ORLANDO, Fla. – Shara Pathak never planned on owning a brewery, but her “soft heart” led her down this unexpected path.

“I owned a building and had a tenant in there that was a microbrewery (Castle Church) and supported them through the infancy of their brand, which was approximately three years,” Pathak said. “In December of 2019, [the brewery’s owners] decided that they were going to shelve it. So at that time, I actually was going to put the lock on the door and I was going to give it to a business broker and the employees reached out to me and it was two weeks before Christmas.”

Pathak agreed to let the employees keep the brewery going so they could at least sell off the remaining inventory and collect a paycheck through the holidays.

She eventually decided to keep the brewery running. Originally, she was planning to rename it The City Beautiful Brewing, but eventually landed on the name Brewlando.

“One of the reasons that I helped that brewery as much as I did was because I really felt like they had exceptional quality beer. You could just taste the difference,“ Pathak said. ”So I just felt like it would be a matter of time, if I helped them along and push them across that eventually they’d be able to forge ahead.”

Part of the reason for that, according to Pathak, was because the previous owners had sunk a lot of money into high-end brewing equipment.

Despite this, she did not believe she would maintain ownership of the brewery in the long term.

“We were going to find another owner-operator and I was going to find another tenant. And in that search, we were introduced to a big conglomerate brand that actually originated from Trinidad, which is where I was born,” Pathak said.

She ultimately decided that was not the right move; however, the CEO of that company decided to join her team and help her helm Brewlando.

“So [James Webb] came on board and built out a great team,” Pathak said.

Within a year, Webb had made connections with the head of ICON Park and got to talking about opening a new concept at the attraction.

“It used to be a hookah bar and so we went in and we completely rented the entire space and decided that we were going to come out with a different concept,” Pathak said. “We thought, why not open a winery and a tasting room?”

The Winery & Tasting Room by Brewlando was the first major expansion for the business, but not the last.

Shortly after that opened, Pathak learned that Sanford Brewing Company was closing. She thought this could be an opportunity for a quick flip of the property.

“Two days later, I got a call and they said, ‘Well, actually, it’s not just the building, it’s the building’s equipment, it’s the whole business,‘” Pathak said.

She asked Webb to look into it further and see if this was an opportunity for expansion.

“James calls me back an hour and a half later and he says, ‘I think that there is good potential in doing this,‘” she said.

Her team is now in the process of reopening the two Sanford Brewing locations under the Brewlando name.

On the latest episode of Florida Foodie, Pathak talks more about the future of Brewlando and what she hopes to accomplish with her expanding business.

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