Imagine a classic farmhouse brewery scene: a quaint, crimson abode filled with fermentation tanks and surrounded by trees and hops vines; rustic wooden barrels stacked up ready to be filled; rolling blue mountains in the background. Now imagine that standing in front of that farmhouse is a handsomely aged Tom Selleck with his arm around Sloth from The Goonies.
PHOTO COURTESY BURIAL BEER CO.
At Burial Beer Co. in Asheville, North Carolina, you don’t have to imagine that scene because it’s painted as a huge mural on the side of the building (above) on Collier Avenue. “We have this thing with Tom Selleck,” says Co-owner and Head Brewer Tim Gormley. This thing started with a velvet painting of Mr. Selleck that used to hang in the now-defunct Craggie Brewery around the corner. The Craggie owner entrusted one of Burial’s long-time employees with the painting for safekeeping, and it eventually made its way onto the wall at Burial, which was opened in Asheville by Gormley, Doug Reiser, and Jess Reiser in 2013.
“He has this very sexy look to him, obviously, because he’s Tom Selleck,” Gormley says of the painting. “Endless people found it entertaining, and the selfies spread all over social media. It became an iconic part of our bar.”