A Springfield native is moving back to the Queen City to open a brewpub at a former downtown radio station this fall.
Tyler Hoke, who’s lived in Dallas the last seven years, said he’s targeting an October opening date for his 610 W. College St. establishment dubbed Lost Signal Brewing Co.
“Our goal is really to make sure that we’re putting out high-quality beer and offering a nice wide variety of styles,” Hoke said, noting the pub would brew its take on familiar offerings such as India pale ales and porters, as well as “a few off-the-wall styles.”
The 10-employee, over 3,200-square-foot pub would double as a barbecue restaurant serving pulled pork and ribs, as well as specialty items like barbecue tacos.
Hoke, who studied brewing at Siebel Institute of Technology in Chicago, said an 800-square-foot brewing room would provide beer only for the brewpub, which has planned indoor seating for 60 and outdoor accommodations. Wholesale isn’t currently planned, but Hoke said he’s open to the idea.
“Right now, we’re not even looking in that direction,” he said.
Lost Signal gets its name from the building itself, which was the longtime home of the KICK radio station. It also plays on an Ozarks outdoor motif.
“Every once in a while, you just need to go out and lose your signal, just kind of disconnect from things and look around and enjoy who you’re with and where you’re at,” he said.
A home brewer who worked in a taproom of a Dallas brewery and teaches a brewing class in Colorado, Hoke leases the building from his father Jack, who is slated to close on the purchase of the property today from seller Nick Sibley. The 1948-constructed property had been listed for $295,000, according to
CarolJones.com.
Located between Randy Bacon’s photography studio and the Softails adult entertainment club, the building requires a hefty interior overhaul, Tyler Hoke said.
Declining to disclose his planned investment in the property, he said crews would gut the interior, which has offices and other rooms not conducive to a brewpub, and install a kitchen and brewery equipment. The exterior would remain largely untouched.
Lost Signal would sit nearly equidistant between Mother’s Brewing Co. and Springfield Brewing Co. Hoke said that fact would benefit his establishment, as people already recognize that area of downtown for breweries. Loft project Brewery District Flats also is
under construction adjacent to SBC.
“If there was another barbecue brewpub in Springfield, I wouldn’t put myself right next to them,” he said. “I think it complements all of us just having us all so close together. It brings more people into the area.
“It meets where our clientele is at really well.”
