A new restaurant in Bangor will start brewing its own beer in the spring.
Bangor Trust Brewing, at 11 Broadway, opened Thursday with a dinner menu featuring Mediterranean/American cuisine. The official grand opening is set for 5 p.m. Friday, Feb. 17.
Owners said they hope to receive a liquor license by May so they can start serving their own brand of beer. Co-owner Traci McGinty said the brewery will begin with two aging-barrels that will hold traditional light and dark ales.
McGinty started off as a bartender in 1995 working for Fegley’s Brew Works, which has locations in Allentown and Bethlehem. She held several jobs at the brewery and eventually worked as the marketing director.
Owners Leo Bongiorno and Traci McGinty opened Bangor Trust Brewing on Feb. 2, 2017.John Best | lehighvalleylive.com contributor
It was at Fegley’s that she met her partner Leo Bongiorno, who has built and owned several breweries over the last 20 years. The pair decided they wanted to start their own brewery somewhere outside of the cities and found Bangor to be a perfect spot, McGinty said.
Bongiorno said he is friends with Todd Miller, who owns the Broadway building that was home to the Bangor Trust Co., which was a bank that built the building around 1905 and is the brewery’s namesake.
“The place has character,” Bongiorno said.
The brewery owners took over the spot that was formerly Blue Mesa Tex Mex, which opened and closed in 2016.
The space has a bar and seating area, and the owners opened a doorway into an adjoining room where the brewing operation will be located.
How the Slate Belt is getting a $750K boost
The restaurant’s menu is inspired by Mediterranean cuisine and will feature hummus, salads, different flatbreads and several variations on mussels and fries.
McGinty said they will use ingredients that are organic and locally sourced whenever possible.
“We’ll be serving food as good as nature intended it to be,” McGinty said.
The restaurant is open for dinner on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. and will serve brunch on Sundays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. starting after the grand opening.
McGinty said they plan to increase their hours in the future.
She said the restaurant will not serve alcoholic beverages — nor will customers be able to bring their own alcohol — until after they get their liquor license.
John Best is a freelance writer. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
Our editors found this article on this site using Google and regenerated it for our readers.
