Suds Brothers Brewery one year anniversary

Tim Merris

Suds Brothers Brewery, 127 E. Aspen, Fruita, celebrated their one-year anniversary this week. Nearly one year ago to the day, Fruita’s newest microbrewery opened one day after the 2012 Superbowl.
Owners Fred and Terri Martinez, along with Rochelle and Jerry Tufly, got together one day and discussed opening another location right here in Fruita.

The Martinez’s owned the location in Evanston, Wyo., however, both couples live in Fruita and having another location here made a lot of sense. They had their eye on the 7,500 sq. foot building that was built in 1945 and previously served as a microbrewery but were concerned about the amount of work needed to bring the building up to code.

They decided the only way to turn it into the family restaurant brewery they wanted it to be was to gut it and completely remodel the inside. They sat down and drew up a design and went to work to renovate the old building. The result was a brand new shinny interior that accomplished their goal of creating a warm and comfortable setting that caters to family dining as well as those that enjoy a pub like atmosphere.

They duplicated the menu and operating strategy they had success with in Evanston but were able to incorporate a state of the art ultra-technology brewing system. Through the year they have listened to customer suggestions and plan to make changes to the menu based on the home town desire of folks that live here in Fruita.

Co-owner Fred Martinez said, “owning a restaurant here has been a real joy because the people of Fruita are phenomenal and we have met so many gracious and wonderful folks that live here. Terri and I moved here in 2008 and plan on retiring here.”

When asked to give a glimpse into the future, Martinez said, “our next step in our vision is to begin an outside marketing program with our beers. We built our business around our hand crafted beer and we feel our recipes are excellent. We have received so many positive comments in the area about the quality, the texture, the taste and the color of our beer.

Our goal is to be consistent.” He went on to say, “now that we are going, we want to go out and see if we can get some of our fellow tavern owners in the valley to put our beers into their tap stations.”

Suds Brothers Brewery wants to give back to the community in which they do business in and has set aside Tuesdays during the school year as “Suds Brothers School Days.”

School organizations choose a Tuesday with Suds Brothers Brewery and 10 percent of all revenue above the Brewery’s cost of operation benchmark is given back to the school for the designated group or activity. Terri Martinez stated, “initially the program started out with great interest by the local schools but has tapered off the end of last year and the beginning of 2013.” She is hoping the schools will take advantage of this program as it helps everyone.

Co-owner Jerry Tufly’s father was a former postmaster for Fruita and has family ties that span four generations here in Fruita. Tufly said, “Rochelle and I love Fruita and feel very blessed that we were able to fulfill a dream by opening a business in our hometown.”

Suds Brothers Brewery is open seven days a week from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.