Ed Knudson, left, and son Kyle Knudson stand inside the Westminster building where their company, Barquentine Brewing Co., will expand. (Max Scheinblum/BusinessDen)
Ed Knudson is coming back to Westminster.
Decades after his first job as a short-order cook, he’ll still be in a kitchen. But now, he returns with his son, Kyle, 38, to open Barquentine Brewing’s second location three blocks from his first gig.
The Barque, the new joint’s name, will be in a city-owned building at 3915 W. 73rd Ave., formerly home to the Rodeo Market grocery store. The Knudsons are targeting a September 2025 opening, but that could stretch to summer 2026, depending on how construction progresses on the 4,300-square-foot space.
“It’s cool to be able to go back to that block in particular, which is a historic block, and help revitalize it,” said Ed Knudson, 62.
The duo opened Barquentine Beers at Edgewater Public Market in February 2020, becoming known for their Belgian-style beers such as Sloans Lake Yacht Club and Screamin’ Mimi. They’ll serve those same brews at the new place. Although they will still do all their brewing in Edgewater, there is potential for Westminster exclusives down the road.
“Rather than go into distribution, which is a really difficult way to make money from your beer, we decided to take the least competitive, most profitable way to make money and that’s to open a second taproom,” Ed said.
At The Barque, the menu will include a long-time family favorite: Barquentine Bierocks. This will be the first time they have served food.
A bierock, along with Barquentine beer. (Courtesy Patrick Behan)
The “German bread pocket,” as the older Knudson described it, is a potato-based dough that holds ground beef, sauerkraut and cheese. The recipe came from his grandmother-in-law, and he said he’s been perfecting it for 35 years. They will also serve variations, including a breakfast version, Italian, Cuban and chicken pesto.
“Growing up, my brother and I would always shove them in our snowboard jackets and eat them up on the chairlift,” Kyle Knudson said. “They’re just very grab-and-go.”
“We’d like it to be the neighborhood spot before you go out to the office,” Ed Knudson said. “Grab a breakfast bierock and a cup of coffee.”
That will require them to open several hours earlier than the 11 a.m. or noon opening times at their existing location. Ed notes that he and the chefs will already be there in the early morning, so they might as well be open also. But if it doesn’t work out, The Barque will adjust.
“We have plans for what we would like it to be, but we’re going to let the neighborhood and the community dictate what sells well,” Kyle Knudson said. “It’s a community-driven space that has food and beer and everything else.”
The Knudsons will also soon start selling bierocks in Edgewater.
A rendering of The Barque. (Courtesy Barquentine Brewing Co.)
The Westminster building was built in 1943, and Rodeo Market sold goods there from 1953 through the mid-1970s. After that, it was converted to office space. The city of Westminster bought the property in 2004 with hopes of reviving the neighborhood.
The initial vision was to use arts to do that, according to Stephanie Troller, the city’s economic development manager. She called the area a “funky, eclectic, historic little district.” So in 2009, the city leased the space to an arts co-op.
That never took off, and the community began asking for a restaurant in 2018, the same year the arts co-op left. The city was working to bring a similar brewpub concept in but the pandemic decimated those plans.
The Barque is the next iteration of that. Troller hopes it will enliven the area
“We’re hoping this will be the first domino to fall,” Troller said.
The city will dish out an estimated $3.5 million for core and shell renovations, city documents show. It will add a grease trap and new roof, and will update all of the HVAC, plumbing and water systems, among other things. It will also replace some of the walls with two garage doors for easier access to its patio.
The Knudsons said the city is fielding bids for the project.
A rendering of The Barque. (Courtesy Barquentine Brewing Co.)
The older Knudson is funding the interior buildout, which includes building a bar, a “dessert breakfast kiosk” for coffee, early-morning bierocks and pastries, and other basic brewpub equipment.
Knu Brew LLC, Barquentine’s parent company, signed a 10-year lease agreement with two five-year options, they said. City records show they won’t pay rent the first year. Annual base rent will start at $21,500 in year two and rise to $64,500 by year 10.
“They’re obviously very motivated to get this going, so they’ve made it affordable for us to be there and incentivized us to be there,” the older Knudson said.
The pair’s brewing journey began a little over a decade ago when Kyle and his brother gifted their father a five-gallon homebrew kit for Christmas. The younger Knudson was brewing out of his 400-square-foot Brooklyn apartment at that time too, and they started a brewery together a few years after.
Correction: The ages of the Knudsons have been corrected.
Ed Knudson, left, and son Kyle Knudson stand inside the Westminster building where their company, Barquentine Brewing Co., will expand. (Max Scheinblum/BusinessDen)
Ed Knudson is coming back to Westminster.
Decades after his first job as a short-order cook, he’ll still be in a kitchen. But now, he returns with his son, Kyle, 38, to open Barquentine Brewing’s second location three blocks from his first gig.
The Barque, the new joint’s name, will be in a city-owned building at 3915 W. 73rd Ave., formerly home to the Rodeo Market grocery store. The Knudsons are targeting a September 2025 opening, but that could stretch to summer 2026, depending on how construction progresses on the 4,300-square-foot space.
“It’s cool to be able to go back to that block in particular, which is a historic block, and help revitalize it,” said Ed Knudson, 62.
The duo opened Barquentine Beers at Edgewater Public Market in February 2020, becoming known for their Belgian-style beers such as Sloans Lake Yacht Club and Screamin’ Mimi. They’ll serve those same brews at the new place. Although they will still do all their brewing in Edgewater, there is potential for Westminster exclusives down the road.
“Rather than go into distribution, which is a really difficult way to make money from your beer, we decided to take the least competitive, most profitable way to make money and that’s to open a second taproom,” Ed said.
At The Barque, the menu will include a long-time family favorite: Barquentine Bierocks. This will be the first time they have served food.
A bierock, along with Barquentine beer. (Courtesy Patrick Behan)
The “German bread pocket,” as the older Knudson described it, is a potato-based dough that holds ground beef, sauerkraut and cheese. The recipe came from his grandmother-in-law, and he said he’s been perfecting it for 35 years. They will also serve variations, including a breakfast version, Italian, Cuban and chicken pesto.
“Growing up, my brother and I would always shove them in our snowboard jackets and eat them up on the chairlift,” Kyle Knudson said. “They’re just very grab-and-go.”
“We’d like it to be the neighborhood spot before you go out to the office,” Ed Knudson said. “Grab a breakfast bierock and a cup of coffee.”
That will require them to open several hours earlier than the 11 a.m. or noon opening times at their existing location. Ed notes that he and the chefs will already be there in the early morning, so they might as well be open also. But if it doesn’t work out, The Barque will adjust.
“We have plans for what we would like it to be, but we’re going to let the neighborhood and the community dictate what sells well,” Kyle Knudson said. “It’s a community-driven space that has food and beer and everything else.”
The Knudsons will also soon start selling bierocks in Edgewater.
A rendering of The Barque. (Courtesy Barquentine Brewing Co.)
The Westminster building was built in 1943, and Rodeo Market sold goods there from 1953 through the mid-1970s. After that, it was converted to office space. The city of Westminster bought the property in 2004 with hopes of reviving the neighborhood.
The initial vision was to use arts to do that, according to Stephanie Troller, the city’s economic development manager. She called the area a “funky, eclectic, historic little district.” So in 2009, the city leased the space to an arts co-op.
That never took off, and the community began asking for a restaurant in 2018, the same year the arts co-op left. The city was working to bring a similar brewpub concept in but the pandemic decimated those plans.
The Barque is the next iteration of that. Troller hopes it will enliven the area
“We’re hoping this will be the first domino to fall,” Troller said.
The city will dish out an estimated $3.5 million for core and shell renovations, city documents show. It will add a grease trap and new roof, and will update all of the HVAC, plumbing and water systems, among other things. It will also replace some of the walls with two garage doors for easier access to its patio.
The Knudsons said the city is fielding bids for the project.
A rendering of The Barque. (Courtesy Barquentine Brewing Co.)
The older Knudson is funding the interior buildout, which includes building a bar, a “dessert breakfast kiosk” for coffee, early-morning bierocks and pastries, and other basic brewpub equipment.
Knu Brew LLC, Barquentine’s parent company, signed a 10-year lease agreement with two five-year options, they said. City records show they won’t pay rent the first year. Annual base rent will start at $21,500 in year two and rise to $64,500 by year 10.
“They’re obviously very motivated to get this going, so they’ve made it affordable for us to be there and incentivized us to be there,” the older Knudson said.
The pair’s brewing journey began a little over a decade ago when Kyle and his brother gifted their father a five-gallon homebrew kit for Christmas. The younger Knudson was brewing out of his 400-square-foot Brooklyn apartment at that time too, and they started a brewery together a few years after.
Correction: The ages of the Knudsons have been corrected.
