The Mixer is still a few months away from its opening on Sixth Street, but beginning this afternoon the restaurant will be “popping up” to test menu offerings and serve customers from a mobile kitchen at Hopkinsville Brewing Co.
(Photo by Jennifer P. Brown)
“This week we’re doing brats and beer cheese,” Graham Dawson said.
The Mixer will serve at the brewery from 5 to 8 p.m. on Wednesdays. Graham said he’s hoping people will stop by for a beer after work and try some of menu items they are tweaking for the restaurant. He’ll have to-go boxes if anyone wants to grab a quick meal to take home.
Dawson and his wife, Heather, plan to do pop-ups twice a week. Most will be at the brewery once or twice a week, but other pop-ups are possible at Casey Jones distillery and various events in the community.
Graham left his bartending job at Harper House in Cadiz three weeks ago to work full-time on The Mixer’s opening. He’ll be working with The Mixer’s chef, Lane Meinert, who is moving to Hopkinsville next week. Previously, Meinert was the chef for Harper House in Hopkinsville, and recently he’s been working for a restaurant owner in Nashville.
The restaurant, financed in part by a $50,000 Kickstarter campaign that concluded in January, will be in the former Young Hardware building on Sixth Street. A restoration project has been under way for several months, and a crew plans to pour a new concrete floor this week, said Graham.
“We are hoping to be open before the holidays, just before Thanksgiving, and that’s what we are gearing up for now,” Heather Dawson said.
Once the floor is poured and stained, workers will be able to start on a staircase and a mezzanine.
Initially, the restaurant will have seating for about 80 people indoors – plus patio dining in a former alley beside the building.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. She spent 30 years as a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition.
