Iron Hill’s President Kevin Finn Discusses the Opening of Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant of Chestnut Hill

Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant‘s President Kevin Finn recently contributed a guest post on Iron Hill Brewery’s blog discussing their newest space–which is coming soon to Chestnut Hill–and reflecting over previous openings of the Iron Hill family.

As published here, Finn writes:

Every time we open a new restaurant, it has the same hectic pace because their always seems to be a deadline hanging over our head. Chestnut Hill has been no different as our goal was to open time to take advantage of accelerated depreciation for tax purposes. Still, it hasn’t been the most grueling of the nine times we’ve done this so far, that was when we opened our second restaurant, West Chester.

In 1998 we wanted to be open in time for the Chester County Restaurant Festival, which brings in tens of thousands of people into the town. We felt it was a perfect opportunity to market our new restaurant. We made it (we opened that day) but it was one of the most grueling schedules we ever experienced and actually closed for a couple days after to catch our breath and brew more beer because the reception was so welcoming, we almost ran out of beer!  I have to admit, we have gotten much better since then.

Kevin also discussed that training is well underway for his newest staff:

Our staff has been onsite for the last few weeks, getting everything (and everybody) ready for the opening. Paul Rutherford, the head brewer, and his assistant Derek Testerman have been brewing beer for weeks. General Manager Matt Radebach and Sr. GM Eric Maney have been working closely with the staff during training. And chef Mario Romero have been working with our cooks, cleaning the kitchen, preparing soups and prepping food.

It is an exciting time, opening a new restaurant, watching as the staff comes together. It is also a stressful and demanding time.  I like to surprise the staff by helping to bus their tables or do my part at the host stand and walk guests to their tables.  I just love being a part of the opening and helping out on the front lines.

To read the full post, click here. More info on Iron Hill Brewery’s Chestnut Hill opening is available by clicking here.