Local brewery and smokehouse to open at Mactaquac Park
Big Axe Brewery and Entity 59 Smokehouse are teaming up to open new location
![Tammy Scott-Wallace, Minister of Tourism, Heritage and Culture, Peter Cole, president/owner of Big Axe Brewery, Krystle Ford, Operations Manager, Big Axe Brewery and Richard Ames, Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure.](https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/nexus/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/0408-dg-big-axe.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=288&h=216&sig=hcG9acORR28BYTHcV24k9A)
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Two local businesses will be teaming up for a new venture at a New Brunswick provincial park
Nackawic’s Big Axe Brewery is partnering with Harvey-based Entity 59 Smokehouse to open the Big Axe Ale House and Grill with Entity 59 at the Mactaquac Lodge.
Peter Cole, owner and president of Big Axe Brewery, said the brewery has been eying a second location for the past few years.
He said an official opening day isn’t yet finalized as preparations are still being finalized, but he’s aiming to open in mid-May.
“It’s a beautiful park, a lot of potential do something that’s a little different, kind of thinking outside of the box,” said Cole. “We’re very fortunate to have good people around us, and we just felt this was a very positive partnership to do well and (we’re) looking forward to where this takes us.”
The announcement was made in the month of Big Axe Brewery’s 10-year anniversary said Cole. He said in the years since it’s opened, the craft brewery industry has grown in the province and the expansion will help solidify Big Axe as a local industry leader and try something new.
“We have a plan … a pilot system onsite at Mactaquac to produce one-off beer that we haven’t really been able to do on the bigger system here in Nackawic,” said Cole. “This will allow us to do the funky ones that we’ve always wanted to do.”
![The interior of Entity 59 Smokehouse, a new restaurant in the Upper Village Mall in Harvey.](https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/nexus/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/entity_59_interior.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=288&sig=PpOTmc_loolimawYk9Urpw)
Entity 59 was originally founded in 2022, and was ran by Rohit Pinto, who will be the head of the kitchen in the new location, which will replace its location at Upper Village Mall in Harvey, which just closed.
The new location will feature a 100-seat dining room with possible patio room, said Pinto.
“We’re going to have a pub menu as well as a restaurant menu. So, the restaurant menu is going to be a little more elevated stuff, maybe some pasta and some authentic Italian cuisine. And we’ll have we’ll have multiple cuisines.”
Pinto said he’ll also be focusing on smoked meat as per a specialty and carry some old favourites, such as Montreal smoked meat, done in-house.
After a year-and-a-half in business, Pinto said the old space was too small for what the business wanted to do, especially during the high season.
“We’re just looking at getting more culinary options here in New Brunswick,” said Pinto. “That’s why we decided to kind of split between having the elevated bistro kind of setting as well as having the regular pub food, so that way you have both options.”
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