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Last week, we reported that friends of Dean Pottle were hoping to buy his homebrew speakeasy and preserve it as a fraternal order.
On Friday, they got bad news: Pottle's heirs accepted another offer. (Pottle had no children and was divorced. Sadly, his family out of state and wasn't especially close to him.)
Scenester Andrew Tappert had put in a bid for the former residence and speakeasy owned by the legendary local bandit brewer, who passed away last October. The home on Northeast Fremont, 1,500 square feet with a beautiful bar and homebrew system in the basement, was listed for sale at $439,000. He had planned to live upstairs, like Dean did, and have a space for the order downstairs, like Dean did.
Tappert says he offered $501,110, more than the asking price, but the family members decided to sell to someone else, presumably someone who won't be preserving his legacy.
Pottle's relations took a bigger bid, but there are plans to save Pottle's legacy.
Tappert has been working with Sammy Sklover, Pottle's righthand man and the defacto GM of the place want to create a fraternal order, like the Masons or the Elks. (Women will be allowed.)
"The idea is to take Dean's Scene and sort of abstract it into a scene," he says. "Sort of like an Elk has a lodge or an Eagle has an Aerie."
What will members be called? Too soon, he says.
"We're not quite sure yet, but we want something that's still based on all the principles that Dean's Scene worked on," he says. "Dean was able to bring together a lot of different communities. There were a lot of homebrewers and people who maybe haven't drank a homebrew before. It really brought beer to the people. We want to keep the Scene alive. We all know what it was and we all know why it worked, as long as we keep that in mind we can do it."