Every town needs a brew pub

What do Eola, Texas and Leadville, Colorado have in common?

They are both small towns with brew pubs.

For years, I have labored under the delusion that a brew pub has to be in a tourist town or a big city. But perhaps there's another business model. Maybe being a local restaurant that makes beer is enough.

Take Eola School Restaurant and Brewery, for example. Mark Cannon makes fresh beer and sells it for $2 a cup, and makes a pretty good bbq sammich. He's not pushing the hop envelope. His customers wouldn't stand for it. He's making a living making beer.

I recently visited Leadville, Colorado and Rosie's Brewpub. Rosie's does have more of a bar feel, and has a few more beers on tap. But they are catering to their customer base as well. I was there on a Friday afternoon, with nary a tourist in sight. Except for me, of course. I'm sure they do cater to the tourists, but when I was there it was a room full of locals.

Wouldn't it be great to have a brew pub in every town you visit? Not just in cities, but in small towns?