Bringing the beer garden to DeKalb County, the Burlap Room, located in the heart of Bert Driver Nursery, combines nature, beer and music. You can even buy some nursery stock while you sip the latest local brew.
“Everybody is looking for an experience,” Bert Driver said, leaning on the bar at his tap room located on his family’s nursery. “This is it.”
Located at the site of the former DeKalb County Drive-in Theater just off Murfreesboro Highway at 175 Hurricane Ridge Road, the Burlap Room is situated inside the old drive-in concession stand and projection room. The drive-in operated at the location from 1956 to 1991 and then became the nursery.
As for its roots, Bert says he comes from a long line of nurserymen dating back to 1917.
“It’s in our blood,” Bert said of the nursery industry.
However, it was his travels abroad that gave him the idea of locating a beer garden in Smithville. He studied for a year in London, England and during that time he was introduced to beer gardens.
“They are big in England and in Germany,” he said. “There were beer gardens all down the Thames.”
Working his nursery, Bert decided to incorporate the beauty of nature with good beer and good music.
“We had been doing the Earth Day celebration here for five years,” Bert said, noting earlier this year he decided to put in taps and open for business. He opened April 21.
The next thing was coming up with a name. For that he went back to his nursery roots and named it after the storage area his family used to stash their burlap for the farm.
As for a theme, Bert wants it to be purely local as he features local brews including Calf Killer and Von Seitz Theoretic Ales.
“We want to feature things that are local,” he said of the seven taps he presently has open. “We are not opposed to guest taps but he wants them to be local beers.”
The Burlap Room regularly features entertainment. On June 23, it will feature the Summer Solstice Shindig with gates opening at 3:30 p.m. and a number of bands performing through 10 p.m.
Many of the events, including Summer Solstice are family friendly. Normal business hours are 3 to 8 p.m., Thursday through Saturday but Bert says he isn’t against pouring a beer anytime he is there.
“We have people coming from out of town to buy nursery who are pleasantly surprised they can get a beer,” Bert said. “It’s different and fun. We’re just people who like good music and good beer.”
