Beer Foam and Food Trucks : Glasstown Brewery in Millville, NJ

Tommy Podcast:
like, hang on, I gotta hit record. Okay, and the Bridgestone Beacon is joined today by Paul Simmons, proprietor, brewer at Glass Town Brewing, Millville, New Jersey, and sometimes I call it Glass Town Brewery, but I think my bumper sticker says Glass Town Brewery. So can you clarify? It is Brew Wing, right?

Paul Simmons:
Yeah, I think we have his Glastown Brewing, but whatever. Whatever works, Glastown Brewing Company, Glastown Brewery, whatever.

Tommy Podcast:
What's on the paperwork?

Paul Simmons:
On the what?

Tommy Podcast:
on the paperwork.

Paul Simmons:
I think it's Glastown Brewing LLC

Tommy Podcast:
Okay.

Paul Simmons:
doing business as the Glastown Brewing Company.

Tommy Podcast:
Gotcha. And you just celebrated an anniversary. What number was that?

Paul Simmons:
Well, we're coming up on number 10 in a couple months

Tommy Podcast:
Oh, okay, that's right. And it would appear that you're ready for the call. Either that or you've got a Monday afternoon problem.

Paul Simmons:
Yeah, well, it's an everyday problem.

Tommy Podcast:
What are we looking at? I should say this, everybody who drinks Glass Town loves the artwork and I see new artwork there so it looks like you've got some new stuff to share. I'll give you

Paul Simmons:
Well,

Tommy Podcast:
the floor, go to town.

Paul Simmons:
there's a little bit, I mean, some of it's the same. Some of it's, you know, we got our, I brought out the Clash of the Pumpkins because we just released our pumpkin beer for the year just this past weekend. So that'll be pouring pretty steady for the next month and a half until we're out of it. Usually it makes it to Halloween, but not all the time. So yeah, you gotta get in and get it early. We just brewed our blackberry scratch, was a blackberry wheat beer made with local blackberries from, local organic blackberries from Vineland, pure berry farms in Vineland. And then I don't know if you can see it over here, I think I'm cut off, but I've got the, or you know, our typical.

Tommy Podcast:
609.

Paul Simmons:
609 IPA and then we did a mango wheat beer this summer, which was fantastic and we're almost out of that. So just a couple things to throw out there that uh, you know, some things that are new some things are just seasonal that we got going on right now. So

Tommy Podcast:
Cool, and now you guys are also big on weekend food trucks and you have, or rather, organizations or people tend to use your property for events throughout the year. Sometimes fundraisers, sometimes birthday parties, things like that. Is there anything on the calendar coming up that's sort

Paul Simmons:
Yeah,

Tommy Podcast:
of a fit?

Paul Simmons:
the biggest thing we have going on is on September 16th we have our second annual Glass Town Oktoberfest. This year we're going to have a Polka Band live here. Polka Pete is going to be here, might even be his last show or their last show in New Jersey. I believe one of the gentlemen is retiring and moving to... or moving whatever he's retiring to move it away but I hear there might be plans to add Somebody back into the mix so the band might not go away. But as of right now this could be Their last hurrah, so we're hoping for a really good show They're a great time We're gonna have some Couple games we have some keg throwing or rolling something. I think you gotta roll them cuz it's safer than throwing them tonight

Tommy Podcast:
Yeah, by a lot.

Paul Simmons:
Steinholding competition. We got some vendors coming out. We've got Beach Funds is gonna be out here. They make some fantastic cakes and pastries. I believe we have two food trucks coming out. We have Bolt Catering and I believe Hook or Land are coming out. So we've got that going on. We'll have a 10 out back. So it's a rain or shine event. It's happening no matter what. Anything outside of a hurricane, we're doing it. So, which is that's time of year. So, hopefully we'll be all right.

Tommy Podcast:
Ye- Funny you should mention it, I literally just finished putting up hurricane shutters.

Paul Simmons:
Oh, that's right, yeah. I don't know what...

Tommy Podcast:
We got one coming, I think it's going to be legit.

Paul Simmons:
I know. Where

Tommy Podcast:
So

Paul Simmons:
are you at exactly?

Tommy Podcast:
I'm in Fort Myers and they're telling the exact same story that they told last year with Ian. They're like, it's going to hit Tampa, it's going to hit Tampa.

Paul Simmons:
Yeah, yeah,

Tommy Podcast:
Last

Paul Simmons:
yeah.

Tommy Podcast:
time they told me it was going to hit Tampa, it jumped

Paul Simmons:
It went

Tommy Podcast:
all

Paul Simmons:
right

Tommy Podcast:
over

Paul Simmons:
through there.

Tommy Podcast:
Fort Myers. So yeah, I'm getting ahead of it, but... Yeah, fingers crossed it's just your

Paul Simmons:
As

Tommy Podcast:
run

Paul Simmons:
of

Tommy Podcast:
of

Paul Simmons:
right

Tommy Podcast:
the mill

Paul Simmons:
now,

Tommy Podcast:
category four.

Paul Simmons:
I may have went to school for meteorology. I didn't graduate, so don't take, I mean, if you think their stuff's bad, you think their forecasting's bad, I'm really gonna be bad. But I don't know, it looked like it was gonna go a little bit further north last time I looked at it, which was about an hour ago, but the reality is they don't know where it's going until about 12 hours before it's gonna hit. So they have, Everybody just has to start preparing for the worst and kind of get your stuff together, do what you did, button up and hope that they're wrong or really wrong and it keeps even going even further north. But yeah.

Tommy Podcast:
It's, you guys might get some drinking weather next week. It looks like the rain might be headed your way after it goes through us and beats up on the

Paul Simmons:
Yeah,

Tommy Podcast:
Carolinas.

Paul Simmons:
end of the week. As long as it clears out for the weekend, I'm happy. It'll be all right.

Tommy Podcast:
And so what's the date of your Oktoberfest?

Paul Simmons:
That is September 16th. It is basically noon until we close, but the band will be on between two and six. But there'll be, we have t-shirts and mugs, which I don't have right here for sale, logoed for the party, for the festival. And yeah. I think they're gonna be starting a pre-sale, so you have to check out our website for that, or Facebook, probably be on Facebook or Instagram for the pre-sale on some of that stuff. So everything sold out really quick last year, so recommend anybody getting, if you're gonna do it and wanna pre-order, do it soon. It actually would help us, because we'll reorder more this year, where we didn't get a chance to do that last year. So, you know,

Tommy Podcast:
Yeah, your merch

Paul Simmons:
just

Tommy Podcast:
goes.

Paul Simmons:
trying out that. Yeah, not trying to have extra stuff laying around that's dated, you know, for 2023 and October best.

Tommy Podcast:
So you know what's kind of different that happens at your bar that I discuss and people are always surprised when I mention it. Like I go to this brewery in Millville, New Jersey where they always mix beers together and they make combinations and mix and match and sometimes it's two, sometimes it's three, sometimes they're hitting four beers on the rail and making a combo. Can you speak to that a little bit? Is that a unique glass town thing? Is that a? just a small brewery culture thing, but it's one of the big draws because I know half the people sitting at the bar generally have a mix going. So it's certainly not just for show. Speak to that, because I think it's awesome.

Paul Simmons:
Well, I would say, so the girls that worked for Mariah over the years, Mariah and Hannah, who just left a little bit ago, they were kind of the ones that really started the whole mixing thing. And I have to be honest, wasn't a fan of it at first. Thought it was kind of gimmicky, but hey, you know, if the customer, you know, customer's always right, so give them what they want. I'll say it gets a little confusing because I don't always serve beer, so when I come back behind the bar and I have to get somebody a beer and they throw out some weird name, I don't know, like, you know, what am I saying, 856 fish or something. I mean, I guess some of them I can kind of figure out, some of them I can't. So it's a little goofy, but I mean, I'm drinking a, we're calling it the Czech Republic right now. So we've got the Mango Republic in our Czech pills. So it's half and half. check pills in the mango and don't ask me why I think it's better than one or the other. I don't know. Just for some reason I feel like it makes the mango drink lighter. I don't know, but I like it. So I drink it.

Tommy Podcast:
I drink combos there all the time. And some of them have gotten wild in the last year because you guys started making like hard sodas.

Paul Simmons:
Oh yeah,

Tommy Podcast:
And

Paul Simmons:
oh yeah.

Tommy Podcast:
so now you've got like an orange hard soda or a grape hard soda or a vanilla hard soda or what you've got pumpkin spice.

Paul Simmons:
Yeah,

Tommy Podcast:
You know, then you can really get creative.

Paul Simmons:
the cream soda and the pumpkin beer is so ridiculous. It's just like, just needs a splash on that pumpkin beer and it is just amazing. But yeah, I mean, and the same thing we were messing around. So we did a hard Arnold Palmer style iced tea. So a half iced tea, half lemonade. And we realized... putting a touch of the blackberry into that ice tea lemonade mix is phenomenal too. So it's goofy. I don't know. These guys sit around here and just mix stuff all day. I don't know how much we waste doing it, but it's funny because I'll come in and they'll throw, say, oh, you want to try this? Sometimes I'm just like, ah, that's too weird. And then occasionally they'll throw something at me. I'm like, oh, yeah, that actually works. But I don't always like them all. But they've thrown quite a few good ones out there. A lot of people will mix the big breakfast with a little bit of pumpkin too. That's been a pretty good one. But that's obviously a seasonal thing when we have it.

Tommy Podcast:
Now, the big breakfast, that's a stop, correct?

Paul Simmons:
It's a porter. Yeah

Tommy Podcast:
A porter, sorry. Damn, I knew it was a porter.

Paul Simmons:
But it's

Tommy Podcast:
So,

Paul Simmons:
dark. It's the sea it's potato

Tommy Podcast:
but what are the, and, but describe, give the description for that beer because that as I recall has like, you know, several bullet points in terms of

Paul Simmons:
Yeah,

Tommy Podcast:
flavor notes.

Paul Simmons:
the big breakfast is a coffee maple porter. So, a lot of coffee, a lot of maple syrup, up front flavor, so it's literally like drinking breakfast.

Tommy Podcast:
And what's the typical, so I can see that making sense. Like that is a good mix, but that generally gets mixed with something else. Right, there's a real popular mix with that, the, your porter. Oh, I can't remember what it is, but it's also very breakfasty. I feel like the second one, oh, we came up with something one day that involved the orange soda. So it was like coffee and orange juice. Oh, I forget what it was. But yeah,

Paul Simmons:
I don't know.

Tommy Podcast:
that was one of the mixes we got into at your bar one day. No, you weren't there, by the way. No, this mostly happens behind your back.

Paul Simmons:
Yeah, it does, a lot of it.

Tommy Podcast:
We're

Paul Simmons:
I know.

Tommy Podcast:
just completely, we're just bastardizing your product as much and as often

Paul Simmons:
And

Tommy Podcast:
as

Paul Simmons:
I think,

Tommy Podcast:
possible.

Paul Simmons:
and luckily, thankfully, they only bug me with some of the ones that taste better.

Tommy Podcast:
I imagine you only want to show the boss this stuff that you think is a home run. And then,

Paul Simmons:
Yeah.

Tommy Podcast:
in merch you said, so are you guys running low on hats and t-shirts? And FYI, you guys are always running low on hats and t-shirts, which is

Paul Simmons:
Yeah,

Tommy Podcast:
a compliment, because when they come

Paul Simmons:
every,

Tommy Podcast:
in, they go out.

Paul Simmons:
yeah. I said we don't usually place huge orders for things, but it seems like every time we do order things, it doesn't stick around very long. But yeah.

Tommy Podcast:
Alright, what else have you got? What's uh... Oh! Should we mention your, is there anything online with your pizza results or those pizza videos that we should point people to? Is there any weirdness you've gotten into that bears mentioning? Cause it's fun or funny or locally related.

Paul Simmons:
I haven't had a chance to really... Some of the audio is pretty bad on them. So I never really had a chance to try and clean them up and edit it and get them posted individually. But... So the only thing I will say about that is our South Jersey Pizza Madness, that basically included the... greater Millville area, a little bit of Bridgestone, a little bit of Vineland, mainly a lot of the pizzas in Millville, but I thought it was a great success and I've definitely had people, bumped into people at AC Beer Fest and a couple other locations that were like, hey, the pizza thing was really cool, like, you know, you gotta let us know when you're doing it again or, you know, oh, do something with cheese steaks next, or, you know,

Tommy Podcast:
Oh,

Paul Simmons:
people

Tommy Podcast:
that's

Paul Simmons:
want

Tommy Podcast:
a good

Paul Simmons:
us to

Tommy Podcast:
call.

Paul Simmons:
do something with all the best tacos in the area. So, there's some things that we're kind of thinking about. We're kind of waiting till the summer died down a little bit where I might have a little more free time to gallivant around and hit some different locations. But yeah, it's fun. Beer and food definitely mix very well. So, it's something that we're kicking around. We're trying to figure out a good format for how to go about doing it. And... and I don't know, you might see some taco videos or some burritos or something, some cheese steaks being eaten. I still can't eat meat for another couple, like about a month and a half, so once we get to November, I'll be back on the red meat train. So.

Tommy Podcast:
I'm good for you. Stay away from text.

Paul Simmons:
Yeah, working on it.

Tommy Podcast:
Alright, so then you know what? Consider this. If you're gonna be the taco guy, or you're gonna be the cheesesteak guy, and you don't wanna have to worry about addressing your sound issues, let's make this a collaboration between the Bridgerton Beacon, and we'll just dual produce it, and I'll give you versions with all cleaned up sound if I get to have versions with all cleaned up sound.

Paul Simmons:
I mean, that could work for me.

Tommy Podcast:
The other thing is you can look up this tool called Auphonic, A-U-P-H, Auphonic, and very cheap for you to process a couple hours of audio and remove background noise or remove background noise but keep music and speech or remove everything but speech. It's like $19 and I think you can get five or six audios processed through it. So you can upload the actual video you took into Auphonic. It will... I'll let you pick a few settings and then spit the audio out. You download the audio and mate that up with the video in your editor. So

Paul Simmons:
Gotcha. Yeah.

Tommy Podcast:
that'll fix a lot of what you have from your pizza cut.

Paul Simmons:
Okay, I'll have to circle back and I'll get that written down.

Tommy Podcast:
It's going to be in the podcast.

Paul Simmons:
Okay.

Tommy Podcast:
I'll leave that in. Makes me sound like I know what I'm talking about when it comes to it.

Paul Simmons:
hahahaha

Tommy Podcast:
But yeah, it's an easy tool. It's AI. It's neat. You've seen some of the AI stuff we mess with. All

Paul Simmons:
Yeah.

Tommy Podcast:
right. What else do you got? We're only 16 minutes in. I thought you and I were going to go for an hour easy.

Paul Simmons:
Ah! Ah ha ha!

Tommy Podcast:
You know what you could do, because we'll get a bunch of clips out of this, Paul. If you have a two or three or four of the combos, you could want to say a 732, is whatever, and if you like, those will be good little fricking little fun little clips that are basically just selling your product, because again, I think that's one of the most fun things. So what's in a few of the big selling combos?

Paul Simmons:
Well that's a good question

Tommy Podcast:
Oh,

Paul Simmons:
because I don't even know

Tommy Podcast:
I'm a dummy.

Paul Simmons:
because I don't drink I don't

Tommy Podcast:
I keep

Paul Simmons:
drink half of them

Tommy Podcast:
asking

Paul Simmons:
so

Tommy Podcast:
the owner, what am I thinking?

Paul Simmons:
So there's one guy, you know crazy Mark, he's been drinking the, what the heck, he's drinking the Czech Pilsner with a splash of the cream soda in it, which I think is so bizarre, but it's called What Mark's Drinking. So, which I do think that has changed over time. But I think Donna drinks, eight five fish. which is eight, I believe that's eight five six, part eight five six and part Fisherman's. I think, I mean,

Tommy Podcast:
And

Paul Simmons:
seven

Tommy Podcast:
856

Paul Simmons:
30, there's a seven,

Tommy Podcast:
is a double IPA, right? What's the fish,

Paul Simmons:
yeah,

Tommy Podcast:
what's...

Paul Simmons:
eight five six is the double FBA. Fisherman's is like a pub ale, so it's kind of like a biscuity, malty beer, kind of on the lighter side. It's kind of. I would liken it, it's like an ale version of like St. Adam's Boston lager. It's kind of on that level of flavor and lightness. 732, I believe is a mix of 609 and 856. I think that's like, you know, 856, 609, meat in the middle, and it's 732.

Tommy Podcast:
I can confirm that, yeah.

Paul Simmons:
Yeah, you do? Okay, okay. Um, honestly after that, I think people mix something with nightcap, with the nightcap, which is the Belgian blonde. Um, I don't know what they mix with it though. Uh, I don't know. There's way more than what, like I said, I think people, this time of year, people will mix the porter and the pumpkin together. Um, I don't know the name of that. Uh, actually know it? Oh, uh... So there was one when we had our bourbon brown and it was a mix of bourbon brown, big breakfast and the pumpkin. And it was, your pumpkins are big and brown, I think. I believe that was the mix. I don't know, that's a Mariah question. We should have brought her in for that one.

Tommy Podcast:
I

Paul Simmons:
But

Tommy Podcast:
know,

Paul Simmons:
yeah.

Tommy Podcast:
I regret not mentioning that it would have been great to have one of your soldiers in there with you because those guys really do have their thumb on the pulse more than

Paul Simmons:
Yeah,

Tommy Podcast:
anybody.

Paul Simmons:
I mean,

Tommy Podcast:
I understand that.

Paul Simmons:
we'll have to do it again.

Tommy Podcast:
Oh, we totally should. We totally should.

Paul Simmons:
I mean,

Tommy Podcast:
That would...

Paul Simmons:
with the cream soda, I mean with the hard sodas, the cream soda, the orange and the cream, the creamsicle blend is phenomenal. I mean, people

Tommy Podcast:
Oh yeah,

Paul Simmons:
crush that.

Tommy Podcast:
I've had that, that's delicious. That's

Paul Simmons:
Yeah.

Tommy Podcast:
fantastic.

Paul Simmons:
I'm pretty much convinced you could add that cream soda anything and make it taste better.

Tommy Podcast:
That cream soda is an excellent stand-alone, like, hard

Paul Simmons:
Yeah.

Tommy Podcast:
soda. For people who have ever had a hard soda, that, for my money, tastes as much like the non-alcoholic original version that it's

Paul Simmons:
Yes.

Tommy Podcast:
modeled after as anything. So yeah, your cream

Paul Simmons:
Totally.

Tommy Podcast:
soda is ridiculous. And your orange soda is also kind of ridiculously accurate in that respect as well.

Paul Simmons:
Yeah.

Tommy Podcast:
You mentioned a show in Atlantic City. What else goes on in New Jersey in terms of beer, beer associations or brewing associations? And even if that's from a perspective of you guys lobbying and trying to, you know, plant your flag and get more power in terms of the industry, like what?

Paul Simmons:
Yeah, there are two Jersey brewing associations. There's a Brewers Guild and the New Jersey Brewers Association, I believe. But yeah, actually there was some really big legislation that was actually passed back right before July, or I think it was like June 30th. The state Senate and the state assembly passed a... bill to do away with all the goofy regulations in the state. The no food, no coordinating with food trucks, no having servers, serve tables, table side. Can't, you know, you can't serve, I can't even though it's my property, I can't serve beer outside, whether it's a waiter or whether I have like a draft box outside and somebody standing outside pouring, not allowed to do that. the whole no sporting events, well, which they changed not too long ago to no championship sporting events. You can't show that on TV. Now you can, I guess, but you can do some of this stuff, but you have to have permits, and you only get 12 or 15 permits a year for special events, and then you gotta apply for it, and yada, yada. So there's this legislation that was passed. to do away with all of it. So that was roughly June 30th. Here we are coming up on August 30th in a couple days and it's been sitting on the governor's desk and he hasn't signed it yet. And to my knowledge, it doesn't sound like he's gonna sign it. He ran around all year for the past year and a half when he was campaigning for a reelection. and talking to all these brewery owners, telling everybody how he was gonna help everybody out. He was going to help everybody out and get help with the legislation. If anything got approved, he swore he was going to sign it right away. And so, I mean, he got a lot of support going into the election and he won the election and now he's not holding up his end of the bargain, which is a shame.

Tommy Podcast:
Yeah, that stinks. He's doing the same thing with judges. He was like 70 judges short six months ago. And it's just cause he just wasn't signing off, just wasn't hiring anyway. Everybody's just waiting for him to hire judges. So it sounds like, and now this is on the heels of, when I was in Jersey, maybe it was March or April or May, I felt like there was new legislation that restricted specifically food trucks. relationships. So wasn't that a relatively new...

Paul Simmons:
Yeah, so it went in place right before COVID. And then they relaxed some of it during COVID and coming out of COVID. Then they started kind of enforcing it again and then they weren't enforcing it. So it went back and forth quite a few times to the point where we're like, I honestly forgot where we were at on the whole thing. And we were, apparently we were filing permits for a while for some events. And another brewery that we're doing that for, they relaxed it for a period of time. And I'm like, news to me, I don't know. I went back and forth sometimes. But it wasn't like the ABC was telling me, no, don't worry about filing it. They took our application and I mean, there's no fee involved, there's just a review process. But we were also limiting ourselves to what we could do because of what the regulations say. So now, technically, the ABC because the legislation has passed and is awaiting signature, the ABC did put out a written statement saying that they are not enforcing anything in the special ruling through the end of the year, assuming that it will get signed. So at least right now, it's kind of a free game to do what you want. But don't get used to it because by the end of the year, if the governor doesn't sign it, then everything goes right back into place. And then you're gonna be butt hurt when they start cracking down on all the things that you just got used to doing without a permit. So, I mean, something tells me that they have to... You can't just let everybody go do what they want to do and then yank it back in four months. So it doesn't make sense. So hopefully the governor gets around the sign in it at some point before the end of the year. Otherwise, it's going to be really stupid to try and go backwards with the regulations. Even though the ABC, I can see them saying, well, we told you it was temporary, but you just gave everybody the... the license the drive, how are you going to take it away from them?

Tommy Podcast:
Yeah, that's fair. What else is that the that sounds like the elephant in the room in terms of like hospitality associated with breweries and this probably affects like wineries too, or is it specific language to breweries?

Paul Simmons:
Wineries have been allowed to do a lot of that stuff no matter what because they're considered to be an agricultural benefit to the state. So they've been given some leniency over the years to be able to do a lot of those things, serve food. Even though most of them don't serve dinner, they serve smaller, kind of tapas, kind of small plate. things. I don't, I'm not saying that any wineries don't serve like a, like a full meal, but to my knowledge, the ones I've been to primarily cheese boards, charcuterie, other kinds of very light fare, which let's be honest, I'm not trying to get into, I don't want to run a restaurant. Yeah.

Tommy Podcast:
Yeah,

Paul Simmons:
Would it be

Tommy Podcast:
everything you've mentioned avoids installing an exhaust hood.

Paul Simmons:
Yeah.

Tommy Podcast:
So, I mean, I would do the same thing.

Paul Simmons:
I mean, most breweries, when they set up in their current locations, probably assumed they would never have the opportunity to have food. So now let's just say there were a handful of people, there's 140 odd breweries in the state, let's say maybe 10 people thought, hey, let's get a space where we could still build out a restaurant or kitchen in the building. So that's why we bought this, we got this space. I'd say it's gotta be less than 10% of the people, or probably less than 5% had that idea in mind. Everybody else said, well, we can't do it, so why would we bother getting a space and paying extra rent for a space that we can't use until we can utilize it? So I would say the vast majority of us, and it's not on the table, they're not letting us have food. In fact, the... They're just basically saying that they're gonna allow us to coordinate with food trucks and call them and say, hey, we've got this event, this event, come out this week. Oh, I wanna have a taco truck this day. I'd like to have a pizza truck that day and let us schedule with them directly. Also, where, I wasn't gonna say about that. So, I don't know. It's kind

Tommy Podcast:
Well,

Paul Simmons:
of weird

Tommy Podcast:
and

Paul Simmons:
because

Tommy Podcast:
it's...

Paul Simmons:
you think it wouldn't be that big a deal to just call somebody up, but technically, we're, oh yeah, you can't advertise it right now. So unless you schedule an event and have that, and use that, and have that food truck there for an event, you know, where you're getting that permit and everything, then you can advertise. But if a food truck just wants to show up, theoretically, I can't tell anybody that they're out there on my social media. Now, this new legislation would allow me to advertise it. that allow us to actually put their menus on the bar. Now that's not saying that other breweries don't do that. We're not supposed to. So we try and play by the rules as much as possible. But it's one of those things. It's just a nuisance to have to have it in the back of your mind that, hey, I'm doing the wrong thing. I don't wanna be doing the wrong thing. I wanna be doing the right thing. Why is promoting another local business a wrong thing? like it just seems stupid but that's we're in Jersey and that just seems to be the illogical thought process the is apparently rational thought

Tommy Podcast:
or the restaurant lobby is that many more magnitudes, powerful than, more powerful than you guys are. And they've been in the ears of, you know, their pet legislators since you guys started popping up all over the state saying, hey, do not let these 150 breweries turn into 150 restaurants overnight because I didn't set up, you know, 10 locations and, you know, grease the wheels in four counties for you guys to stand in my way now and start. cannibalizing my audience.

Paul Simmons:
noticed that... It seems to be local brick and mortar have, restaurants have more issues with food trucks in general than where the food truck is going. It just seems like at least in Millville, there's been a real full court press to people from operating food trucks in this town to the point where it's very intrusive into people's privacy and the people working for them. They need to be fingerprinted. They need

Tommy Podcast:
What?

Paul Simmons:
to, yeah, you need to be fingerprinted. They need to have background checks. Last time I checked you could open up a brick and mortar store anywhere in this town and you don't have to be background checked or fingerprinted. So seems a bit, I don't know, there's a word for it. I'm not going to use it.

Tommy Podcast:
Capricious.

Paul Simmons:
Yeah. I was going

Tommy Podcast:
Arbitrary.

Paul Simmons:
to take it a step further,

Tommy Podcast:
Stupid

Paul Simmons:
but it's very frustrating to see that I frankly don't even understand how it's legal that they can get away with that, but it's happening and it's preventing other, there's food trucks in other counties that refuse to come to Millville because they don't want to get fingerprinted.

Tommy Podcast:
That's interesting, I can-

Paul Simmons:
They're very upstanding people and they just don't see why it's necessary to be fingerprinted and background checked to fill out an application to operate a food truck in the town.

Tommy Podcast:
And so that's Millville specifically, that's not

Paul Simmons:
A

Tommy Podcast:
the county.

Paul Simmons:
little

Tommy Podcast:
That's

Paul Simmons:
specifically, yes.

Tommy Podcast:
a, and so I can, I can, in Millville, I can serve food, sell food, prepare food, have certifications for the things related to those services. But as soon as I do it in a vehicle with wheels, you want my fingerprints? I wonder if they're not dancing on a line where they're just looking for a lawsuit. I'm not kidding.

Paul Simmons:
I'm shocked no one has done anything yet. But you're

Tommy Podcast:
Ooh.

Paul Simmons:
also dealing with a group of people who the majority of them are very small business owners, probably a sole proprietor. So if they wanna operate in town, they're gonna dance the dance. If they don't or if they have the ability to move to another town, I mean. They're going to move to another town and operate in another town. I just, you know, but there's

Tommy Podcast:
That's

Paul Simmons:
no incentive,

Tommy Podcast:
very

Paul Simmons:
no

Tommy Podcast:
unusual,

Paul Simmons:
incentive

Tommy Podcast:
but

Paul Simmons:
to do this now. Yeah.

Tommy Podcast:
that's creepy. Like that's really an unusual ask for a food truck.

Paul Simmons:
I know.

Tommy Podcast:
There's probably dudes working as, you know, Brinks truck drivers in town with guns who don't have to give their fingerprints to the city to work in the city.

Paul Simmons:
The individual towns? Yeah, probably not.

Tommy Podcast:
Yeah, like, I mean, okay, so. Yeah, this is preposterous. This is punitive, capricious, and arbitrary. I think somebody's got a case against the city of Millville or some board.

Paul Simmons:
I mean, I guess maybe the issue is you gotta get denied for an application for it to become an issue. Or somebody has to go in and refuse

Tommy Podcast:
Eat it.

Paul Simmons:
it and then get denied and then go through an appeal process or something, or a lawsuit or something, I don't know. It just seems bizarre to me. I don't know why anybody wouldn't fight it, but.

Tommy Podcast:
Sounds like it sounds

Paul Simmons:
Fighting

Tommy Podcast:
like it.

Paul Simmons:
things takes time and money and I guess that's

Tommy Podcast:
Yeah,

Paul Simmons:
the

Tommy Podcast:
exactly.

Paul Simmons:
point.

Tommy Podcast:
Yeah, it's just a hindrance and clearly like a punitive roadblock is all it is. Yeah, it's not a well hidden, you know, it's clearly tied to the fact that. And I would think during COVID there was so much shake up those guys must have been nervous and I'd have been nervous if I was a brick and mortar shop, but I don't know how stomping down opportunities to create commerce. on the other side of town, it just doesn't help you in the long run. Make Millville a destination. Make Millville a place where people are like, oh, I like going to Millville because of the food trucks at the brewery at the airport. And then on the way out of town, they're going to see Jim's lunch. They're going to see Bruni's. They're going to see whatever that's like the local brick and mortar. But whatever the draw was to begin with shouldn't be tamped down. That's

Paul Simmons:
I

Tommy Podcast:
not an advantage to anybody.

Paul Simmons:
mean, I believe Vineland does a really good food truck festival on Landis Avenue every year. And it's very successful. And I know the racetrack here has tried to do a food truck festival and Wheaton Arts probably has had one at some point. But for places like the nonprofits and stuff in town and the food truck, or the, sorry, the racetrack. trying to add different events to bring people in to their venue. It's a very cool option, but how many food trucks, if you're going to operate in this town for one day a year, why would you go through all that effort? I get it too if somebody was local, but for a food truck festival, some people might come from two towns up, somebody might come down from Philadelphia. You might have some fancy food trucks that want to come down, but normally it might fill out an application, pay a hundred bucks, which might actually make them good for the year. Now I gotta get everybody on the food truck. It's not just the owners. It's everyone on the food truck has to be fingerprinted and background checked. They

Tommy Podcast:
Mothers...

Paul Simmons:
need social security numbers and everything.

Tommy Podcast:
That that Milville is getting creepy with the food trucks. That's there's that's no good reason for that and you're right They can't even have a street fair in mobile. I mean

Paul Simmons:
Yeah.

Tommy Podcast:
like That's so weird. Yeah, we should start a cause around that,

Paul Simmons:
Yeah,

Tommy Podcast:
I think.

Paul Simmons:
I don't know. It's just when I get enough causes, but and that's not my battle to fight, but it's annoying. And I don't we don't really stand to gain from it. We're not that busy that a food truck even wants to be out here every day. Now, if a food truck was able to be out here every day, would that eventually increase business? Hopefully, but there's no guarantee. But at the same time. trying to get anybody to, in this town, so I should say, trying to get food trucks that want to operate in this town, because it's not like you need the same food truck every day. A different food truck every day is great, but trying to build something consistent, and a lot of it circles back to the larger issue, which is the state regulations, and that special ruling and getting that pushed out of the way so that we can actually call people and say, hey, we got Labor Day weekend coming up. It'd be great to have somebody, two different food trucks operating out here over the weekend. We're gonna be busy. Holiday weekend, we're always busy. And we're technically not supposed to be calling anybody up.

Tommy Podcast:
Well, I feel like we should probably set something up, like some sort of, like the Freedom Trucker rally. And we'll just hit all the council people's blocks with a food truck freedom rally to spread the word in Movo. I

Paul Simmons:
Food

Tommy Podcast:
mean...

Paul Simmons:
truck theme really.

Tommy Podcast:
Let's take it to the streets.

Paul Simmons:
Look at that poor...

Tommy Podcast:
Yeah

Paul Simmons:
You know, this is all the rage by the way. This is how all the young kids are doing it now.

Tommy Podcast:
What, pouring a beer with a head on it that's nine

Paul Simmons:
Yeah,

Tommy Podcast:
inches?

Paul Simmons:
yeah, it's big time.

Tommy Podcast:
Are you serious?

Paul Simmons:
Yeah, they pay extra for that.

Tommy Podcast:
I believe that actually. It's probably huge on TikTok.

Paul Simmons:
Uh, it probably started there, yeah.

Tommy Podcast:
Oh, that's actually a disgraceful pour. I wish one of your employees was here to comment

Paul Simmons:
Ha ha!

Tommy Podcast:
on that at length. Now, real quick, what's going on at the airport? I mentioned Bruni's and Jim's lunch, so I real quick have to give a burger shout out to Verna's FlightLine Mobile Airport, the TNT Burger, arguably South Jersey's greatest burger.

Paul Simmons:
It's a good burger.

Tommy Podcast:
Yeah, they have a five ounce and an eight ounce version. You get the eight ounce version, which comes on a nice brioche roll. That's the way to go. That brioche holds together much better because this is a saucy disaster. You're going to love it. So

Paul Simmons:
Yeah,

Tommy Podcast:
there's, there's my, there's my

Paul Simmons:
yeah.

Tommy Podcast:
shout out to Verna who I haven't seen in a couple of months, which is way too long for me to not see Verna. Um, but what else is going on at the airport for people who don't get out there? Don't know that there's a racetrack. Don't know that there's a brewery. Don't know that there's a real estate office or a burger.

Paul Simmons:
Yeah, well, to touch on Vernis for a second, I think once or twice a month they're doing wing night on Wednesday nights. So they, I don't know if she does it, or she had somebody special coming in, they have this really good,

Tommy Podcast:
She had somebody come in.

Paul Simmons:
yeah, she's got somebody coming in and they have this special rub that they put on and it's really good, and they've got a couple like house sauces that they've been doing, and we've got them a couple times out here and it's really good. And but I always forget to look and I should just set up a notification on my on my phone or something to know when she's doing it because it never fails I'll go home eat dinner and I come out here and then There's like four or five people who sit in here eating wings. I'm like damn it. There's wings Cuz I want to appear like my wings

Tommy Podcast:
Those are

Paul Simmons:
but

Tommy Podcast:
good.

Paul Simmons:
uh outside of the wings, I Don't know. I mean you got Barry and Michelle over at Smith and Jackson, they're doing their thing with the gun shop and the museum air show coming next year.

Tommy Podcast:
Oh, okay.

Paul Simmons:
Don't

Tommy Podcast:
That's

Paul Simmons:
ask me

Tommy Podcast:
huge.

Paul Simmons:
the date, but there's definitely an air show 2024. So check their website for that information. I believe they're trying to get. If they can get the blue, they're on a waiting list for the Blue Angels. If they can get the Blue Angels, there will be another air show in 2025 with the Blue Angels. So I know that's on the on the list of things that are going on. But yeah, I mean, I'm trying to wrap

Tommy Podcast:
That's

Paul Simmons:
my head.

Tommy Podcast:
awesome. I love the air shows in Movo. I haven't seen one in a few years, but Blue Angels would be huge. Last time I saw the air show, they had, there were new F-18s there. There were the Canadian, who are those guys? The, almost,

Paul Simmons:
snowbirds.

Tommy Podcast:
I don't know, the Maple Leafs, the Canadians, whatever the heck they

Paul Simmons:
Hahaha!

Tommy Podcast:
call their Air Force. Okay, well that's cool. And then... The racetrack, Verna's Burgers, we've done a pretty good job of covering it. We've stirred up a little bit of political activism. We're gonna work on this food truck thing. I think that's something we can sink our teeth into. Yeah, who's the, no, I'm not gonna go there. I was gonna get into local politics, which doesn't serve either one of us. But circle

Paul Simmons:
Yeah.

Tommy Podcast:
back. If you wanna do some weird food stuff and you wanna take the production out of your hands, If you'll do one half the leg work, we'll come up with some kind of collab and I'll make sure you get clean audio and everything like that.

Paul Simmons:
You mean you need me to do the eating?

Tommy Podcast:
Yeah,

Paul Simmons:
That's

Tommy Podcast:
eating and filming.

Paul Simmons:
my half? I can do the eating part.

Tommy Podcast:
Eating and filming, yeah. And I'll be back, it's, I'm outside of Cumberland County right now, but I will be back in the short term. We did just get our first grant for the nonprofit Bridged and Beacon. I guess

Paul Simmons:
Oh, very

Tommy Podcast:
we,

Paul Simmons:
cool.

Tommy Podcast:
yeah, very excited and we're applying for larger ones and I should have all the organizations and I should be doing official thank yous and stuff, but I'll work that into new episodes, but. That means that episodes like this one that you do with me, there'll be a more immediate cadence of additional stuff that sort of draws the activity level up. So if nothing else, we're looking to see it sort of triple or quadruple our overall amount of activity, have more conversations like this. We're working with some more nonprofits who are gonna use this for just making announcements and things like that, generally in a greater Bridgeton area, but I should start. getting some mobile folks on the phone. But you're always welcome, and I appreciate you spending some time. I haven't seen you in a couple months. I've been down in

Paul Simmons:
Yeah,

Tommy Podcast:
Florida.

Paul Simmons:
I know, I missed you.

Tommy Podcast:
But I do have your grape soda in the fridge. In Lee County, Florida, I'll tell you what, if that hurricane makes a hard right turn and comes rolling at me as a category four or five, I'll be down in your Glass Town brewing grape sodas

Paul Simmons:
Okay!

Tommy Podcast:
just to fortify myself. But otherwise

Paul Simmons:
Sorry.

Tommy Podcast:
I'll be back up. I'll be back in Cumberland County soon. Save me a t-shirt.

Paul Simmons:
Oh yeah, definitely.

Tommy Podcast:
Alright man, anything else? Any websites you want to send them to? Have you written a book?

Paul Simmons:
I have not written a book, I'm working on that though.

Tommy Podcast:
We gotta get you into chat GPT.

Paul Simmons:
Oh my lord. Other than, I mean, we've got our 10 year anniversary coming up.

Tommy Podcast:
Oh yeah.

Paul Simmons:
Technically, we got our brewing license on Thanksgiving Eve of 2013. This year Thanksgiving Eve theoretically is our 10 year anniversary. We started brewing on Black Friday of 2023. So, but we always celebrate our anniversary after the holidays, kind of when things settle down. We technically had our grand opening in January. So that's kind of why we always do late January, early February for our anniversary. So, so. I don't have a list of beers that we're going to do for our anniversary yet, but we're definitely going to have a lot of good stuff. We always have something new and exciting for Black Friday. We do our big gift card sale on Black Friday. It's a great weekend. We always have a couple new beers. It's just such a great weekend. Everybody's home. A lot of faces that you see during the summer. Families, kids go off to college, you usually see everybody here around Thanksgiving. Which is great, and then we did a holiday bazaar last winter, or last year. We had a lot of local crafters and entrepreneurs outside behind the building. It was a really cool event. We're definitely gonna try and do that again. Might try and add some music to it this year. Might add another tent to try and make it a little bigger as well. So. Couple different things that are the same, but we're trying to make it bigger and better. And yeah, so, you know,

Tommy Podcast:
Good.

Paul Simmons:
but our 10 year is gonna be in January, it's gonna be kind of a big mark. We are still working on our, on the possibility of buying a farm. So that's on the table still. Jen and I have had this goal of having a farm brewery. ever since we opened here. But obviously we didn't have a ton of money when we opened here. So, you know, every year we get along, we get a little bit closer, a little bit closer, and we are finally getting to the point where it might be in our grasps in the next year or so. We'd love to make it happen this fall and hopefully announce something, you know. at our anniversary that it's moving forward, but the current interest rate environment isn't the best, isn't doing us any favors. So things are kind of on hold, but we're still trying to push forward. And we're hoping to have some good news about that in the next six to 12 months, so.

Tommy Podcast:
Oh that's huge. We could have talked about that the whole time. It just comes up now. That's big stuff. Well give my love to Jen.

Paul Simmons:
I will.

Tommy Podcast:
Yeah, say hello to the regulars for me and

Paul Simmons:
Ah, will do.

Tommy Podcast:
next time we do this coordinate with your front line people and at

Paul Simmons:
Yeah,

Tommy Podcast:
the very

Paul Simmons:
definitely.

Tommy Podcast:
end and really anytime you want to send a video I just want to Grayson's dad jokes.

Paul Simmons:
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

Tommy Podcast:
I'll work that into something.

Paul Simmons:
not a problem I'll try to remember

Tommy Podcast:
Alright, yeah, give my love to the kids too then I guess.

Paul Simmons:
Yeah.

Tommy Podcast:
Alright man, thank you very much. This'll be, I don't know what this'll be, but I'm gonna probably put an inordinate amount of time into dressing it up and trying

Paul Simmons:
Okay.

Tommy Podcast:
to get very flashy clips out of it because now that we're exploring some of the funding venues, I want to show what, because we just moved to video, so we really, part of it was up in production value, so. you'll be an example of hopefully, maybe not what our eventual best will be, but certainly the next step in our progression. So I'll dress this up as much as possible and make it nifty.

Paul Simmons:
Okay, sounds great.

Tommy Podcast:
All right, next time you need to wear a flannel doll. Oh, I meant, damn it, I planned an introduction that was all about your flannels. Shit,

Paul Simmons:
It's

Tommy Podcast:
I'm

Paul Simmons:
way

Tommy Podcast:
not even.

Paul Simmons:
too hot. It's way too hot for a final.

Tommy Podcast:
I'm not even kidding, I had a whole thing in my head this morning about I was going to introduce you as a local leader but be kind of vague and then you were going to think I was talking about brewing and I was going to be talking about flannels. Shit, that was my, I totally forgot. Damn.

Paul Simmons:
I had Jen drop off a shirt because I'm an idiot and I left the house and I was wearing some goofy thing and I'm like, crap, I'm not even wearing anything that says Glass Town. I'm like, what am I doing?

Tommy Podcast:
I had a Gladstown shirt on this morning when I was working outside, but it's not presentable anymore.

Paul Simmons:
Yeah, I can imagine. It's a little warm down there.

Tommy Podcast:
Alright Governor, so when I hit stop, your upload is still going to probably take a couple seconds. So don't

Paul Simmons:
Okay, so

Tommy Podcast:
close

Paul Simmons:
it won't touch anything. All right.

Tommy Podcast:
out immediately, but it'll probably just take a couple seconds. In fact, I'll do it.