Bonsai Brewing plans to move from mall

Bonsai Brewing Project is planning to relocate from the Mountain Mall to the corner of Wisconsin Avenue and Denver Street in Whitefish.

Whitefish City Council on Monday is set to decide on a conditional use permit that would allow the nanobrewery to operate out of the former Rising Sun Bistro building.

The Whitefish Planning Board on Oct. 16 gave a unanimous recommendation for approval of the request. The property is zoned as limited business district, which is for commercial uses within or adjacent to residential areas. Microbreweries are allowed in the zoning with a conditional use permit.

The nanobrewery opened at the beginning of the year in the mall with a selection of six beers after raising $17,800 through a crowd-sourced fundraising campaign. A nanobrewery is an extremely small version of a microbrewery that produces less than 1,000 barrels of beer per year.

Graham Hart, Bonsai’s owner, told the planning board the brewery is being forced to move from Mountain Mall. The new location will house a brewing facility, taproom and outdoor serving area. There are no plans for bottling, but Bonsai may sell a few kegs to local businesses, Hart noted.

“This location will be a great addition to the growing corridor to Big Mountain and will help to build the experience that the north side of the tracks has to offer,” Hart said in an application to the city.

Under state law, the brewery has limited hours of operation of 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily and can only serve each customer a maximum of 48 ounces of beer per day.

During the planning board hearing earlier this month, board members asked that both sides of Denver Street between Wisconsin and Colorado avenues be designated as “no parking.” The power to designate no parking streets rests solely with the council and it is uncommon to require an applicant to make off-site improvements in order to obtain a CUP, according to the planning staff report.  

City fire, police and public works departments have since looked at the street and said that designating it as no parking is not necessary. Based on this, planning staff is recommending removing the condition that would have required the owner to apply to the city to create a “no parking’ zone on Denver.