UPDATED : Rezoning Approved, Tuesday November 5th during City of Carrollton Planning and Zoning Meeting, Next Stop Mayor And City Council.
A Southern manor-styled brew pub is proposed for the former Stallings House at the corner of East Center Street and Bradley Street near the Depot. If approved by the City of Carrollton this original home of Thomas Bradley from 1910 would be home to a restaurant geared to Southern cooking along with beer sold on site. The owner would brew in an expansion onto the back of the house, and has plans to  sell growlers of the beer eventually. Growlers are to-go packaged draft beer, typically 32, 64, or 128 ounces with a sealed top. Most brew pubs in the US sell growlers, and the state of Georgia doesn’t prevent the sales. However, the city government would have to pass an ordinance or resolution to permit the new brew pub to sell growlers.
The vision for the restaurant speaks for itself, the owner Brad Wilks tells us. “It is such a beautiful building, one that is important to the history and architecture of downtown. We worked for quite a while to find the right fit for it. When we got the idea of a brew pub, we instantly knew it was a fit because the house creates a perfect theme and marketing plan. We just want to provide a product that does justice to the house and attracts people to Carrollton and downtown to see the house and, of course, to try some craft beers.”
Expect to see renovations taking place if everything is approved. A parking lot with 17 spaces could be added along with an extensive exterior renovation to the Stallings House. The renovations inside would adapt the use of the house from a residence to a restaurant. Most of the “public spaces” in the house will remain almost untouched. The owner wants visitors to have a sense of the house while they’re visiting. The bar and brewery would be added to the back of the house to preserve the Bradley Street front features for historic reasons. You wouldn’t even notice the expansion if looking directly at the house from Bradley Street.
At this time we would rather not speculate on an opening date because there are still a number of things that must happen before the brew pub opens. Everything within the design has to meet local, state, and federal historic preservation guidelines. According to The City of Carrollton a rezoning request was submitted to rezone this property from O-I (Office Institutional) to C-1 (Downtown Commercial). The Planning Commission hearing will take place on November 8th at 6:00 p. m. inside the  first floor Meeting Chambers of the Public Safety Annex Building behind City Hall.
More details will follow this article on approval status.
Special thanks to Brad Wilks for contributing to this article.
