Good Neighbor Podcast: Auburn and Opelika
With her genuinely good heart and a wealth of experience behind her, Susannah works to connect local business and non-profit leaders to their neighbors. In a community like ours in which so many have invested their lives, there are fantastic stories all around us that motivate and inspire, often right next door. She hopes to share some of those here, on the Good Neighbor Podcast. Book an interview today at GNPAuburn.com
Good Neighbor Podcast: Auburn and Opelika
Ep.#23: Resting Pulse Brewing Company with Terri Plundo
When Terri Plundo, a retired physician and co-founder of Resting Pulse Brewing Company, stepped into the world of brewpubs, she didn't just open another bar; she crafted a sanctuary for leisure and camaraderie in Downtown Opelika. Terri takes us behind the scenes of her unique venture, revealing how she and her husband turned their vision of a relaxed gathering space into a reality. Resting Pulse isn't just about pouring beers; it's about creating moments., with live music, pet-friendly patios, and a variety of house-made brews that keep the atmosphere as vibrant as the flavors in their pints.
Resting Pulse Brewing Company is a Craft Beer Brewery that makes all of its beers onsite. Typically, you will find 12-15 beers on tap at any time; a great variety of beer styles from Lagers, Kölsch's, Wheat beers, Sours, IPAs, Radlers, Browns, and Stouts. Seasonal beers such as a fall and winter Pumpkin Ale are on tap. Selections always change over time so there are new beers to try.
At Resting Pulse, free tastes are always available so you can find the beer you really like. Fights of four 5oz beers, individual 5oz beers, and 16oz beers. To go we have 32oz and 64oz growlers that are filled with any of our beers and will refill when you bring the empty growler back to the brewery.
Resting Pulse Brewing Company is classified as a Brewpub by the State of Alabama along with the Department of Health. The Resting Pulse food menu compliments any brew; Pizzas, Pretzels, Buffalo Chicken Dip, Boiled Peanuts, Paninis, Sliders, and other items are available daily. Our menu is served daily from 11 am until an hour before close. Resting Pulse is family-friendly and has food selections catered to children. The outside patio is dog-friendly, very large and comfortable for both families and dogs. As our name implies, please come visit us and find your Resting Pulse.
Resting Pulse Brewing Co.
714 1st Ave., Opelika, AL
(334) 203-1364
terri@restingpulsebrewing.com
This is the Good Neighbor podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Susanna Hodges.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Good Neighbor podcast. With me is Terri Plundo with the Resting Pulse Brewing Company in downtown Obelica. Terri, thanks so much for joining me.
Speaker 3:Thank you for asking.
Speaker 2:Well, tell us a little bit about resting pulse. What do you guys do there?
Speaker 3:Well, we are a brewery and a. Actually, by the alcohol board we're classified as a brew pub, so we make beer and we also have food that we serve.
Speaker 2:Excellent, so kind of a now. I've been there so I love it. It's got a really nice outdoor space and as well as the indoor space, so it's a very nice place to go. Tell me a little bit about how you got into this business.
Speaker 3:Well, my husband and I have had been thinking about trying to do something for several years. We both are retired physicians and we decided that when we moved to Auburn that we would look further into opening a business. And we decided on a brewery and our adventure started almost well, it would have been about seven years ago, seven, eight years ago, but we actually opened the business. It'll be five years at the end of this March.
Speaker 2:Wow, that's awesome, and you know that little area that you're in, I think it's, isn't it First Avenue? Is that what it's called that street? They've really done some nice things to us, to the, to the street, kind of making it kind of like an entertainment type straight there. Tell us a little bit more about that.
Speaker 3:So the gentleman that owns most of the buildings on that street is Richard Patton, and his dream and desire was to do exactly what you said create a entertainment area and we just were so happy with what his plans were. That's why we started working with him and it's come a long way. There's several place building spaces still available that we would love to have people contact him about so that we can continue to develop that area.
Speaker 2:Well, you're right there on the, on the corner, so it's an excellent location for you. Kind of describe. You know what the uh, what person, what people would experience when they come to resting pulse Wonderful.
Speaker 3:We have just under our occupancy inside and outside is just under 400. Give or take a few. So inside we obviously, as our tap room, we have several TVs that we keep to all of different games. We have about 10 TVs and we keep to football games and basketball games, the local games. Plus we also have the NFL ticket so people can come and enjoy all those type of sports. And then our outside area is also very welcoming to people that have pets. You can have your dogs on the outside area and we do have games that we provide out there. But we also have music every Friday and Saturday. It starts at seven o'clock and ends at 10 o'clock. So we try to keep the um, the, the excitement of the area while you're having a few beers and maybe some food and you can enjoy company of your friends as well as enjoy our music.
Speaker 2:Well, it really is a fun place to go, and I know this might be silly, but the my favorite thing about resting pulse is you can get a small glass of beer as well as a large glass of beer, and I'm one of those small glasses right, absolutely Because I can't drink a whole big glass, so that that's fun for me. Perfect, yes.
Speaker 3:We have the small glass we have, which is five ounces, and then we have your regular 16 ounce beers. But you also can get a flight if you want to just taste any of our beers, which can consist of four different beers, the five ounce, and that way you can try multiple beers at one time.
Speaker 2:So you're brewing your beers on site there, and so tell me a little bit about some of the flavors you've got.
Speaker 3:We try to keep a variety of flavors and a variety of the different beers. So we'll have wheat beers, we'll have stouts. We'll try to do. Right now we have a pumpkin beer, we have sour's and we have IPAs, but we don't go above a 6.5, ab alcohol by volume on purpose, because we want you to add the beers and sit back and just relax. Hence our knee resting pulse. Just sit back, relax, get to your resting pulse. And the flavors are all different. So we have mangoes, we have cherries, we have honeyweeds. We just try to get something that everybody might like. We only serve beers and non-alcoholic beverages, but we try, by letting people have a taste of the beer, to find the perfect beer that you might like. Oh, that's wonderful. Well, it is a lot of fun to go there.
Speaker 2:I've, you know. As I said, I've been there before and frequent there, so it's it's a you've done a very good job. Part of the reason I do this podcast is to encourage other people that are going into business or they're in a, you know, have started their own business and would like to hear other people's experience. What kind of challenge did you have, either in the opening of your business or maybe even one now that you're going through?
Speaker 3:that has made your business stronger and you stronger, as you overcame it Well and we started out, like I said, working on this seven, seven, eight years ago and we were fortunate enough to open up and had a really nice year and then, all of a sudden, covid hit and you know, we, we as, as any business COVID really wrecked havoc on everybody.
Speaker 3:We're still here, we're still doing well and we owe that to the community. There were people out there that made sure that they came in or, you know, came and ordered stuff from us, or, you know, take out food that we had and growlers, the beers to go during that time, and I can't say the community was very, very nice and supportive of all of us and so that helped us. And we're still. You know, as, as everybody you know, there there's there's problems getting servers. Or you know workers and there's problems, you know, getting your supplies that you need, and it still happens. But we're still doing very well. We're, we're very happy with the people that come and continue to support us and the community and, I think, businesses, as long as we all stick together and keep working for each other and supporting each other, we're going to do well. I agree, absolutely.
Speaker 2:So what is the one thing that you wish people knew about? Resting pulse that maybe they don't know about? Oh, that's a good one.
Speaker 3:And I think, gee, I'm going to try to get a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a chat, but I'm trying to think. I think the biggest thing is is we're open seven days a week and we do that on purpose. We want to be able to be there for everybody, because I know when we first moved here we were from a bigger town and there they were. There are places to go every day, but sometimes around the holidays or when the school, the university is out in schools out there's, there's not as many places to go when you're from around here. So we want to be open seven days a week, open every day at 11 and we stay open on weekdays till 10.
Speaker 3:On Sundays we don't open till noon and on weekends we're open to midnight. So if you don't know what our schedule is, just give us a call and we'll let you know when we're open and if we can do anything. We do offer parties. We have an area that we reserve for events and we've had a couple of weddings and I have a lot of the rehearsal dinners and different events, christmas parties. So please, if you have an event that you'd like to share with us, we'd be happy to help you out.
Speaker 2:That sounds good, so how would someone get in contact with you?
Speaker 3:The easiest way to get in contact with us is by email or to our email is. My email is terry T-E-R-R-I at restingpulsebrewingcom. That's probably the easiest or to call us on their telephone, and right now, I'm sorry, I'm going blank as to what my phone number is, right.
Speaker 2:That's all right, you know we don't. We don't call ourselves, do we? And then our cell phones just put a name on it. You know that's it's so difficult to remember phone numbers these days. But yeah, so an email. Where are you located?
Speaker 3:We're located at 714 1st Avenue in Opelika, and I do have my phone number now it's 334-203-1364.
Speaker 2:And you do have a website, restingpulsebrewingcom, and I'm on it right now looking around too. So obviously, 714 1st Avenue, go check out Resting Pulse. And thank you so much, terri, for being with me. I appreciate your time today and talking to the listeners of the Good Neighbor podcast. Thank you for inviting me, thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor podcast, auburn.
Speaker 1:To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpoverncom. That's gnpoverncom, or call 334-429-7404.