part-time positions.
The process to make beer from start to finish is about three weeks, depending upon the type, Bruns said. Some brews take five weeks in the fermentation period, he said. Anton Goss is a co-owner and the brewmaster for the brewery and has been key to putting together the brewhouse, Bruns said. The brewery is using grain from North Dakota for its products.
"We'll use a vendor for that," Bruns said. "Being able to take product from the state of North Dakota that's grown here by North Dakota farmers, starting from literally bags of grain to a finished product all within our space will be pretty sweet."
There is a capacity for 12 brews in the tap lines, Brun said. They expect to have at least three staple brews of their own, along with a nonalcoholic root beer, and eight seasonal or other brews created in-house or from regional breweries.
"We'll want to keep things fresh so people want to come in and try something different," Bruns said.
Wine from in-state wineries, mocktails (drinks with no alcohol) and pop will also be available. Bruns expects the food will also be a draw.
"I think our food is going to play a huge role in people (coming)," Bruns said. "The beer's going to be good, the root beer's going to be good. All the mocktail beverages that we'll have are going to be delicious, but the food is just going to be things that you're not able to get right now in Jamestown. And made kind of like a good old mom-and-pop aspect of things."
Kleingartner, who had her own catering business for 15 years, Emma Rosie's Homecookin', said she curated the menu with the brewery's chef, Hannah Kapp, and another co-owner.
"I call it basically small plates fresh, we do not have a fryer like a typical bar-and-grill setup," she said. "We have some delicious stuff, I think."
It includes hot and cold sandwiches, lavash, charcuterie plates, Jonny B's Frozen Pizza and other items. Kleingartner's small business, Emma's Kuchen, will provide kuchen including kuchen shooter flights which are tiny glasses with custard and fruit in them that you eat with a spoon.
For the children's menu, Kleingartner said there are standard options plus children's charcuterie plates and "sushi," which is not the typical sushi adults would consume.
"They'll have to come in and see what that (sushi) means," Bruns says.
A few weeks after opening, the brewery will offer a brunch from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturdays, featuring breakfast and a few lunch items.
The brewery's root beer will also be sold at the General Store at Frontier Village.
Bruns said the brewery has already seen out-of-state visitors stop by before it was ready to open. He said it's encouraging that Jamestown is able to get people off of Interstate 94 to visit the World's Largest Buffalo and Frontier Village, "which are all phenomenal things," and it's important to get visitors downtown too, to see what's available there as well. He said breweries are popular places for travelers.
"Brewery hopping is a big thing, being able to check the box that you've stopped somewhere," he said.
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