Castle Island Brewing Co. plans to debut in South Boston in July
The Norwood brewery announced a 9,000-square-foot taproom in the Andrew Square section of Southie, with a partner running a kitchen serving South Shore-style bar pizza.
Castle Island Brewing Co., the Norwood-based craft brewery, announced plans to open a second location in South Boston's Andrew Square neighborhood in July 2021, according to NBC Boston. The new spot was set to occupy the site of the former Cole Hersee factory on Old Colony Avenue, roughly 18 months after the expansion was first put in motion, per the outlet's reporting.
The South Boston facility was planned with 240 indoor seats and 50 outdoor patio seats, a tasting area pouring 20 beers on tap, a small retail shop, a stage for entertainment, and a brewery area in back, NBC Boston reported. Founder Adam Romanow said the expansion would let the brewery "bring some much needed South Shore-style bar pie to Southie," tying the new location's food concept directly to the brewery's South Shore roots.
Function and events venue Lombardo's, based in Randolph, was set to operate the kitchen at the new taproom, according to NBC Boston, with the menu centered on South Shore-style bar pizza — a thin, cracker-crust style associated with the region south of Boston.
From Norwood to Southie
Castle Island Brewing was originally established in Norwood, and the South Boston taproom represented its first expansion into the city itself, per NBC Boston's coverage. The former industrial site on Old Colony Avenue gave the brewery both indoor and outdoor space in a part of South Boston that has seen a wave of adaptive reuse of old manufacturing buildings.
What the space offered
The 9,000-square-foot layout NBC Boston described gave Castle Island a much larger footprint for a single taproom than a typical brewery satellite bar, combining a full working brewery, a 20-tap tasting room, retail space, and a stage in one building. Pairing that with an outside food operator in Lombardo's, rather than running its own kitchen, let the brewery add a real food menu — the South Shore-style bar pizza Romanow highlighted — without taking on kitchen staffing and operations itself.
The timeline slipped
Although the brewery targeted a July 2021 debut, the South Boston location ultimately opened later, on September 23, 2021, according to later published information about the taproom. The retrieved reporting does not explain the specific reason for the delay between the announced July target and the eventual September opening.
What wasn't detailed
NBC Boston's original announcement did not include a full beer list for the new taproom, staffing plans, or pricing, leaving those specifics to be confirmed closer to the eventual opening.
US In News compiled this archived account from contemporaneous coverage by NBC Boston. It restores a story originally published on this site in April 2021; figures are as reported at the time.