Nick Meyer, Mark Estee and Tommy Linnett work on some interior renovations for their new venture, The Union, in downtown Carson City on Thursday.
A team of Reno restaurateurs is opening up a new restaurant, brewery and coffee bar in downtown Carson City.
Mark Estee, owner of Liberty Food & Wine Exchange and chez louie at the Nevada Museum of Art and former owner of Campo, plans to open The Union this summer inside the vacant brewery at the corner of Carson and Proctor streets.
His partners in the venture are Mark Trujillo, owner, Hub Coffee Roasters in Reno; Tanya McCaffrey, CEO and founder, Vast, a Reno financial services firm; and Nick Meyer, general manager, and Tommy Linnett, chef partner, who Estee has worked with for 11 years.
The restaurant will feature an eclectic mix of food based on local suppliers, said Estee.
“We’re not going to pigeonhole into a type of cuisine. We’ll do Italian, Basque,” and work with local ranchers and farmers as well as the Greenhouse Project.
The restaurant also will serve wood-fired pizza and beer brewed on the premises.
Estee and his partners are taking over space already largely equipped, including a wood stove and large, commercial brewery equipment.
They’re making some renovations, including adding two more bathrooms and making an interior central hall that will connect the three separate areas in the restaurant.
The front room, which will open first, will include the brewery and bar, wood stove, indoor seating and outdoor seating on Proctor Street.
It also will include a coffee bar until the back room off the back patio is redone for Hub Coffee Roasters.
The patio on Curry Street will be open for coffee as well as lunch and dinner.
In between, will be a large private dining room that can be reserved or serve as overflow seating for the restaurant.
Estee said he’s in talks with several breweries to operate The Union brewery.
“The Brewer’s Cabinet (in Reno) alerted us to this spot and I fell in love with it,” said Estee. “Carson City has a lot of potential. Charlie Abowd is a good friend and he gave me the thumb’s up.”
The building was last occupied by Lake Tahoe Brewing Co., which ceased operations in January 2016, a month before its owner, Michael Candelario, was arrested on suspicion of theft.
The building is owned by the Hop & Mae Adams Foundation, which has spent the last few months reviewing several proposals for the property before deciding on leasing it to The Union’s Reno team.
