Double Nickel Brewing in Pennsauken NJ is moving towards becoming a Brewpub, which means adding a full kitchen and offering food to customers!
This also means they’ve acquired a full New Jersey State “33” retail consumption liquor license, and will have the option to serve wine and spirits!
As part of the conversion into a brewpub, Double Nickel appeared before the Pennsauken Planning Board to gain approval to add a full kitchen within the brewery, which features a large pizza oven.
Overall it’s expected that things mostly stay the same at the brewery, just with the addition of tasty fresh made food.. featuring pizza!
Operating since the Fall of 2015 in Pennsauken Township, Double Nickel Brewing opened with a traditional New Jersey limited brewery license, which meant they could make beer on site and have a tasting room, but they were not allowed to sell food or bring in any other alcohol products.
When the conversion to a “restricted brewery” license is complete, Double Nickel will be able to cook and sell food within the building from a new kitchen, as well as offer wine and spirits for sale (if they choose to do so).
Due to the requirement to purchase a more expensive full retail consumption liquor license, brewpubs are much more rare in South Jersey.
From what I see, there are 6 operating brewpubs in South Jersey; Iron Hill in Maple Shade and Voorhees, Tun Tavern in Atlantic City, Avalon Brew Pub in Avalon, and Mudhen in Wildwood. Ark Brewery in Lumberton is positioned to be a full brewpub but they have not started brewing beer as of yet.
For Double Nickel, they already have a large and attractive tasting room space where they can accommodate a new kitchen addition within the existing building.
The building totals 20,000 square feet and is located within the Twinbridge Center Industrial Park. They have a unique driveway access point, which is from the Route 73 South exit ramp which leads to Route 130 South.
inside, the building is surprisingly large with a large, high ceilinged open tasting room with bar which looks into the equally large brewery area… which is protected by interior glass windows.
The tall ceilings have allowed them to have a second floor mezzanine loft on the far end, which is available for private parties. This two-story segment smartly allowed Double Nickel to but additional facilities on the first floor, such as restrooms and additional lounge areas.
There are multiple distinct seating areas at Double Nickel… I counted 7 areas but it may be 8 depending on how you count the multiple outdoor areas. Beyond the large main tasting room there is the mezzanine space, a separate lounge area, another large table seating room and multiple outdoor areas.
In terms of full tasting room size, Double Nickel is clearly in the same “larger brewery” category as Bonesaw in Glassboro, or Tonewood in Barrington.
The tasting room space also features a connected dedicated merchandise area.
On the outside wall (opposite of the bar area) are large exterior garage-style window doors which can be rolled up (opened) to a semi-private outdoor patio area.
It appears that the plans for the new kitchen placement will alter some of the entrance options that customers have today. Currently I think many enter the brewery on the side entrances at the front corner near the driveway entrance to the parking lot. Based on plans submitted to Pennsauken Township, that interior corner of the building is where the new kitchen and pizza oven will be developed.
Which likely means the core Tasting Room entrance will be at the front (long) side of the building via doors that are adjacent to the large garage doors.
I reached out to ownership on social media as well as stopped in last week to chat with them further on their plans, but they were unavailable to comment.
Double Nickel Brewpub
As mentioned, Double Nickel has been operating up to this point under a traditional New Jersey “limited brewery” license, which means that they can produce beer and offer their own beer for sale within the on–site tasting room but they cannot sell food, or sell other alcohol products which were made off site.
New Jersey does offer an expanded “restricted brewery” license option which opens which enables the brewery to sell food and other alcohol products… which requires the brewery to also acquire a traditional (and typically expensive) New Jersey State retail consumption alcohol license.
Public Notices from earlier in the year show the plans to acquire an existing unused Pennsauken Township retail consumption license, and a town resolution from June of this year regarding license renewals, show a renewal of the license in the name of Double Nickel.
Effectively brewpubs in New Jersey are operating under two licenses… a brewery and a bar. Consider a brewpub to be a traditional New Jersey bar/restaurant which can also brew their own beers and seltzers.
In the same month as that full liquor license renewal, Pennsauken Township Planning Board granted approval for Double Nickel to renovate the existing 20,394 square foot limited brewery to include kitchen facilities within the existing footprint of the building, in order to operate as a restricted brewery (brewpub).
Looking at the Double Nickel plans for the new kitchen which were submitted to Pennsauken planning board, it’s location is going to be in that front corner which functions as an entrance from the side parking, into the main brewery taproom area.
It appears to be a full kitchen with fryers and grill but clearly the signature item is a large pizza oven which is shown on one of the diagrams as large and round… which makes me believe it will be a wood burning oven.
The current merchandise sales area will remain where it is today, and the front area of the kitchen wall will form an “L” with that merchandise area.
A portion of the kitchen will be open to the tasting room, but protective glass will rise off a newly installed counter space.
Likely this means the end of BYOF.. Bring Your Own Food, which is allowed in New Jersey limited breweries.
The plans also call for adding twelve additional parking spaces, which will be along the back of the building. Additionally a temporary extended patio are at the front of the brewery which sits on 6 parking spaces will have to be removed. It’s really only allowed as part of the extended COVID pandemic dining policies that were put in place, and would have to come out soon anyway.
All told the brewery will have 107 parking spaces around the perimeter of the building.
I am not fully clear on Double Nickels plans regarding wine and spirits, which they would be able to sell as a brewpub.
Links and Location
Double Nickel Brewery (Soon, a Brewpub)
1585 Route 73
Pennsauken, NJ 08110
Current Hours (as of Aug 2023)
- Monday – Thursday: 4pm – 10pm
- Friday : 4pm – 11pm
- Saturday : 12pm – 11pm
- Sunday : 12pm – 7pm