The Plastino brothers – Nick and Marco – have deep roots on Lake Pend Oreille's Bottle Bay, and it only made sense to pay homage to their ancestry when they decided to start a brewery. "We've been going up there forever," says Marco, of the Bottle Bay property originally owned by his great great-grandfather, almost a century ago. "Spokane is so embedded with this lake culture," he adds. "There's like, what, 300 something lakes within a hundred-mile radius of Spokane? And so a lot of people have their own lake that they go to. We have our spot, Bottle Bay, so kind of the whole idea is, where's your bay?"
It's a question the brothers are hoping their customers will want to chat about over a nice cold pint of beer at their tasting room on 30th Avenue right next to Gordy's Sichuan.
Most local longtimers, as well as newbies, will find something they'd like to learn more about just by perusing the items hanging on the brewery's walls: For starters, there's the stern photo of ancestor Joseph Plastino, a Spokane entrepreneur in the late 1800s and early 1900s, who presides over the center of the bar. Vintage water skis and fishing gear jockey for wall space with all sorts of family photos and vintage lake cabin memorabilia that will bring back happy memories to many lake lovers.
But while the interior invites stories of the past, the beer at Bottle Bay is actually decidedly contemporary.
For Marco, a co-owner of the brewery, the journey to becoming the brewmaster wasn't exactly linear. "I started out going to art school — fine art at the Falls here," he says. "It wasn't till I started taking the prereqs to get into UC Davis that I had to take all these science classes... It really helped me to see — with the beer, it's this art and science coming together."
His aim is to create "something no one's had before, but at the same time using science to make things extremely high quality and super accessible. Something that's everybody's beer. It might be different, and it might be something you haven't had before, but it's still something the majority of people are going to enjoy."
Marco's brother and co-owner Nick adds, "We have these day-drinker beers that are basically our version of a pilsner or a lager — but it's brewed with ale yeast, so we're getting the clear, light flavor that people look for in like a Coors light, but also have a little more complexity to it because it's a microbrew, but not all the calories and gunk."
Marcus Robinette, who met Marco when the two worked at Spokane's Rocket Market, is also a co-owner and runs the bar. He's ready to help the uninitiated learn all about the beer. Tastings are always available. "One of the things that makes us unique is there's people that will come here and turn their nose up at an IPA and then they'll try one of ours, and we'll sort of evangelize them," he says. "Clean, clear and accessible is what I always say."
After an inauspicious opening date at the cusp of the pandemic in February 2020, Marco says the brewery is making a steady recovery. There's live music every Thursday from 7 pm to 9 pm, and various game nights are also evolving. So far, cribbage is a popular favorite.
All in all, the group hopes Bottle Bay Brewing will become a familiar spot for neighbors to gather. "We've got deep roots here in Spokane, and now it's kind of our turn to take on that next entrepreneurial step... We're all about building up the community. And beer is one way to really get the community together," says Marco.
