Read the full article by Russell Nichols at CapRadio
In 2012, a land surveyor wandered into the new brewery off Broadway looking for a drink, but he was drawn to a map.
It was hanging at New Helvetia Brewing Company. Nick Labedzki, who makes maps for the state of California, admired John Sutter’s sepia-tinged 1839 land grant from the Mexican government, a relic from when the area now called Sacramento was part of a 48,000-acre rancho called New Helvetia (“Nueva Helvecia Colonia”), the brewery’s namesake.
Celebrating Sacramento’s history while investing in its future is what the brewery was built on. “For us, supporting local is a matter of pride,” its website says. And for the past decade, Labedzki has been dropping by New Helvetia about once a week to proudly support locally sourced craft beers. He likes their ThunderBeast and It’s Always Hazy In Sacramento IPAs. But more than that, he likes the community, all the people who know him.
“I want to be like Norm from ‘Cheers,’” he says.