Three minutes before 2 p.m. on a recent Friday the front door at Olde Mother brewing opens and a head pops in.
“Are you guys open?” the head shouts.
A woman behind the bar responds: “Sure, whatever. The door’s open.”
A sea of about 15 men from the Potomac area file into the bar as part of a brew bus trip to the downtown brewery.
Weeks earlier, the brewery, which opened in a new larger location on North Market Street about a year ago, received a visit from a production company filming a Netflix series called American Road Trip. Co-owner Keith Marcoux recently answered some questions for the News-Post about the show.
How did you guys receive word about being featured in a Netflix series?
They reached out to us. Brad [Lyon] owns Lyon productions. He’s done a bunch of B-film things, been in the industry for about 15 years. They pitched this to us. I guess the story goes, he and his father enjoyed going on road trips throughout the years. His father died about five years ago. So he’s doing it for himself but also doing it as a throwback to his road trips. What they do is they come to an area and they’ll pick food and a bar, and nowadays bar can mean anything from craft brewery to a winery or bar or whatever. So, they reached out and gave us some dates when they could come, and the rest is history.
I’ve always viewed this brewery as kind of the friendly neighborhood bar type of vibe. How do you view it? Do you see it as a road trip destination?
I feel like in terms of a brewery being a road trip destination, when I think of them as road trip destinations I think of Alchemist up in Vermont, Trillium [in Boston] and some of those breweries that have made a name for themselves. They’re out in the middle of nowhere, but they sell so much beer, it’s just incredible. People make those places destinations to go try their craft beer because they have such a great reputation.
We’re kinda flattered we were thought of like that. I can’t tell you long term what Nick Wilson and I have planned as an overall vision for what we want to be. Do we want to be the beer that everyone talks about or do we want to be the beer that everyone comes and flocks to. I don’t know that when we started this, that that was our business model, but success has a lot of different ways of being looked at. We’re just here and along for the ride. We’re having a hell of a time. We just want to be a staple in Frederick.
Was there any hesitation to agreeing to do the show?
Of course, I hate being on camera. I’m not the greatest interviewer either. These kinds of things kind of come with the territory. Being a business owner and with brand marketing, all of these things play a vital role. You never know what somebody’s going to pick up on or where that’s going to take you. So to ignore these types of things would sort of be ignorant on our part.
What was the scene like while they were filming?
A little more stressful than you’d think. Cameras are everywhere. But really, the sensitivity of their mics and everything caused the refrigerators to have be turned off, A/C off. The people that were in here couldn’t speak at all. Phones were going off. It was so funny, cause the sound guy would let Brad know when everything was good and they’d start rolling. I probably answered the same question 15 times, so who knows which one they’re going to pick.
Then a phone would ring. That would mess up the scene and we’d have to start over. And it kind of got to the point where it was a little hot. They’re trying to get footage. Patrons had to be dead silent. They were getting a little restless, you know?
They’re all trying to drink beer and have a good time, and he finally came down and said, “reality tv is not reality tv. Everything has a way of working. We need you to hang in there and stay quiet” and our patrons had to get a little pep talk. They hung in there, though.
But it was weird. They’re like “hey bring some people in, make it look like it’s open and live and have fun.” We’re thinking we’ll get loud and all that. But then nobody can talk.
How long did that last?
He was here for about six hours.
Did he drink any beer?
He had a few beers. We really pushed Impressionist, our flagship IPA. But yeah, he had a few beers here and there. We had him try Terry Lynn, our lemon meringue kettle sour brewed for mom for Mother’s Day.
What does being featured in a Netflix show mean for you guys?
I think it’s a great opp for us for our business, but also showcase the vibe in Frederick. There’s a reason we’re here. There’s art, there’s music and there’s things going on in Frederick with the craft beer scene. We’re proud to be here. If Frederick’s not already on the map, that’ll certainly help for folks looking for a vacation spot maybe. We’re so young in the business, you don’t know what kind of opportunity that that could bring. But we’re capitalizing on every opportunity that could be a good thing for us.
What do you think makes this place a good road trip spot?
You walk in the door and feel like it’s home. Nothing is off putting about this place. I love that the most about what we do. It’s very personal, it’s very friendly.
That’s ultimately what we want to be.
Are you going to watch the show?
You know it’s funny, there’s a few things that I’ve done tied with Olde Mother that I haven’t watched or listened to. I don’t know if I like the sound of my voice or what. I don’t know if I’ll watch it. We’ll see if it airs first.