Icarus Brewing Gets OK To Revitalize Former Shore Restaurant Supply On Route 88 In Brick

BRICK, NJ — The Brick Township Planning Board unanimously approved Wednesday an application by Icarus Brewing to turn the former Shore Restaurant Supply building into a microbrewery and taproom.

The plans presented to the planning board include removing the loading docks and paving that exists behind the building and replacing it with grass, and redesigning the parking lot to add landscaping and creating a beer garden outside.

Jason Goldstein, managing member of Ever Upward, which operates as Icarus Brewing in Lakewood, said the company was looking for something nicer than its current home in the Lakewood Industrial Park.

"We're always looking at growing," Goldstein said.

Icarus Brewing opened in Lakewood in 2017, and now distributes its beer in 17 of New Jersey's 21 counties, and has limited deliveries out of state, he said.

Goldstein said the Route 88 location is more accessible to customers than the industrial park.

The plans are for the brewery to have a 30-foot ceiling and a two-story glass wall in the tasting room area, so patrons can see the brewing. There will be tables and seating for 90 people inside and 128 people outside in the beer garden. An additional private gathering room is expected to accommodate 34 people. There will be music, but low-key, Goldstein said, to be a buffer to the noise of traffic on Route 88.

"We're not opening a concert hall," he said.

The brewery does not sell food — that is a condition of New Jersey's microbrewery licenses. But patrons are allowed to bring in food to eat while they sample the microbrews.

The site plan includes spaces that can be rented by a coffee shop or a pizza parlor, Goldstein said, which would give Icarus patrons some options right on site.

That's one of the reasons he was looking to leave the industrial park; there weren't many options for patrons to order food for delivery, Goldstein said.

The plan approved Wednesday night will add curbing and spruce up a property that is showing its age, attorney John Jackson said.

It also will eliminate a cut-through behind Pure Focus Sports Club that has created traffic dangers on the property, because the only entrance and exit will be on Route 88, engineer Jeffrey Carr said.

Goldstein said that when the Brick location is ready to open, he will be closing the Lakewood site.

A handful of neighbors in attendance asked questions about whether the brewery would produce odors during the brewing process, and about trash at the site, and whether it would draw rodents.

Goldstein said the brewing process is contained to prevent any odors. He said the grain is steeped in water — similarly to a tea bag — to extract the sugars that go into making beer. The grain that has been processed then goes to farms that he works with, because it becomes quality feed for the livestock.

Click here to get Patch email notifications, or download our app to have breaking news alerts sent right to your phone. Have a news tip? Email karen.wall@patch.com Follow Brick Patch on Facebook.