COLUMBUS –BrewDog says it plans to open a new bar on the border between the United States and Mexico.
Not near the border. Not adjacent to the border.
On the border.
Although the specific location remains “top secret,” the Scottish brewer whose U.S. headquarters are located in Canal Winchester says in a release on its website that its proposed “Bar on the Edge” will be located astride the boundary, half in Texas and half in the Mexican state of Chihuahua, with a dotted line down the center of the bar denoting the geographical border between the two countries.
Company founder James Watt says the bar is an effort to bring the people of the two countries closer together through a shared love of beer, despite anti-immigration and often hostile rhetoric on the presidential campaign trail in 2016.
“The ‘Bar on the Edge’ is our line in the sand, quite literally,” he said.
At Bar on the Edge, Mexican beers will be served on the US side and U.S. beers on the Mexican side, as well as BrewDog’s range of craft beers, brewed in central Ohio, the company said.
The remote location of the new bar, dubbed ‘The Bar on the Edge’, reflects the Scottish brewery’s intention to expand to the ‘farthest reaches’ of the United States, while its controversial positioning makes a physical statement about collaboration and inclusivity..” –BrewDog statement
Built from old shipping containers, company officials say the construction would officially be defined as a “temporary mobile building” (artist’s rendering above courtesy BrewDog).
“We will request official permission from the local authorities to put it there and adhere to any red tape stuff, but I guess it would make it more difficult to build a wall if there’s a BrewDog bar in the way,” Watt said in a reference to long-standing promise of President Donald Trump‘s to construct a border wall.
“We’re planning on putting the bar there anyway until someone tells us to move it,” Watt added.
The expansion to the borderland will be celebrated with a Tex-Mex craft beer event at the brewery’s taproom in Canal Winchester this weekend.
The Tex-Mex Tap Takeover will feature beers from Texan breweries Alamo Beer Company, Brash Brewing, No Label Brewing, 512 Brewing, Copperhead Brewing and Buffalo Bayou.