More Than a Brewery: What You’ll Find at BeeZr in Downtown Huntsville

Food

July 16, 2022

This article is written as part of the “Away From Here” series where All Things Madison branches outside of our city and explores destinations for residents to explore when they want to get “away from here”. Today we’re heading a few miles east to Huntsville and making a stop at BeeZr!

Beezer: Noun, Scottish, “an extreme example” |

Adjective, British old-fashioned, “excellent, most attractive”

On Saint Patricks Day, we were strolling The Square in Downtown Huntsville when we noticed a revolving door at a restaurant called BeeZr. Though we frequent downtown Huntsville at least once or twice a month, we usually have a game plan of where we are headed and had somehow never made it inside to check it out. Curiosity got the best of us that day though, so we made our way inside and were floored by the atmosphere.

Since March, BeeZr has become one of our favorite Huntsville restaurants. We chose to celebrate Father’s Day there twice: once with my dad on a Saturday around lunchtime and again with my husband on a Sunday mid-morning for brunch. We’ve enjoyed the relaxed, welcoming feel of the bar when looking for somewhere to grab a pre-dinner drink, and our kids are constantly craving their pizza options and absolutely divine sweet potato crisps.

Beyond their crowd-pleasing menu, I’ve enjoyed learning the further story of BeeZr and how several North Alabama entrepreneurs came together to do business alongside each other to collectively offer the area something unique, delicious, and deeply local.

In a nutshell, BeeZr is comprised of a coffee shop, brewery, and full-fledged restaurant all rolled into one. Together they all do business together as BeeZr, and it is truly the ultimate gastropub and neighborhood brewery and restaurant.

COFFEE

BeeZr opens each morning (except for Mondays) at 8 a.m. and kicks off the day as a coffee shop. Northside Coffee owner Keenan Tipton, a Huntsville native and Sparkman High alum says that what started as a hobby eight years ago has turned into a substantial roasting and cafe operation.

“I found green coffee beans for sale online eight years ago and decided that I would try roasting the coffee myself,” shared Tipton. “I started out using a cast-iron skillet on the stovetop, and the fresh-roasted coffee’s flavor instantly hooked me. After a few years of hobby roasting, we picked up a custom-built coffee roaster and decided to begin roasting for sale and we opened our cafe at BeeZr in 2021.”

Tipton says that the idea of opening a coffee shop within BeeZr was an attractive idea because it would mean that BeeZr was the only establishment in the state to offer a brewery + coffee shop combination.

In addition to serving all of the beverages that one would expect from a coffee roaster and cafe, they also offer pastries from Hippea Camper.

The cafe component of BeeZr is open Tuesday through Sunday from 8 a.m. until 3 p.m., though Drip Coffee and Nitro Cold brew are still available throughout the afternoon/evening once Northside’s formal operations are complete for the day.

Tipton says that he is passionate about and focused on “offering freshly roasted coffee from different areas of the world” and that they have “many collaborations with other local businesses” where Northside sells wholesale coffee beans to cafes, restaurants, and other businesses.

If you are interested in purchasing coffee bags for your home or discussing wholesale options, please visit here to learn more.

LUNCH, DINNER, AND WEEKEND BRUNCH

Food kitchen operations go into full swing with lunch beginning at 11 a.m. Tuesday through Friday and brunch beginning at 10 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday.

Menu items are unique and vast and include all kinds of crowd-pleasing tacos, slate oven pizzas, seafood, sandwiches, and more. There are several menu items that are plant-based too, courtesy of their partnership with Hippea Camper, a mega-popular vegan food truck that does business full-time throughout North Alabama and beyond.

VEGAN OPTIONS

Hippea Camper owner Garrett Hardee, a Madison native and Bob Jones High alum, says that he’s been a part of helping to get BeeZr up and running since day one and that he immensely enjoys the collaborations the individual business owners all get to do together while doing business together at BeeZr.

Hippea Camper is proud to offer healthy, vegan options within the BeeZr menu, and those options include:

Hot Tamale Supreme
Vegan Chorizo Tacos
Vegan Taco de Chorizo Pizza
Vegan Chorizo Nachos
Killer Cereal (weekend brunch only)
Hashroom Bake (weekend brunch only)
rotating scones, muffins, and other baked goods

{Author note: My family has tried the chorizo pizza, hashroom bake, and several muffins, and they are absolutely incredible! Truly some of the best dishes we’ve had in North Alabama! You will not be disappointed.}

BREWERY

The crown jewel of BeeZr though is the massive brewery option taking place right there on the square, and co-owner Doug Tibbs (also a Madison native and Bob Jones High alum) says that the ride to get there has been slow but steady over the last decade.

BeeZr’s drink options consist of specialty cocktails, champagne, wine, liquor, and of course, beer.

The beer side of the house does business under the name “Chandler’s Ford Brewing” because all of the beer available at BeeZr is actually brewed right there in-house. One scroll through the brewery’s online menu and beer connoisseurs will understand that BeeZr absolutely knows what they’re doing when it comes to offering a vast menu of beer options.

Options include:

lunch lagers
tank conditioned lagers
tank conditioned ales
tank conditioned IPAs
High gravity specialties and barrel-aged beers
small batched beers
seltzers
packaged beers to go
and more!

Click here to view the online menu!

“I’ve spent the last 10 years immersed in the brewing industry”, explains Tibbs, who has worked in various positions throughout breweries across the Madison/Huntsville area, learning as much as he could about the industry in order to bring exceptional beer options to the area after several beer-related laws were changed in the state of Alabama throughout the last couple of decades.

“With the legalization of home brewing in 2013 and the inability to brew beer above 6% until 2009, there wasn’t much excitement around craft beer in Alabama until these laws began to be changed in our favor. Taprooms weren’t legal until 2011,” he explains.

Tibbs’s formal title of Chandler’s Ford Brewing is the CZO (Chief Zymurgy Officer); Zymurgy is the Science of Fermentation. He says that he, Tipton, Hardee, and others knew as locals all about “the growth curve in Madison County and knew the brewing scene, albeit very young, was lacking in quality, experimentation, and product delivery.”

He continues to share that the foundational elements that make up BeeZr are great beer, service, and food.

“Tie in a great space to enjoy those three things and you’ve got Beezr, which is European slang for exceptional, grandiose, or incredible.”

Something forward-thinking for Huntsville

Tibbs says that the support that BeeZr has received from the community since its opening in January 2021 has been incredible. He says that bringing something that felt like a “neighborhood brewery” was something he strongly desired to do after seeing the concept thrive in places like Denver, Portland, Asheville, and Atlanta. He felt confident “that Huntsville was capable of supporting such a concept because of our innate support of local businesses.”

A common sentiment that all of the hands involved with bringing BeeZr to life say is that being a part of something collaborative “allows us to work with people who are independently excelling in their craft,” says Tipton.

Tibbs adds on and says that he “loves making great beer, but we’ve also got artisans throughout the building roasting coffee, trailblazing healthy plant-based foods, putting some of the best pizzas and tacos together, scratch making pastries/scones/muffins, even cheesecake. Putting people in positions to use their strengths and positivity to build our business from the inside is what I enjoy most.”

Psst: Did you know that BeeZr has an outdoor patio and separate upstairs event space too? Call to inquire about how to reserve the event space for your upcoming needs!