SomePlace Else Brewery is going someplace else.
The owners of the Arvada brewery are adding two locations of the self-proclaimed “brewcade,” where patrons can enjoy pinball and Skee-Ball alongside a pint.
The first will open in the former home of Thornton’s Mother Tucker Brewing, which closed at 2360 E. 120th Ave. in May.
Tori Miller, who opened SomePlace Else with husband Ryan Parker in 2016, expects to open there by the end of the year, barring permitting delays.
The second new location will open at 520 Zang St. in Broomfield sometime in the spring, she said.
“Ever since COVID, it felt like we had to get another place,” Miller said.
The couple spent the past several years looking around the metro area for locations and settled on the two outposts in recent weeks.
SomePlace Else signed a 10-year lease in Broomfield and a five-year deal in Thornton. In the Broomfield deal, Logan Schenk and Max Bragdon of The Zall Company represented the brewery, while Greg Nevins and Zachary Albrecht, also of The Zall Company, represented the landlord.
Miller said the original location at 6425 W. 52nd Ave. in Arvada has five years left on its lease. It does around $600,000 in yearly sales, with annual growth generally around 10% to 15%, she said.
The couple will keep the majority of their beer-making operations in the Arvada spot, which they expanded to 4,600 square feet in early 2024. There, they’ll continue to craft such classics as the Alpine Loop Amber ale and Spock’s Brain IPA, the top seller.
SomePlace Else will brew in Thornton, on a smaller three-barrel system. The focus there will be turning out a specialty beer released every Friday, something the brewery has been doing since shortly after its inception.
Miller said SomePlace Else brews around 500 barrels, each 31 gallons, annually. In a year or two, if everything goes to plan, she hopes to double the capacity in Arvada and increase that to 1,000 to 1,200 barrels.
The brewery doesn’t do wholesale distribution but does sell 16-ounce cans in-house.
Husband Parker will build the furniture for both new spaces, as he did for the original. Miller said a staffer will paint a mural in the Broomfield location, highlighting Colorado’s four seasons, with characters from “Star Wars,” “Star Trek” and other sci-fi flicks — think Darth Vader at a Red Rocks show or cruising down the slopes of Keystone.
Miller estimated it’ll cost $50,000 to build out the 3,600-square-foot Thornton location and around $100,000 for the 3,600-square-foot space in Broomfield. That includes new arcade games, which can be pricey. Pinball units can go for up to $10,000 while Skee-Ball sits in the $4,000 range, she said.
“It’s not going to be exactly the same because every community, every spot, is going to have its own vibe,” she said.
Some of that newness is going to come in the form of live music. Both spots have outdoor patios, something Arvada doesn’t have. Miller said she believes shows will do well.
Much like the Arvada taproom, there won’t be a substantial food presence at either of the new locations. Both have restaurants nearby and Miller doesn’t want to cut into their business.
“We hope that instead, them being there and us being here draws people to both, and business for both will increase because of it,” she said.
SomePlace Else started as a way to capitalize on Parker’s hobbies of brewing and collecting pinball machines. At one point around 2014, Miller — a former middle school teacher with a business degree — said their entire living room was filled with the games.
The brewery’s name was taken from an arcade Parker went to growing up. But Miller likes to joke that the clutter was the couple’s muse.
“At that point we had all those machines and all the brewing equipment. And I said, ‘Well, you need to put this someplace else,’” she said and laughed.
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