Sneak peek: The Casual Pint at The Grove in Hoover is like “Cheers with craft beer”

The wait is over.

The Casual Pint at The Grove in Hoover is open for business.

This past week, the family friendly craft beer pub has been holding a “soft opening” in preparation for its Friday, September 20th grand opening.

Last Saturday, Bham Now visited  The Casual Pint to provide our readers with a special preview of this beer lovers paradise.

Cheers with Craft Beer

Remember Cheers – the most famous television sitcom in the 1980s about a bar?  Well, The Casual Pint is like Cheers with craft beer.

We were immediately greeted like family.

Meet The Casual Pint Owner Scott Huskin

We sat down with The Casual Pint owner Scott Huskin and he promptly told us the extraordinary story about why he brought The Casual Pint to the Birmingham area.

A longtime resident of Knoxville, about five years ago, Huskin’s daughters got him to support and run a half marathon for the Susan B. Koeman Foundation. During the race, he was in pain along his side. He finished the race, but was suddenly overcome from the pain and passed out.

When he woke up three days later in the hospital, the doctors had diagnosed him with Stage 4 colon cancer.  They had to do emergency surgery.

“They basically told me I needed to get all my affairs in order,” said Huskin. “I was well-to do. I sold off all businesses so my wife and kids could be taken care of.”

Chemo and The Casual Pint’s Generosity

Huskin started daily chemo treatments. On Friday nights during the course of his chemo,  he and his wife waited visited the nearby The Casual Pint in Knoxville.

When Huskin started losing his hair, and lost weight, the employees started inquiring about his health.  After he told them about the journey he was on, someone at the bar paid his tab.  By the end of the month, a server handed Huskin a check. The staff had pooled some money together and supported Huskin.  This happened during the next 7 months of his treatment.

And of course, after all the chemo treatments – Huskin said with wide smile

“I made it!”

Move to Birmingham

Once Huskin’s cancer was in remission, his wife was offered a job at UAB.  His family moved to Birmingham, and as fate would have it, daily the couple wife would drive by The Grove in Hoover, which is near the Super Target.

According to Huskin, my wife would continuously say – “Wouldn’t that be a great place for The Casual Pint?”

He finally got the clue, and this week after months of preparation they began operations.

35 Taps and 200-300 types of Craft Beer

If you are a craft beer connoisseur The Casual Pint not only provides you a relaxing place to sample 200-300  brews across the country, it has great burgers, brats and flatbreads – classic pub food.  Almost all of the items are $10 or less.

The place is stocked with rare hard to find craft beers that you can also “pick 6” and take home.  Obviously, you can do a “pick 6” at your local Whole Foods or Piggly Wiggly, but The Casual Pint does offer those particularly hard to find brews.

2nd Crowler in Birmingham – take home a 32 ounce can

Of course, The Casual Pint is a great place to fill your growlers. If you want to do “take home” a beer and give it away as a gift The Casual Pint  also has a  Crowler – Can + Growler – a machine that “cans” your favorite beer (32 ounces) to take outside the location.  The Crowler is the 2nd such machine/operation in Birmingham.  The first is at Good People Brewery.

Grand Opening

The official Grand Opening for The Casual Pint is Friday, September 20th.  There will be giveaways every 30 minutes and all the major local breweries will be there.

Bringing back a Good memory

It is all about bringing to Birmingham a special establishment that made a difference to his life according to Huskin.

He aptly summed his feeling up, “I’ve been very lucky. Now is my time to bring something here (Birmingham/Hoover)  that’s got a real good memory for me.”

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