EagleMonk Pub: Cozy, clean and community-focused

Dan Buonodono, co-owner and brewer at EagleMonk Pub and Brewery, watches industry trends, but he does so from a healthy distance.

He said he prefers to focus on the local market and brew what he knows his customers will like. Since opening in 2012, he said he’s introduced only “five or six new ones” to his rotating selection of 24 beers.

That local focus is evident in the pub’s ceiling, off which hangs more than 2,600 ceramic mugs, each belonging to a member of EagleMonk’s $75 mug club. Having carved out a niche selling English-style beer at their “neighborhood pub,” Buonodono and his wife, Sonia, have a unique outlook on brewing.

Since Buonodono “would rather have people come here” than distribute his beer widely, he’s more concerned with regulars’ preferences than what might fly off the shelves at grocery stores. He knows, for instance, that “a heavy, smoked beer probably wouldn’t go over too well” with his customers, but that “a nice, malty dark beer” would.

Buonodono said staying local has been an advantage.

“You get a lot better feedback,” he said. “People are here. They sit up here and tell you what they want to drink.”

As for the inspiration behind the English beers? They’re simply his favorite to brew.

Raymond Holt for City Pulse

Raymond Holt

After 30 years of homebrewing, part of which was spent as president of the Red Ledge Brewers, Buonodono instantly knew what he would offer when he and Sonia opened EagleMonk.

“People ask me how I figured out what I wanted to brew,” he said. “Well, I did it for so many years that I just knew which beers were the ones to sell.”

One major takeaway from his time homebrewing was the importance of cleanliness, he said.

“Cleanliness is job one. It’s important to have everything super clean to get a really nice beer,” he said.

Buonodono is “very aware that people want to drink less, rather than more, alcohol or beer.” As such, he’s begun producing hop water, which he makes by steeping hops in hot water, straining it, adding lemon juice and carbonating it.

But being a neighborhood pub and brewery — Buinodono was careful to note that the “pub” is as important as the “brewery” — means things like the house-made pizza and beer garden matter just as much as the beer itself. Buonodono said they matter more.

“We had a band out here last night,” he said, gesturing around the beer garden. “Every table was taken. We were rocking. There were tons of kids out here. We’ve  got kids’ tables, we’ve got Jenga.”

Replicating such a business model may require finding a craft-brewery-free area, since Buonodono said EagleMonk and BAD Brewing Co. were the only two in the area for years. But with thousands of mugs on his ceiling, his focus now is on maintaining a cozy community space and brewing what he — and his customers — love.