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Urban Hang Suite began offering Falcon Smash in cans earlier this week. (Photo courtesy Urban Hang Suite)
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Triple Crossing stamped the bottoms of the cans for Urban Hang Suite when canning the beers. (Photo courtesy Eric Jackson)
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Kelli Lemon, owner of Urban Hang Suite, co-founder of Richmond Black Restaurant Experience and founder of the Heart & Soul Brew Fest (Photo by Sarah Der)
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Eric Jackson, beer curator for Urban Hang Suite and founder of Capsoul (Photo by Jay Paul)
Until earlier this week, the only place in Virginia that beer drinkers could find cans of Triple Crossing Beer's Falcon Smash was inside the brewery. Now, the celebrated IPA that helped put Richmond brews on the map can be found stocked inside the beer cases at Urban Hang Suite, the coffee shop and social hub from Kelli Lemon on Broad Street.
“This is the one place [in the state] that will be carrying Triple Crossing beer ... besides the brewery,” says Eric Jackson, beer curator for UHS, of the partnership.
An Atlanta transplant, Jackson moved to Richmond two years ago, quickly establishing a social collective designed to help diversify breweries, called Capsoul. While he says he is excited for this exclusive arrangement, it’s not simply about checking the diversity box and bringing new clientele to both businesses, it’s about building a relationship for continued dialogue.
"We wanted to do what we could as a small business to support Black-owned businesses at the outset of the BLM movement," says Triple Crossing co-owner Adam Worcester, adding that they plan to donate the amount spent by Urban Hang Suite to purchase the cans from the distributor back to the coffee shop. "Also, on a personal level, [we] really respect the owners and folks working at Urban Hang and hope this will lead to a long-term relationship."
While there are over 8,000 breweries in the U.S., the number of Black-owned breweries is below 70. Out of the nearly 40 breweries in the Richmond region, none are Black-owned, and in the state, there is just one. The presence of the flagship Falcon Smash cans — a product of the predominantly white craft beer world — at UHS has the potential not just to introduce beer to a new audience, but to build the foundation for change in the future.
In the wake of George Floyd’s death and protests against police brutality and racial inequities across the country, many breweries have responded by donating proceeds from merchandise or beer sales to organizations supporting the social justice movement. An initiative from Weathered Souls Brewing in San Antonio, Texas, called Black Is Beautiful works to raise awareness surrounding these issues, with local breweries including Hardywood, Strangeways, The Answer, The Veil and Main Line Brewery participating by brewing their own versions of Black Is Beautiful stout and donating proceeds. Jackson supports these efforts, but through UHS he wants to take it a step further.
“My challenge to breweries is, great, glad you’re taking part, but please make sure the conversation continues beyond this, and not just conversations, but relationships within the community you are trying to build up,” shares the 34-year-old father of three and advocate of the hashtag #BPLB, or Black people love beer.
Building up communities is at the forefront of Lemon’s mission at Urban Hang Suite. The co-founder of Richmond Black Restaurant Experience believes that since its opening in 2018, the business has finally hit a point where the focus is on fine-tuning. Part of that process involves continuing to grow the wine and beer program within the space. Also the founder of Heart & Soul Brew Fest, Lemon says expanding the beer and wine program at her space has been an organic process, achieved with the help of Jackson and her younger brother, Lance Lemon.
“The Hang Suite was created to be a social hub that creates a new community, and through conversations created this new culture,” says Lemon, who was awarded the first-ever Diversity and Inclusion Event Grant by the Brewers Association in 2019 for the Brew Fest.
After hosting a tasting at the Heart & Soul Brew Fest last year, Jackson approached Lemon about continuing to work together. “[Eric] is one of the few black dudes in the beer industry,” says Lemon. “This ain’t no good ole boy drinking beer, this is some true, for the culture, for the people Black dude that is drinking this beer, and it’s an exciting thing to watch and to watch evolve.”
In November, Lance Lemon returned to Richmond after having operated shops in Brooklyn, New York. The co-founder of RichWine began working to curate a wine program through the cafe, particularly featuring natural and organic selections.
The integration of Falcon Smash into a Black-owned business located in a historically Black part of town is intentional. Jackson says he approached the brewery after talking with Lance, a huge fan of the New England-style beer from Triple Crossing.
“For [Triple Crossing] to believe in [Jackson] and to say, ‘What’s next, what can we do?’ that’s dope,” Lemon says. Loyal to local, an avid beer fan and dedicated to diversifying the culture, she says Jackson told Triple Crossing, ‘If you want to pull up, really pull up and show how you can contribute to making an inclusive community, drop that can at the UHS,’ and they did.”
This partnership is just the beginning of expanding the wine, beer and hospitality program at UHS. Jackson, who is currently working with Reverie Distribution, says the goal is to carry beer from Black-owned breweries down the road. The community can also look forward to tastings, dinners and events.
“We are getting together and making magic happen. All of that is happening within Urban Hang Suite, all leaning on each other in order to creatively introduce the Black community to this culture and different way of dining,” Lemon says. “Joining forces to create this different experience.”
