Pints are being poured once again at OutSpoken Brewing.
The microbrewery at 350 Queen St. E. opened in 2011 and became popular with craft beer fans, but was forced to close after the founding owners experienced financial struggles. A new ownership group has renovated the property and reopened the doors — determined to make it a jewel of the downtown core.
“We purchased this building because we really believe in the downtown,” says co-owner Kevin Rusnell. “I’m trying to create a Sault Ste. Marie that I want to live in and in order to do that somebody has to take the lead to start developing these downtown properties. The more we invest in downtown the better. It’s going to make Sault Ste. Marie a better place to live in.”
Rusnell is the CEO of marketing firm dig inc. The other OutSpoken owners are Jeff Elgie, CEO of Village Media (which operates SooToday), Ryan Markkula and Ryan Yates.
Elgie and Rusnell also co-own Peace restaurant, which opened across from GFL Memorial Gardens in 2022, and recently purchased the Dawson Block building at 708 Queen St. E. that included Coch’s Corner.
“There’s a sense of pride of ownership that’s really important to me but it’s also a sense of giving back to the community and building something,” Rusnell says. “The marketing firm dig is where I’ve made my success in life but I want this to be a sustainable business in the downtown and reinvest in the area.”
So far, so good. Last Saturday, OutSpoken hosted a last-minute soft launch and plenty of people showed up.
“Our licensing didn’t come in until about 5 p.m. on Friday, so we just got the word out through friends and social media and we had overwhelming support for it,” Rusnell says. “The patio was packed and we ended up with about 100 people here, mostly on the patio. It was fantastic.”
Beer is brewed onsite, overseen by brewmaster Reg Peer.
“We now have nine beers on tap, which is great,” Rusnell says.
The brewery’s interior layout has been changed to include a new bar space where patrons can view Queen Street while chatting over a beverage, an extra booth added to the seating area and a mural by Sault artist Katrina Thibodeau. TVs will be added so that patrons will be able to view sports events while enjoying a drink.
A new kitchen will eventually open within the space to prepare hot and cold dishes for customers — up to 30 inside and 100 on the patio.
“When the kitchen opens we’ll be serving a full lunch menu, a full dinner menu as well as snacks and we’ll probably increase our hours from 11:30 to midnight, so we’ll be open all day from Wednesday through Sunday (closed Monday and Tuesday). We took one of the sous-chefs from Peace, Nigel Tenhagen, who is very talented and capable of cooking a wide variety of food. There will be pub fare here, nachos and those types of things,” Rusnell says.
Plans call for live music at the pub at least once a week.
“We’re actually trying to book somebody as soon as Saturday,” Rusnell says. “We want to have live music every Saturday night.”
A champion of the Sault’s downtown, Rusnell is more optimistic than ever about the neighbourhood.
“The Soo Market is busy every Saturday,” he says. “I was downtown for Rotary over the weekend and it was absolutely packed. The more density we create in this area the more people we bring downtown and it’s better for tourists when they come here. Tourists will have a safe, comfortable place to come to and that density creates that.”
