On Friday night, Fullsteam started to unroll its latest undertaking: a food program. The almost seven-year-old brewery has always been a dynamic space in Durham, with board and arcade games, various events, from concerts to trivia night to yoga classes, and local food trucks, like Pie Pushers and American Meltdown. But as of this weekend, it will have its own menu for hungry customers.
The trucks will stick around for now, but as Fullsteam’s food program matures, they’ll eventually have to relocate.
“We always intended to have food at the brewery,” owner Sean Lilly Wilson wrote in an online press release. “I’ve been talking about hand pies and beer since before we opened.”
The program will be led by Kyle Lee McKnight, who has worked at restaurants such as Manna and Highland Avenue, and specializes in farm-to-table cooking. McKnight first connected with Wilson in 2013 at a Good Food Awards ceremony. In the years since, they’ve collaborated together several times, notably at a James Beard House dinner last year.
Their inaugural menu wants something to be clear: “We are very much in R & D mode,” it reads. “Think of our stage as very much ‘test kitchen.’”
And the hours are accordingly limited: For this weekend, they’re serving on Saturday and Sunday from 4 to 10 p.m.
Bar snacks include hot olives and spring pickles. Small plates feature a goat cheese and beet terrine, smoked paprika agnolotti, and pork belly with grits and vinegar greens — each, of course, with a few suggested beer pairings.