The Melvin Brewing Eureka ownership group is looking to rebrand the brewery and restaurant at 110 Hilltop Village Drive.
Mike Golomb, who leads the investment group that took control of the Eureka business in April, said people are asked to enter a contest and suggest a new name for the company.
“We will give away a year’s worth of beer to whoever helps us rename the brewery,” he said.
The person who wins the contest will receive a $600 gift card, which can be used to buy a four-pack of beer per week for a year, he said.
Golomb said the investment group opened the renaming contest on May 10 and it will end about mid-June.
Entrants may go to contest.app.do/win-a-year-worth-of-beer-and-help-us-rename-our-brewery to fill out an online form to enter the contest by suggesting a new name and describing a logo design to go along with the new name.
Golomb said he expects the new name will be announced at the end of June.
“We are changing the name because (Melvin Brewing) was bought by a company called Roadhouse in Wyoming,” said Golomb, 45, of Town and Country. “The corporate office said we would have to pay royalties to use the name. There really wasn’t any value to the name. It didn’t carry much weight. People don’t say, ‘I have to go have a Melvin Beer.’ It didn’t make sense for us to pay them royalties.
“We used the opportunity to say, ‘Let’s do a fun competition,’” he said.
Golomb said hundreds of contest entries already have come in, with a lot of suggestions either playing off where the business is located or an animal.
“I saw one that was Twin Rivers Brewing. There were some that were just Eureka Brewing or Eureka Public House, utilizing the city’s name.”
Golomb said the brewery can’t choose a name that already is in use, such as Eureka Brewing. A Eureka Brewing Co. based in California already exists.
“Being in Eureka is kind of challenging to pull people from the city,” Golomb said. “Trying to let people know where we are will be helpful in the name, but that doesn’t mean we will not look at every name to see what is fun and can grab people’s attention.
“It is a delicate balance of deciding which direction we want to go. We will talk about that with the board. We may have options that are 50 percent location based and 50 percent that are just fun names. The one I came up with was Hidden Flags Brewery because we are between Hidden Valley and Six Flags. That is some of the stuff we will sit down and decide what direction we want to go.”
More changes
Golomb said the ownership group will continue to reshape Melvin Brewing after a new name is announced.
“We want to have more events to drive people to us to have a great experience with us,” he said. “We are working on a stray rescue event and an exotic car show in the summer. We want to do things to get people to come to Eureka.”
The group has already introduced a Bourbon and Barrel Aged Beer Dinner, a three-course meal that is paired with beer and bourbon and costs $59. The first dinner was held May 18.
“It will be at least once a month, if not twice a month,” Golomb said of the dinner. “We also may rotate it with beer and wine menus.”
The new ownership is already modifying the restaurant’s menu, and Golomb said there will likely be more changes after the new name is announced.
“We looked at the menu and looked at what does and doesn’t sell,” he said. “We took some of the items that were not great sellers off the menu to streamline it. It makes the service faster from the kitchen.
“We are looking at redoing the entire menu when we rebrand. We are in a holding pattern, looking at items that have sold well and what we can do to be better and quicker, so the customers’ experiences are better.”
One thing that will not change is the quality and quantity of beer available, Golomb said, adding that the brewery will retain the 250 recipes it has used since it opened in Eureka in June 2019.
He said the beer selection is rotated on 25 taps and bottles also are available.
“The beer will not necessarily change, but we want to get more input from the local Eureka folks to give us directions for what they want to see,” Golomb said. “We want to be the place people think of first when they want some good food and beer.”
Golomb described the ownership group as beer enthusiasts, and he said he worked in the hospitality industry for 17 years.
He said he believes there is a lot of potential for the brewery and restaurant.
“The beer is amazing, so it already checked that box,” Golomb said. “The facility has a great layout. Eureka is an up-and-coming area that people are moving to. It checked all of the boxes for what made sense to move forward from an investment standpoint.”
