City Park Gaming & Brew Room (CPGB) on Main Street in Westminster is throwing a full outdoor blowout this Saturday, in the parking lot behind its building, to mark its five-year anniversary.
The outdoor party kicks off at 1:00 p.m. Four breweries — RAR, Other Half, Troegs, and Dogfish Head — will each have reps on hand with their own tents set up outside.
All outdoor beers are $6; buy tickets inside or outside and hand one in per pour. Tickets double as raffle entries, with prizes given away throughout the day.
CPGB co-owner Lann Lucas credited the brewery reps who've been with them since the beginning. "We've had a lot of great reps that have been supporting us from day one and really helping us make things happen here," he said. "Without them, we wouldn't have had 5 years."
Naptown Brass Band performs from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. with no stage or microphones, just the band moving through the crowd. Lucas saw them play at a closed-off street festival in Annapolis a year or two ago. "They're just such a great party band," he said. "My immediate thought was, 'God, they would be great to have here.' They basically bring the fun, they bring the party."
Collision Course, a southern-inspired soul food restaurant from just down Main Street, is handling food. Tobacco on Main, located upstairs from CPGB in the Maulsby Building, will be set up outside with a dedicated smoke area and cigars.
CPGB opens at noon, as they do on any Saturday, with the full indoor tap list available. On Friday, there's a pre-party with live music to kick off the weekend.
Five years in, Lucas is reflective, but not entirely surprised by how fast it's moved. "When it's fun, it goes by quick," he said, "and then all the other parts make it feel like 10 years." For those who've been coming since the early days, he acknowledges the place has evolved. "We've gone through a lot of different changes," he said. "But I think all for the better at the end of the day."
The bar itself was born out of a gap Lucas saw in Westminster. "I was always in the same boat as a lot of other beer lovers, where I didn't want to have to drive super far to get a ton of good beer," he said. "I felt like maybe that was something lacking in Westminster, so I opened it up. And here we are 5 years later."
The bar typically has 14 craft beers on tap, plus dozens more in cans and bottles.
City Park Gaming & Brew Room is located at 133 E Main Street, Westminster, MD. For more details, visit cityparkgamingandbrewroom.com.
Photo: from City Park Gaming & Brew Room Instagram