New Littleton Road Craft Beer Store Opens To Big Crowds on Thursday

If Thursday morning was any indication, Westford is about to become a mecca for craft beer aficionados thanks to a new store inside the former location of Wendy’s on Littleton Road in the former Westford Grille Plaza.

Customers were lined up out the door to celebrate the opening of Craft Beer Cellar, or the CBC as it is known, as they opened their doors at 10 a.m., with some items selling out within minutes, or even quicker than that.

Walter Miska, one of the co-owners of the store, had operated the Embroid Me location just down the road at Ginger Ale Plaza in Chelmsford for several years, but felt the need to move on and figured opening a CBC was his next step forward.

 “I had certainly learned a lot about operating  a small business, but I felt it was time I did something I had a passion for,” said Miska.

With approximately 600 to 700 types of beer in house at any time, Miska hopes to draw customers from the community as well as craft beer lovers the surrounding region.

However, since the CBC doesn’t sell “macrobrews” like Budweiser and very few wines or spirits, he sees his relationship with other liquor stores in the area as collaboration toward spreading a love for beer rather than competing for customers.

CBC Co-founder Kate Baker says that sentiment, the aim of helping people find and love craft beers they might not see anywhere else was one of the guiding principles of her original store in Belmont and second location in Winchester.

Westford marks a new step for her company as its first franchised store, with additional locations currently being planned in Braintree and Newton as well as Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and three other states.

“It’s been three years and we want to be smart and patient, but we want to get the word out there and we had to figure out how to do it if it wasn’t just us doing everything,” said Baker.  “We had to find beer geeks.”

More information on Westford’s CBC and the entire chain is available at their website, as well as on twitter at @craftbeercellar