©2019 Saratoga Photographer.com
by Andrea Palmer
Debreen and Tony Oliva opened Racing City Brewing Co. 14 months ago and have steadily grown since. The couple also owns Oliva Vineyards winery, making wine for the past decade.
Recently, they have created a Cornhole venue and weekly competition at the brewing facility.
Cornhole leagues meet at the 250 Excelsior St. location in Saratoga Springs every Thursday night. Teams are paired through a blind draw, with names pulled out of a hat. It is a double-elimination tournament with a winner every night. At the end of the eight-week session, a ninth week playoff takes place.
“It’s a real nice group of people on a regular basis,” said Debreen Oliva. “It’s a great activity inside during the winter because there’s not much to do if you don’t like being outside in the cold. And it’s great in the summer when you want to enjoy the good weather outside.”
The Cornhole venue is located in the brewery’s large warehouse, with garage doors that open. As weather gets warmer, the garage doors open for an open-air feel.
Once a month, a Saturday tournament takes place. The concept is similar to the Thursday night competition, but contestants may pick or bring a partner.
“The place is humming with activity,” said Debreen. “Everyone’s enjoying each other’s company. It’s a nice combination of casual competition, camaraderie and beer.”
“The atmosphere is designed for mingling. There’s plenty of places to sit, but people are moving around, socializing, talking, sharing, doing things. The tables are meant to be communal. We love it when people who don’t know each other sit together and start talking,” she said.
The venue has been used for team-building events, parties and rehearsal dinners. The Olivas have held tournaments for various charities, including the Leukemia Society and the American Heart Association.
“We waive our facility fee for nonprofits. The organizations were able to raise a lot of money, and people were able to find out about us. It was a win-win,” said Debreen.
They’ve also had group events such as wedding rehearsal dinners, engagement dinners and a gender reveal party in which the beer poured out pink. An upcoming memorial fundraiser will have a “casino night” theme.
“It’s been fun,” she said. “We have three spaces: the game room, production space that’s private and away from the tasting room, and the main tasting room itself. We have the capacity to host large events without impeding on regular everyday space.”
“We’re always growing. We have a list a mile long, and we plug away at it one thing at a time,” said Debreen.
Tony Oliva agreed. “Everything we’ve done has worked because we took baby steps with it. That way, you can have some pitfalls but the pitfalls aren’t too big. You can learn without suffering much of a setback. We’re having fun. Not to say it isn’t frustrating at times, but we love what we do.”
Future plans include expanding the brewery and canning system, making the production room into an event space, and moving the production equipment to a different area. The company plans to self-distribute their beverages to clients within a five to ten mile radius, and will start doing sales for distributing towards the end of the summer.
“We can give our clientele focused service by keeping our radius small. We’ll be personally delivering the product to our clients. If they need something, we’ll be right there,” said Tony.
The Olivas’ son, Anthony Oliva, is the third business partner in the brewery and manages the marketing for the company.
“We’ve evolved and become an event space. We want to put on a summer concert series in the back,” said Anthony. “We’ve had live music here before and it worked really well.”
“First, it always starts with great beer, and something for everyone,” he said. “Any style, any season. Second, we’ve become a great event space. We treat the brewery as a place to bring people together. And that’s what we are all about.”
The brewery is located at 250 Excelsior Ave. in Saratoga Springs. The brewery is open Thursday and Friday, 4-9 p.m.; Saturday noon to 9 p.m., and Sunday noon to 7 p.m.