Vaycay Brew Co. opens ambitious food-forward taproom in Calgary

Vaycay Brew Co. opened a far more ambitious room in Marda Loop, using the move to reset itself as a food-forward brewery instead of a standard taproom with beer on the side. The Calgary brand, already known for bright packaging and growing recognition, traded its shared setup at Veranda with Burwood Distillery in Currie for a standalone venue on the other side of Crowfoot Trail, a deliberate break that gives Andrew Gass, Brad Fehr and Brad Van De Walle more control over how the business looks, feels and earns.

That control shows up in the layout. The downstairs taproom seats about 45 people and leans hard into the Vaycay name with tropical wallpaper, greenery and wood accents that create a vacation-like feel. Above it sits a second small indoor area, while the outdoor plaza is being turned into a large sheltered patio for summer service. It is the kind of buildout that signals longer dwell times and higher check averages, not just quick pints.

The menu matches that strategy. Instead of a bare-bones brewery snack list, Vaycay built around dishes such as poke nachos, short rib birria taquitos, sandwiches and pizzas. The mix puts the taproom closer to a destination brewpub, where beer shares the bill with cocktails and a more considered food program. That matters in a market where breweries have been pushed to compete on experience as much as on the quality of the pour.

For Vaycay, the new room is not an introduction so much as a sharper expression of what the brand already was. The company had already built an identity around vivid cans and approachable beer, and the Marda Loop taproom gives it a place to extend that identity into a full night-out format. The result is a brewery that is trying to capture repeat traffic by giving customers more reasons to stay, return and bring friends back to a space that feels different from the industrial taproom template.