Why is a New York brewery coming to Rhode Island to hold its first-ever festival?
The inaugural Whale Watching festival set for Saturday, May 21, in Pawtucket is not about whales, but about beer. Some 50 breweries from far and wide will sample their beers. Food vendors will sell everything from lobster rolls to doughnuts.
It was planned and will be run by Finback Brewery, headquartered in New York, with locations in Glendale, Queens, and Gowanus, Brooklyn.
That begs more questions, doesn't it? But you can simplify it to this: Why would a New York brewery come to Rhode Island to hold its first ever festival?
It's not location, location, location, even though the setting on the Blackstone River is most scenic.
It's about roots and the roots of one of Finback's founders go deep in Rhode Island's food community.
Basil Lee left his architecture career in 2014 to start Finback Brewery with Kevin Stafford in a residential neighborhood in Queens.
Their New England ties have drawn them back. Stafford grew up in Marshfield, Massachusetts.
Lee grew up in Lincoln, the son of Kwai Ying Lee and Tsi Lee. His mother and father were the chefs at China Inn, the now-gone Pawtucket restaurant. His grandfather founded the restaurant in 1976 with Lee's uncle, Louis Yip (brother of Kwai Ying) and his father (Tsi Lee). Lee's aunt Florence Yip also worked in the business.
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"It's a place I hold dear in my heart," Lee said.
He bartended at the China Inn for his first job. Perhaps it laid the roots for his homebrewing hobby that led to Finback.
When they added food at the Finback tasting room a few years back, Lee asked his mother to recreate her dumplings. They are still on the menu there.
Finback recently collaborated with Narragansett Beer and brewer Lee Lord to create Neighbor Neighbor. They called it their first Whale Watching collaboration. The beer also has some local ingredients in it including Newport Sea Salt.
Finback will also do a collaboration with Long Live Beerworks.
The Whale Watching event will feature other local breweries including Buttonwoods, Proclamation Ale, Tilted Barn, Moniker, Origin Beer Project and Narragansett.
Lee is excited to welcome Tripping Animals, Hudson Valley, Equilibrium and Human Robot to show off their best beers.
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Finback will tap select breweries to release super-small quantities of rare brews at specific times throughout the afternoon, billing them as Whale Sightings.
In 2020, Finback opened in Brooklyn, where they are experimenting with pilsners and saisons. They will soon open a third location in Long Island City. They also bought a farm in Walton, New York, where they plan to grow their own fruit for their beers.
Lee admits the dream is to open an outpost of Finback in Rhode Island.
But for now, the focus is on the Whale Watching at 249 Roosevelt Ave., overlooking the Blackstone River, and running from 1:30 to 5 p.m. They've already sold some 800 tickets but have released more. General admission tickets cost $80. For more information, visit whalewatching-2022.eventbrite.com.
The event was originally slated for the spring of 2020, but it had to be postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic.
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That also gave them more time to bring in more special breweries, many of which have never been offered in Rhode Island before, Lee said. They include 3 Sons Brewing Co. in Dania Beach, Florida; Other Half Brewing in Brooklyn; 450 North Brewing Company in Columbus, Indiana; Great Notion Brewing in Portland, Oregon; Horus Aged Ales in Oceanside, California; and Burial Beer Co. in Asheville, North Carolina.
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This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Whale Watching 2022 beer festival in Pawtucket: What to know
