Millwood Brewing looks future, past

The next local brewery is quietly taking shape in the Spokane Valley.

Millwood Brewing sits just off Argonne on Frederick, but it won’t be hard to find. A large 1940s farm windmill in a corner of the parking lot will boast the brewery logo on its flag. And once you get closer, you’ll see a rooftop weather vane of a French bulldog perched on a bone.

Inside, the theme will be nostalgic with neighborhood and beer memorabilia along with other antiques and vintage-style fixtures.

“There are going to be a lot of things people will be talking about,” says Shelley Watkins, who’s developing the project along with her husband, Chuck.

“I know so many people around here,” the West Valley High School graduate says. “They’re going to walk here, ride their bikes here. It’s going to be a really nice gathering place.”

The Watkins bought the former Cunningham photo studio three years ago, but it took a year to get a zoning change, another year to develop plans and yet a third to nail down building permits.

With construction in full swing, they hope to open for business at the end of October. That will largely depend on how soon they get their sizable 10-barrel brewing system from LaBreck Stainless Works in Hayden and can start making beer.

Plans call for seven regular offerings plus seasonals and small-batch specialties, along with house root beer and cream soda.     

There will be ice cream for floats, and a kids’ table in one corner of the taproom near a stone fireplace with a leather couch and chairs. A mezzanine seating area above will look into the brewery through large glass windows.

Antiques will line a catwalk nine feet above the main bar, including railroad crossing signs and blinking stoplights. Walls will be adorned with old Millwood photos and beer signs that belonged to Shelley Watkins’ father, who worked for the former Joey August distributorship.

“I’m all about vintage,” she says. “I’ve got a lot of antiques.”

The bartop will be fashioned from a pine slab with a winding “river” cut through the middle, filled with rocks collected from the Watkins’ Pend Oreille River cabin and elsewhere.

A glassed garage-style door will open onto a covered patio on the north side of the building, where food trucks will park. That faces the Millwood Trail, a pedestrian and bicycle path along an abandoned railroad right-of-way that’s scheduled for development next summer.

And there are actual railroad tracks as well, adding to the ambience. “They don’t come by that much,” Shelley Watkins says, “but when they do, they’re loud.”