Virginia Beach may soon welcome its next brewery — and you may already know the owners.
Darrell Cuenca, former Virginian-Pilot writer and brewer at Big Ugly Brewing in Chesapeake, and TV news couple Jason and Erica Hechtkopf, better known as Jason Marks of WAVY-TV and Erica Greenway of WTKR News 3, have teamed up to make the brewery a reality.
As a nod to their collective background in news, the trio named the brewery Deadline Brewing Project.
The new business is still in the approval process with the city, but a space right off of Shore Drive at 2272 W. Great Neck Road has already been selected to host the two-barrel nano-brewery, Cuenca said in a presentation to the Bayfront Advisory Committee Thursday.
The idea for the proposed project came to Cuenca this past summer, but did not fully take off until mid-November, when he left his taproom position at Big Ugly Brewing and acquired the space near Shore Drive, he said.
Deadline Brewing Project will join several established breweries in the area, including Commonwealth Brewing, Lynnhaven Pub and Pleasure House Brewing, which Cuenca mentioned as a model for his own business.
“It is going to be a small production system, a lot like Pleasure House when it first started,” he said. “In the beginning, we plan to open only on the weekends. Eventually, we may open Wednesday through Sunday, but Monday and Tuesday will always be work days.”
As head brewer, Cuenca said he looks forward to experimenting with a a variety of flavors and using local ingredients like Pungo berries and Three Ships Coffee in his brews.
“We want to focus on a lot of seasonal beers, coffee beers, and fruit-forward beers,” he said. “I’m planning on making beer anywhere from 4.5 percent ABV all the way up to 10 percent ABV.”
Cuenca also expressed interest in hosting local food trucks, but noted he did not want to bring in any vendors that competed with nearby restaurants.
Following his presentation to the Bayfront Advisory Committee, which supported the project under the condition that it meets parking requirements, the proposed brewery will be considered by the Virginia Beach Planning Commission in February, and Virginia Beach City Council in March, Cuenca said.
“It was time to come back home to Virginia Beach and start a brewery over here,” he said. “The wheels are already rolling really quickly. We hope to open in July.”
Pohl may be reached at [email protected]
