It’s a busy time of year for Jon and Rachel Moore.
Chupacabra Craft Beer is one of six stops on the Salado Chamber of Commerce Pub Crawl the evening of Oct. 24.
During the Pub Crawl, local band Rubbed Sage will be performing beginning at 7 p.m. at Chupacabra and Salado Lone Star Winery (the two businesses are next to each other as the anchor of Cornett Corner on Main Street).
The night before, Brian Bell performs.
Chupacabra will have live music every Friday and Saturday night through the end of the year.
And a new Monday night tradition continues with the weekly Tap Takeover to coincide with Monday Night Football on the big screen TVs at Chupacabra.
Tap Takeover features brews from a different Texas craft brewery each week. Buy a pint and Jon will make sure you take home a commemorative mug from the featured brewery. Moore says check the Facebook page for the announcement of which craft brewery will be featured on some of the 41 taps at Chupacabra each Monday night.
On Oct. 28, Chupacabra is partnering with the Salado Rotary Club for the first ever Salado Pints for Polio fundraiser. For every pint sold that day, Chupacabra will donate 20 percent of the proceeds to the Rotary Foundation efforts to completely iradicate polio. Polio, once a fairly common disease throughout the world and even in America, has been eradicated in every country save one, Afghanistan.
“We try to offer something for everyone,” Rachel says.
That business formula has met with a great deal of success this year by the still-newlyweds.
Rachel and Jon married last year, celebrating their first anniversary July 25.
They will mark the anniversary of the expansion and opening of Chupacabra on March 29, 2016.
“We opened just in time for the spring Pub Crawl,” Rachel said.
“We wanted it to be a neighborhood place, a place where friends could meet,” Rachel said, adding that they are”kid-friendly and dog-friendly.”
Dog friendly enough that Lucy, an American Bulldog pup, is now an unofficial greeter. “She loves everyone,” Rachel says.
Many of the faces that walk through the doors of Chupacabra, located at 418 N. Main St., are greeted by first name by Jon or Rachel or their staff.
They have developed a steady trade of regulars who come by as much to see others as to try any of the 41 Texas craft beers or the range of 140 wines from around the country and the world..
“We buy what we like to drink ourselves,” Jon says of the selection of beers that stretches from light lagers to heavy stouts.
They seem to have found the right combination with their approach to a small town bar.
“We have Bunko every month and host lots of Hail and Farewells for Fort Hood,” Moore said. Jon was an Army infantry officer and was a New Orleans cop in what he calls “an earlier lifetime.”
“Soldiers and their spouses love coming here,” Moore said, “and we love to have them.”
While no food is sold at the bar, customers can bring their own from any place.
If you want a potluck party, they will set up the tables for you. If you want to order a pizza for delivery, they will bring it right away.
The Moores keep menus from local restaurants on hand so folks can order food for pick up or delivery.
They have even given away Rachel’s family recipe jambalaya for Wine Club parties, held once a quarter for Wine Club members to pick up their bottles of wine.
You can also join the Mug Club at Chupacabra, where you will have a locker for your special 20 oz. mug and enjoy generous 20 oz. pulls from any of the 41 taps for the price of a pint.
The growth of Chupacabra Craft Beer and Salado Lone Star Winery has been remarkable in the past six months, but the idea of expansion began this time last year.
“We started to think about it right after the November election to allow for the sale of beer and wine,” Rachel said.
At that time, Salado Creek Winery only sold wines they made. The election for the sale of beer and wine allowed for a new license and business model for the Moores.
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