Bar and bottle shop hybrid coming to downtown Burlington

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“It’s going to be a hybrid between a beer bar and a bottle shop. There won’t be shelving or conspicuous retail, but we’re actually going to have a pretty extensive menu of items to be consumed on-site or to go,” Gross explained. “It’ll be a lot of beers … that have probably never been consumed in Alamance County.”

Gross, who started a chain of Bottle Revolution bottle shops in Raleigh in 2011, recently relocated to Saxpahaw and decided downtown Burlington was a charming place for his next venture.

“As I started looking around downtown Burlington, I realized there’s so much charm to downtown, there’s just not a tremendous amount to do,” Gross said. “There was a pocket in there to compliment everything else going on downtown.”

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With the introduction of other new businesses, like Tanner’s Wine Bar, the Burlington Food Hall and Burlington Beer Works, Gross said he thinks The Mini Dingo will fit right in.

The business was named after Gross’ dog, Dingo, as well as a 2014 collaboration between Bottle Revolution and world-renowned brewer Evil Twin. A new collaboration will be released when the bar opens, Gross said.

According to The Mini Dingo’s website, theminidingo.com, the bar will serve up beers on tap or in bottles and cans, wines, ciders, sodas and some snacks. Gross said he hopes to create a space where both craft beer enthusiasts and newcomers feel welcome to try new things.

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“It’ll be a combination of not just what’s new and trendy but, knowing that maybe the Alamance County beer scene has not caught up to what the Triangle or Charlotte or Asheville is, you’ll see a lot of classic beers people need to be introduced to if they are new to craft beer. It will give them a spectrum of what craft beer is now and where it came from,” he said.

“There’s so much good liquid to choose from. We spent a lot of time curating our list and making sure it made sense,” he added.

The Mini Dingo will run a few specials, including a certain night of the week during which a portion of sales will be donated to local animal charities and a weekly run club where people can run a few miles together then gather for “beers and comradery,” Gross said.

The bar/bottle shop has about two weeks of renovation work left before it is ready to open. No formal date has been announced. Once completed, The Mini Dingo’s atmosphere will pay tribute to the building’s history.

“The main floor will look like a ‘typical’ bar setting, but in that building we’ve got a basement that was a speakeasy back in the ’20s or ’30s, so we’re paying homage to that. We’re going to have a bunch of really unique wing-back chairs. … It’s almost like two different spaces within one,” Gross said.

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In an interview with NC Beer Guys last month, Gross said the business will have plenty of space to meet social distancing requirements during the COVID-19 crisis, with 2,500 square feet upstairs, plus 1,200 square feet downstairs and a large outdoor patio.

Once The Mini Dingo opens, hours will be 2 to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday, noon to 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and noon to 8 p.m. Sundays.

This article originally appeared on Times-News: Bar and bottle shop hybrid coming to downtown Burlington