Located at the epicenter of the Washington Bridge closure crisis, East Providence's first and only brewery has weathered a storm unlike any other, and come out the other end smiling.
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Over the past few years, there have been countless stories of local businesses making the best of bad situations that were completely out of their control, and somehow finding a way forward.
But it’s difficult to imagine a bumpier road towards opening a business than the one Ernie Watson traveled while opening Crook Point Brewing Company.
It was in October of 2019 that the straight-talking former Army Ranger bought the building at 65 Massasoit Ave., nestled between the defunct Crook Point bridge to the south and the Henderson Bridge to the north amidst an area known more at the time for its unsightly, industrial riverside frontages.
He couldn’t possibly have imagined what was waiting in store for him just a few months later, when a pandemic plunged the entire world into unprecedented uncertainty.
But rather than host a well-deserved pity party, Watson decided the mandated pause provided the perfect opportunity to get to work transforming the space — formerly the home of Cook Hammer Co. and most recently used as a shop for heavy machinery — into a place that would welcome people in as soon as the world returned to normal.
“I’m always glass half full,” he said during a recent visit to the brewery. “There’s no sense in defeating yourself before you begin something. I look back on it and I’m like, you know what, it was a good thing. Because if Covid happened a year later or two years later and I was sitting on all that equipment and I couldn’t open, then it would have been a problem.”
Rehabbing the building was no small feat, either. Heavy concrete slabs used to support machinery had to be jackhammered to create channels for utilities. Flooring and walls needed to be totally refinished. A large bar needed to be built, and custom-order equipment for a 10-barrel brewing operation was purchased and installed; all under added costs from rising interest rates and delays from supply chain issues.
Thankfully, one of Watson’s many talents includes construction, which he began learning at a young age while working for his late father’s business, and continued through his life as a side gig buying and flipping properties. Much of the work he was able to do himself, like salvaging pieces of flame-scorched wood that survived a fire from decades back that now make up door frames and accent walls throughout the brewery; including an intricate herringbone arrangement near the kitchen area.
“I look back, and it was kind of huge,” he said. “At the time it seemed like, yeah, whatever. It needed to get done.”
Making the best of a bad situation
Talking with Watson, you realize quickly that he is not someone who gets flustered easily and can adapt on the fly better than most. In fact, his original concept for the building was a yoga and CrossFit studio before he called an audible after realizing there was more demand for a brewery in the area.
Of course, just a couple weeks after weathering the storm from Covid and officially opening on Nov. 22, 2023, he got the ultimate curveball when the Washington Bridge was abruptly closed to all traffic on Dec. 11, embroiling the entire region into chaos.
The Henderson Bridge became the lone escape route for those headed west, causing gridlocked traffic that Watson would sometimes watch from inside his brand new brewery that was now devoid of customers; who were more concerned with getting home than stopping in for a beer.
“People were saying, ‘Oh you must be killing it right now, everyone is driving right by there,’” he recalled with a laugh. “I’d say, let me tell you something, I watch those people go by and I see their faces. They want to kill somebody. They are not stopping.”
Watson estimates (based upon his successful opening numbers) that he is still missing out on around $15,000 in un-captured revenue each month due to the bridge closure. But being a glass-half-full person, he noticed something else as well.
“Two or three days into all of that, my searches online went up by about 4,000,” he said. “So people were sitting in their cars out there, typing in our name and asking, ‘Well, what’s this?’ So that put us on a lot of people’s radar. And I still have people come in today who tell me they knew about us because they got rerouted through here during Covid or because of the Washington Bridge. So they’re coming back, but they’re coming back weeks or months later.”
Rather than take the one-two punch from Covid and the bridge as a sign from the universe that he had stumbled into some kind of Kafkaesque nightmare — located at Ground Zero of the traffic caused by the bridge and compounded by a time of extended construction on the nearby rotary — Watson has come out the other end saying in earnest that he thinks he found himself in exactly the right place at the right time.
“I look at my data that comes in from the credit cards, and I talk to people in the taproom, and what we’ve seen is that we’re capturing the 195 corridor like its nobody’s business. I’m talking all the way up to Fall River and New Bedford,” he said. “Brewery people will go find a brewery. They will travel and fight traffic and go find it. But what we’re capturing right now are the transient people. Maybe half of my business is from Massachusetts.”
Crook Point is East Providence’s first brewery. And while Providence and the West Bay and all points south have plenty of them, there is a noticeable lack of options between East Providence and the rest of the East Bay, with a big expanse of highway between Crook Point and other breweries located further to the south in places like Warren, Bristol, and Portsmouth.
Celebrating a hard-earned year in business
Of course, just having a brewery won’t keep it open a year later if the product is no good. Watson had been a home brewer before launching Crook Point, but he has since dove headfirst into crafting an array of unique options, from traditional English style IPAs to the inventive “Abbraccio”, a beer/wine hybrid made with grapes and raspberries to produce a sweet, dry, fruity libation similar to a chianti.
Watson has also taken strides to turn Crook Point into a place that encourages people to gather. Families will be comfortable spreading out in the large middle room, where comfy couches and an array of table games invite people of all ages to get together. A long bar with ample seating encourages strangers to chat with one another, and a smaller back room is what Watson says has become the go-to spot for people on dates.
The entire brewery, or just specific parts of it, can be rented out for private events at a reasonable price, and Watson hired East Providence resident Allison Mello as their in-house event manager to make the process smooth and special for whatever occasion you might have. While they serve a variety of paninis and partner with local food trucks, you’re even encouraged to bring your own food.
Watson said that he was grateful to the city and to Mayor Bob DaSilva for jumping on board with the concept from the get-go, and that he was encouraged by the growth of other businesses in the area and the existence of more opportunities along the waterfront going forward.
“There’s so much that can happen here,” he said.
And in the end, ultimately it takes people like Watson to make those things happen — people who aren’t afraid to leap into the unknown on a project and see it through the end, despite all of the global health crises and dilapidated bridges that try to get in the way.
“I always go into something with a Plan A, Plan B, and Plan C. If the brewery failed, hey, I have a piece of real estate probably worth a million and a half dollars, so I'll just sell that. Have the extra plan, but don’t give up. People give up too quickly,” he said. “You can’t quit. You stick your face in there, grind it out. Be smart about what you’re doing. Do your research, and have faith in yourself that it’s going to work. Don’t listen to people who tell you it’s not going to work…My entire life I’ve heard that, and my response is, ‘Okay, thank you.’ And I will never ask that person for advice again. Because it’s wrong. You just have to keep at it.”
To inquire about a special event, reach out to crookpointbrewing@gmail.com. You can check out their latest offerings at CrookPointBrewing.com, and find them on Instagram and Facebook under the same name.