Bacchus experiments its way into 41st year

Bradford had been a bartender, so he knew the industry. While he was 23 at the time, he wanted to start his own bar in New Paltz.

“I think we opened it for under $9,000,” he said. “My brother taught me how to do the plumbing work, and I built the furniture myself.”

In April 1974, after a year of dreaming about the bar, it was a reality. They had their grand opening.

They rented at first, but Bradford and his partner didn’t totally agree about how to run the bar. “We had two different personalities running the bar,” he said. After about 18 months, Bradford bought out his partner’s interest for $25,000. He bought the building from his landlords for $60,000 back in 1978.

He worried about those early investments in the business, Bradford said — mostly because he had to scrape money together to buy his partner’s interest and get the building. But Bacchus thrived.

“We became the mountain climbing bar,” he said.

The 1970s were simply a different time in New Paltz. Bradford remembers a de facto racially segregated bar scene.

“In 1973, there was only one place where a black man could dance with a white woman — and that was Joe’s East West. If he came downtown, he would have gotten beaten up. He would have gotten taken outside. It was that divided,” Bradford remembers. “And gay people, there was no way you went in with your boyfriend, your girlfriend.”

That wasn’t something that Bacchus ever stood for, he added.

“The one thing we always had here, which was so powerful, was two gay guys could come in — and they were protected by us. And blacks and whites could comingle here.”

Bradford remembers that Bacchus used to seem like it was on the outskirts. What people thought of as the bar scene in New Paltz stopped with Bacchus and the bar across the street.

“This was the dead-end part of town,” he said. “It was not the center of town.”

When New York State raised the drinking age in 1982 — from 18 to 19 — and again in 1985 to 21, the change had a profound impact on the bar scene in New Paltz. Bradford recalled that Bacchus had nearly 34 competitors. After the change, it was down to eight.

With a higher drinking age, Bacchus turned to food for salvation. They joined with a local chef and added a kitchen. During the 1980s, Bacchus advertised themselves as a Mexican food place with a “full salad bar.”

Bradford joked that Bacchus used to sell pizza, but they had to give up because the flour would land on and ruin the bar’s vinyl records.

By the late 1990s, Bacchus had changed up the menu to include more diversity — hamburgers, soups and other items to appeal to people who didn’t care for Mexican food. It was also that decade that could have seen Bacchus turn into a microbrewery.

Bradford’s long been a fan of craft beer and microbreweries. But when he saw The Gilded Otter become New Paltz’s first microbrew — and nail it — he switched gears. That was when Bacchus became known for its numerous bottled beers.

“We started with coolers in the alley, and it developed into a beautiful walk-in cooler,” he explained. “Beer has always been important to us, and the microbrewery was great, but this was a wonderful way to battle the Otter.”

What people know as the billiards room in Bacchus had been at one time a separate establishment. It had to be, according to Bradford, until New York state laws changed to allow for a bar to have multiple pool tables.

In the 2000s, Bacchus got a lot of attention from local papers — The Daily Freeman and The Poughkeepsie Journal — after it took over the billiards room.

Change at Bacchus happened again in late 2013, when employees Jason Synan and Mike Renganeschi convinced Bradford to buy a three-barrel brewing setup. Synan and Renganeschi both brewed at home, and had impressed their boss with the flavor and quality of the beer they were making.

“Their enthusiasm was amazing,” Bradford said. “I mean, they live this stuff.”

According to Synan, one of Bacchus’s new brewmasters, they’re constantly experimenting with ingredients and trying new recipes. Having a small brewing setup has advantages, since they can be creative and flexible. Bacchus has a double IPA, an American farmhouse style beer and an imperial stout. But they’re still experimenting with yeasts, hops and combinations.

That Bacchus serves so many different good beers has been an inspiration and a challenge. “From really early on we felt pressure to make beer that would stand toe-to-toe with those other breweries,” he said.

Right now, Bacchus’s brewers have a focus on building connections to other well-known local farms and companies. One of their beers is aged in old Tuthilltown Spirits barrels.

Bradford noted that Bacchus is set to evolve again. “This year we’re looking forward to a huge expansion,” he said.

They’ve got plans to expand to 13,000 square feet and take over the blue building next door, using that as part of their brewery. Bradford noted he and his wife Linda, who manages the bar at Bacchus, also bought a farm. They’re hoping to grow the hops, barley and other ingredients they need to brew beer. But they’re also looking to bring the fresh, non-GMO veggies to the table as ingredients for Bacchus’s food menu as well.

For more about what’s going on at Bacchus, head to https://www.bacchusnewpaltz.com/.

Bacchus is the second installment in a six-part series featuring the history of local taverns. Next week, the spotlight will be on Snug Harbor Bar and Grill.