Tie & Timber nears opening of restaurant

Expansion work for one of Springfield’s breweries is nearly complete in the Rountree neighborhood.

Finishing touches on the menu of Tie & Timber Beer Co. LLC’s new restaurant were in progress on a chilly Monday morning, March 16. Co-owner Curtis Marshall said the company, which opened a brewery in 2018 followed by a beer garden two years later, plans to welcome patrons to its new 10,000-square-foot, two-story building by the last week of March. 

The kitchen, which is on the backside of the building facing the beer garden, should begin serving food – primarily pizza – through a take-out window on March 20, he said. 

“This will allow us to fully dial in our menu and systems in preparation for our soon-to-be-announced opening date,” Marshall said.

Marshall declined to disclose costs for the expansion project, which was built by H.C. Rogers Construction Group LLC and designed by Arkifex Studios LLC. Construction began in October 2024, which included demolition work of an existing storage facility and employee break area that fronted the 1451 E. Cherry St. business, according to past Springfield Business Journal reporting.

Noting year-over-year sales for the brewery increased around 50% after the beer garden opened in 2020, Marshall said he’s hopeful the expansion will lead to similar numbers. He declined to disclose annual revenues. 

“Typically, a restaurant needs to keep their food costs 30% or lower. We’re targeting 20%,” he said of operating expenses, adding they also are looking to keep labor costs below 30%. “If we hit those numbers, that’s where our [profit] margin is going to come from.”

Marshall said the company wanted to add a food element that would stand the test of time and complement the beers on tap.

“Ideally we just wanted to do something that expanded our guest experience,” Marshall said. 

He added, “We’re playing the long game with this project, and we are very bullish on Springfield.”

The first-floor restaurant, dubbed Tie & Timber Pizza Kitchen, has a 100-person seating capacity, as does the top floor, which will serve as event and reserved space. The upstairs area also will accommodate overflow seating for the restaurant as needs dictate, he said. Both floors also include full bars with 16 taps serving Tie & Timber brews. Additionally, the restaurant includes a covered outdoor patio with firepits that also will provide views of the beer garden and live music concerts at the brewery.

“We wanted to make sure that we did not lose our identity as a brewery,” he said. “I hope that we’re able to do that by obviously having two separate buildings.”

Tie & Timber ranked No. 5 in SBJ’s list of the area’s largest breweries, producing 602 barrels of beer in 2024, a 4% year-over-year dip.

On the menu
Three styles of pizza will be served at Tie & Timber: tavern style, which is thin and crispy; a traditional round pizza with a light crust; and Detroit-style, a light and airy deep-dish option which includes caramelized cheese edges and sauce on the top. Specialty pizzas and build-your-own varieties also will be offered, said Jennifer Marshall, who co-owns Tie & Timber with husband Curtis and is currently hands-on in the kitchen as she was in the brewery upon its opening eight years ago. 

Pizza prices will likely range around $13-$30, Curtis said. However, the menu is not only for pizzas, as smashburgers, chicken fingers, a chicken sandwich and salads also will be sold, along with a chocolate chip cookie made with cacao nibs from Askinosie Chocolate LLC. 

“So, it’s a streamlined menu,” he said. “The idea is to really dial it in and get it up to par with where we believe our beer’s at.”

Jennifer said all menu items are made in-house, which includes fermenting their pizza dough.

“The fermentation part, I already knew and understood because of the brewing,” she said. “So, I would say the dough and the beer are very similar when it comes to understanding fermentation and timelines, time and temperature, all the stuff I geek out on.”

But she admitted there’s been more of a learning curve for her in the restaurant versus brewing beer. 

“There’s a lot of moving parts in the kitchen. I know that there’s a lot of moving parts in brewing, but I don’t think it’s as much as here,” she said, noting she’s working to develop 11 specialty pizzas. “We probably won’t open with all 11, but I’m working on them, so we have them in rotation. Right now, my favorite is probably our barbecue chicken. The barbecue sauce is made with our beer.”

Jennifer said she’s been experimenting with the dough to understand how fermentation impacts it over different periods of time.

“I spent a lot of time, and we spent a lot of time crafting our beers using quality ingredients and really being kind of particular about the process and what we’re putting in the beer,” she said. “I wanted to bring that way with the pizza as well.”

Gathering space
While Curtis said many restaurants are interested in optimizing table turnover – the rate at which a table is occupied by new sets of guests during a meal service – that’s not a goal at Tie & Timber.  

“We’re more of an entertainment gathering place,” he said. “We wanted to have a space where people could feel like they could hang out for a little bit, and maybe even be here for a few hours and have an appetizer, a few beers, and then have dinner after that.”

Curtis describes the look of the new building as “very eclectic,” noting Tie & Timber and Arkifex collaborated with Davis Ink Ltd., a California-based interior design firm. Local artists also contributed to the building, as Nick Willett has one of the design pieces inside while Meg Wagler painted a huge outdoor mural that wraps around two sides of the structure. 

“There’s a lot of detail around here,” Curtis said. “The goal is to, every time you come, see something that you didn’t see before.”

Although outside food won’t be allowed in the new restaurant space, it will still be permitted in the brewery and beer garden as usual. 

“We went back and forth on it for a while because there is a certain set of liability of having outside food in,” Curtis said. “But after doing some research and talking with some people who are smarter than I am, I think it makes sense to keep things as is. We’ve really built a culture here where people want to take advantage of that, especially bringing food from home.”

As the campus footprint expanded, so too did the staff. Tie & Timber typically has around 10-13 employees in the spring, he said, but has grown to 23 to accommodate the restaurant and additional space. 

While there was a temporary loss of some of the brewery’s on-site parking during construction, it has since returned. Noting parking is a challenge for any business in the Rountree neighborhood, Curtis estimated there are dozens of available parking spots along the streets within a two-block radius. 

“One side effect of urban infill is parking on the street.” he said, adding customers for years have also walked, biked and taken ride-hailing services to get to Tie & Timber. “Our intention was to build a place that is worth walking a block or two. We do know that we have eight years of experience here, and we have several large events every year, which has hundreds of people come through here at one time. 

“They will find a way to get here,” he added. “Will they find a way to get here every weekend? Time will tell. We’re betting that they will.” •