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Ryan Pécot, proprietor of Adopted Dog Brewing, is a successful commercial realtor with Sterling Properties as well as a force in changing the food and entertainment landscape in Lafayette.
Adopted Dog Brewing offers a family friendly place to bring your kids and your dogs. Located at 329 Dulles Drive, it celebrated its second anniversary on February 1, 2025. A public celebration will be held on February 22 , 2025, where The Good Dudes will be playing. “They’re at the brew house right now brewing a beer with my brew master called the Good Brew 2, a Mexican cerveza with lime that we will release on our birthday party weekend,” Ryan says.
Ironically, Ryan didn’t drink beer much in his college days. And he recounted that when he and his younger brother would travel to sporting events, his brother would always sample local craft beers, while Ryan would choose generic alcoholic beverages.
“Ultimately I got jealous of him. And being jealous of your younger brother is not that cool. I realized he was getting more out of our trips than I was because he was getting a local flair whereas I was just getting the regular thing. I made a New Year’s resolution to learn how to drink beer. And on January 1st, I drank a beer and it was awful. And I drank another one. I couldn’t figure it out. I just didn’t like it. And then I got to a spot where I did. On one of those trips, I said if I ever learn how to drink beer and if I ever open a brewery, this is some of the things I’d like to do. Our flagship beer, which is aptly named 337, is a Blueberry Blonde inspired by a place called Boston BeerWorks across from Fenway Park. We walked in there and saw a bunch of ladies drinking beer, which was not normal. They all had blueberries in their beer. How are all these chicks drinking beer? Like, what is going on? And then I realized, that if I ever open a brewery, I’m going to offer a blueberry lager, because clearly this works.”
A few years back, Ryan wasn’t planning to open a brewery, but was inspired to open Adopted Dog by synchronistic events. One day, he and a friend were driving around the industrial area near Dulles Drive looking for a site to store their UL tailgating trailer and assorted gear, while waiting to have a B. F. Goodrich tire changed on Ryan’s truck. They happened to pass by 329 Dulles, the site of the former Cafe 329 which was owned and developed by Peter Martin.
“We went through that cul de sac by SLCC. I didn’t even know that road existed. We came across the real estate, and I asked my buddy James to pull in, and I peered through the windows and I’m like, it’s awesome. I’m opening a brewery. James said ‘What?’ I said I’m opening a brewery here. I’m telling you, as a real estate guy, when you see it, you know it. If I was going to open a brewery in Lafayette, this is the physical spot. You’re five minutes to everything, but you’re kind of in a donut hole of nothing else offering all that land. You sit there and you feel like you’re not in Lafayette for an hour.”
“I look for the little things. As soon as I saw the building, I realized that the patio on the back deck faced the southeast. That means you’re going to get shaded the quickest in our hot, long summers. If we were going to ever eventually build a deck and a stage that would be positioned correctly, the wind cut through the way the heat felt. The building with the high ceilings has pros and cons, but generally, it worked and checked all the boxes.” The site is also located in mid-city Lafayette, which was important to Ryan in his quest to develop establishments in the heart of our city, just as he has enjoyed when traveling across the country and getting to know the heart of local communities.
While the land and building were perfect, opening a brewing company in Lafayette was a challenge. Ryan says, “Without my background as a commercial broker, I’m not sure I would have been successful in opening Adopted Dog Brewing. A lot of breweries try to open in the city of Lafayette. I’m the only one within the city limits of Lafayette, and there were a lot of hurdles that had to be jumped through with partners on the municipality side. A Lot of utility, wastewater issues. There was a zoning piece, a lot of different little pieces. My day job (commercial realtor) is turning a ‘No’ into a ‘Yes.’ There were multiple times throughout the pre-development process where, if I didn’t do this for a living and know how to deal with the fire marshal or have the contacts to help me, I’m not sure I would have crossed the goal line. Honestly. I really was hoping that I could break down those barriers for the next guy, because life is better if we have four or five breweries, not just one in the city.”
Adopted Dog Brewery has been a big success. It appeals to locals and travelers alike. “We can see what credit cards are swiped from other states. You’d be shocked how many people across the country have sat down to drank the beer in our brewery.”
“Ultimately, we named one of our beers the BFG, after a $1 million BFG, because replacing the flat B.F. Goodrich tire cost me $276, but there was $1 million investment that resulted from the tire. So we named the beer after the $1 million pop.” Adopted Dog Brewing offers 18 beers on tap that are all unique. They also offer brews for dogs, which are broth-based.
Ryan has been to roughly 180 breweries across the U. S. and abroad, and he “took little pieces and parts that I liked and didn’t like, and I stored in my memory. Our son loves traveling with us. We like to expose him to the world, and the best breweries in my opinion are typically family friendly. When we get off the plane, we can go to a place that we can all enjoy.”
Close to 50% of people that walk in Adopted Dog Brewing are first timers, according to Ryan. “There is $400,000 of shiny stainless steel staring you in the face and people just don’t expect it. It is unexpected in most breweries because fire marshals can be difficult. It’s generally behind the wall, but I worked hard to make sure that it was in your face. When you’re sitting at the bar, you’re watching. If you’re there right now eating lunch, you’re smelling it. And they’re in there brewing a beer. The high ceilings were good for that part of infrastructure heating and cooling the building. When you walk in, it feels like a brewery, but it’s not a dingy, dirty, smelly thing. It’s clean, fresh, lots of windows and and that all overlooks the land. It’s like a little mini park, with kids running around with frisbees and balls. There’s nothing more beautiful when you’re outside on that deck, it’s just beautiful. Even in the heat in the middle of summer, it is just a beautiful.”
Ryan’s wife, Traci, came up with the name, Adopted Dog Brewing. But it took her awhile to be onboard with the idea of his new venture. She was concerned about the time and financial commitment, thinking that she would lose him for a year as he worked to open the business. “For weeks I kept saying I negotiated the land deal with Peter. And then one day, one Saturday morning, I started loading my truck with my tools, and she comes out and says, ‘What are you doing?’ I said, I told you I was doing this. And she said no. ‘Ryan, we can’t lose you for another year’. I said, look, it’s not going to be a year this time. It will not take a year to build out. There’s already some infrastructure there. It’s just going to be better. The good thing is she was wrong because it wasn’t a year. It took a year and one week. Okay, so I was way wrong. But, once we were in the build-out process and she had not yet admitted to me verbally that she knew the location was awesome, her face couldn’t hide that it was cool. We were drinking coffee on the back patio before I went to go work at the spot. And, she said, ‘If you’re going to do this stupid thing, you should at least name it Adopted Dog Brewing. And I knew then that she had buy-in. Both of our dogs are adopted and our son’s adopted, so we’re fine with adopted stuff. I thought it made sense. We knew we were going to be dog-centric. We do a lot of adoption events. There was no other intellectual property register with that name across the country. So that was an easy yes to the name.”
There are no plans to distribute Adopted Dog’s craft beers. “I interviewed a ton of breweries, read a bunch of books, lots of podcasts, and I don’t want to go down that rabbit hole. At the end of the day, beyond the difficulty level, you become a manufacturing facility. I did this to make Lafayette cooler. I did it as a passion project. I did it to employ awesome people. I did it to create a spot for my friends, family, investors, and a place to go hang out for Cajuns fans before and after games. I did not want to build an 18-Wheeler dock that I’ve got to worry about sales people and insuring that.”
“You don’t choose the flagship beer as an entrepreneur. Your customers choose it. You can just hope and maybe try to position yourself. 337 is a blueberry blonde and an easy gateway into craft beer. Craft beer is a thing that people come in for. 337 sells a third more than everything else. It is wild. I told my brewmaster, ‘You can run out of anything but you can never run out of 337.”
“There’s no beer in the city of Lafayette that’s fresher than mine, period. Pick anybody else in Louisiana. They still have to brew and package. It will go in a warehouse, probably change temperatures, come out of the warehouse, goes to a restaurant, sits in their cooler till they’re ready to tap it. Then they tap it. You know, it’s weeks out. We’ll tap some beer that’s two days old. Talk about a difference.”
James Lutgring, my brewmaster, and I have known each other since the mid 90s when I was working my way through high school and college in the Outback system, I was a front of house guy. He was the back of house guy. We could lean on each other to be successful for any given shift. Then, we had our professional careers and he came home, doing a lot of home brewing for a long time. I’d see him at beer festivals and events, at church. He was currently brewing at another local brewery when I texted him to see if he wanted to have a conversation. I gave him my vision. And before we hung up, he said, ‘Ryan, when you texted me, I was so hoping this was what you were going to ask me to do. And I was like, man, it was awesome. And so, you know, he, uh, he worked, you know, I couldn’t pay him right off the bat. So he stayed his other brewery for the first six months of while we were under physical development and Development of construction. We still meet once a week and, you know, go through the processes. He’s a scientist and an artist. I’ve also got other great employees, my kitchen manager, Jim Nobles, and General Manager, Mark Chaisson.
The food menu is perfect for pairing with beer or non-alcoholic drinks. “We reached out to other local people like Collin Cormier from Pop’s, for advice. We thought we had the menu, and invited him in to wreck it, and he wrecked a few things. That’s what I wanted him to do. We went through a lot of those kind of collaborations to get it right.” The number one entree is the Smashburger
Ryan says that Collin “wanted a cooler hip food beverage scene in town, because if we can attract young professionals to our community or better yet, keep those who graduate from UL from going to Houston or Atlanta or Austin, that’s better for all of us. When I mentioned that we often get off the plane and go to a brewery, it’s always young professionals at 2:00 in the afternoon having lunch that are collaborating. It was very apparent to me that we didn’t have that spot in our city. People are moving here because they came to visit their in-laws and like things. We want them to stay.”
If you are not sure which beer you may like, flights are a popular option. Typically first-time visitors enjoy experiement with a flight. Person. “I can look at the sales after a weekend and if there’s a ton of flights sold, it means we got a bunch of new people. Some regulars come in and get a flight, but it’s usually people who have not been before they want to try out, so flight’s a good way to start if you’re not sure. My staff is very knowledgeable on the beer. We do beer classes at least once a quarter.”
Ryan is a big Cajuns fan and has managed catered tailgate packages. Popular choices are lollipop wings, chicken tenders and smash sliders.
Bingo is a popular event at Adopted Dog Brewing. Traci Pecot calls out the numbers and it is free to play. Other regular events such as Trivia Night and live music are offered as well. Check out the schedule at https://www.adopteddogbrewing.com/calendar/
Dogs are all welcome but because of local codes, they cannot go inside of Adopted Dog Brewing. “There are some weekends where you’ll have 40 dogs on the patio or on the lawn. We have three dog beers that are broth based and we have a specific menu just for the dogs. There’s some crazy dog owners who like their dogs more than their kids. They’ll come in and order a Smashburger. No bread. And that’s for the dog, not for anybody else.”
Ryan is also a partner in a new hotel venture to be built in Downtown Lafayette, called aptly, “Hotel Lafayette.” It’s going to be catalytic for what happens in downtown Lafayette, offering a wedding venue and event space. We don’t have a spot where a wedding party can book a block of rooms, get there, get dressed, do the rehearsal dinner somewhere downtown, get married at the Cathedral, second line down Jefferson, and go right back to the event space that overlooks the pool and the pool bar. I hate it when I have clients that fly in to do a real estate tour in South Louisiana and we end up dropping them off at a hotel that is in every town USA.”
Adopted Dog Brewing is open Wednesday through Sunday, starting at 11:00 a.m. for lunch. It closes at 9:00 p.m. on Wednesday and Thursday; Friday and Saturday 10 p.m.; and Sundays 8 p.m.
Thanks to Ryan Pécot for the incredibly positive energy and creativity he brings to our local market. For more information on Adopted Dog Brewing, please visit https://www.adopteddogbrewing.com/.
We’re grateful to Lafayette Travel and Eat Lafayette for partnering with Discover Lafayette for this special episode.
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