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by Jill Nagy
Unified Beerworks at 7 Old Stonebreak Road in Malta has added a kitchen featuring Mexican and South American-inspired dishes. Co-owner Erika Anderson describes the menu as “high-end gourmet tacos” and burritos.
The kitchen opened with little fanfare in late May and business grew slowly.
“It took a little bit for people to know we were out here,” Anderson said. It also gave the owners and chef Michele Hunter a chance to work out the details.
Anderson and her husband and co-owner, Jeff Gannon, began Unified Beerworks as a taproom and tasting room in 2018. Beer is brewed on site.
According to their website, Gannon prefers hazy New England-style IPAs and and stouts. Anderson is more into “fruity sours and funky saisons.” Brewing began as a hobby and turned into a passion. She was a computer science major with a minor in art and he studied biology.
For the kitchen, Anderson said, “we try to get everything as locally sourced as possible.” gluten-free, vegetarian, and vegan options are offered, including vegan chorizo sausage. The choice of menu was influenced by the fact that tacos “really pair well with beer” and “we all love tacos.” In addition, Malta has “a ton of pizza places but nothing like this.” She described the menu as simple but versatile.
Customers can eat inside, get take-out, or eat on the patio. The restaurant can seat more than 100 people inside and another 50 on the patio. The patio is decked out with flowers, plants and, this time of year, pumpkins.
In the days before the COVID pandemic, food trucks provided the beer drinkers with food. Until the kitchen was built, Unified Beerworks offered a limited snack menu.
The brew pub is open Tuesday through Friday from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m.; Saturday, noon to 9 p.m.; and Sunday, noon to 6 p.m. It is closed on Monday. The telephone number is 518 289-5078.