Two lawyers walk into a taproom: Havre de Grace’s Market Street Brewery is a passion project for Harford attorneys

Sep 02, 2023

Bill Bolton and Andy Chabalowski work a day job together, and now they have a joint nights-and-weekends gig too.

Bolton and Chabalowski are both attorneys at Bolton's family law practice in Aberdeen. As of November, they are also the co-owners of Market Street Brewery, a new craft brewery and taproom in Havre de Grace.

So how did two lawyers get involved in the brewing industry?

"I think that we both like practicing law and this has been a fun entrepreneurial enterprise that fills up the extra hours of the week," Bolton said. ("Spoken like a true workaholic," Chabalowski added.)

The idea was inspired by Chabalowski's own background with beer. Growing up, his father was a home brewer with a love for German beers. Chabalowski caught the bug, too, and began to dabble in home-brewing himself.

Left to right: Mini Hopper, Fast As Light, B. Oats beer, which were brewed at Market Street Brewery, a new brew pub in Havre de Grace. (Barbara Haddock Taylor/Baltimore Sun)

At Market Street, the tap list goes beyond German brews. The beer selection runs the spectrum of light to dark, from blonde ales and shandies to imperial stouts. Brewmaster Brad Poulin makes hoppy offerings such as Come See About My Pale Ale, a crisp pour with hints of lemon and lime, and malty ones like Belaying Pin, a brown ale with notes of espresso and dark chocolate.

B. Oats, an oatmeal stout, has already become a menu staple. Chabalowski attributes the beer's popularity in part to an easy-drinking 4% alcohol by volume. While many craft breweries are known for beers with higher alcohol content, he and Bolton have made it a point to ensure there are plenty of options in the 4% to 6% range. (If you want a heavier beer, there are some of those, too, including the #4Pound, a 10.6% alcohol-by-volume hoppy triple IPA with tropical notes and a malty backbone.)

Brewing operations at Market Street have an environmental bent; thanks to some high-efficiency brewing equipment, the brewery only uses a little more than two gallons of water to make one gallon of beer. That's a fraction of the amount needed when using regular equipment, which uses a ratio of seven gallons of water to one gallon of beer.

Drinks are served from a 1948 Chris-Craft boat transformed into a bar by another local attorney with a side passion, Daniel Donlick, who is also a skilled woodworker. The taproom is filled with nautical touches, including a boat suspended from the ceiling, wood paneling and oars and a compass rose mounted on the wall.

The brewery building, a long vacant former retail outlet, might feature one of the biggest open spaces in town, by Bolton's estimate. The taproom fits 140 seats as well as a "living room" with four sofas, games and a TV mounted on the wall. The brewery is family-friendly and dog-friendly, and hosts a full calendar of events, including dance and yoga classes, paint nights and book club meetings. Though there's no kitchen at Market Street, visitors usually have the option of snagging some snacks from food trucks parked around the corner.

Besides the beer, the brewery has one more big draw: tall windows with views of the water, where the Susquehanna River meets the Chesapeake Bay.

"Havre de Grace's waterfront has been criminally underused in the last 30 years," Chabalowski said. "Once we saw the water we were like, this is cool. This is where we need to be."

Co-owners Andy Chabalowski, left, and Wilbur Bolton, right, enjoy a beer and the view of the Susquehanna at Market Street Brewery, a new brew pub in Havre de Grace. (Barbara Haddock Taylor/Baltimore Sun)

Market Street Brewery

203 Market St., Suite 110, Havre De Grace. 443-502-2192. marketstreetbreweryhdg.com