Recipe For Success: Rebekah Mandeville Gelvin

Rebekah Mandeville Gelvin
Owner, Mandeville Beer Garden
428 N Lemon Ave. 
 

What brought you to Sarasota?
We moved here from Denver in 1997. My husband got a job here when he finished his residency.

What was your restaurant background before Mandeville Beer Garden?
I was a server in several restaurants in Denver, as well as a corporate trainer for a brew pub. I wasn't in the restaurant industry at all during the time we moved from Denver to here. In the meantime I got two degrees in finance and was a practice administrator in an internal medicine office.

What has been your biggest beer influence?
My brother. He's always been very into beer, he's a home brewer. He's been the biggest influence on me as far as my knowledge and love of beer.

What was your inspiration for opening Mandeville Beer Garden?
There is a beer garden in Denver that my brother and I enjoy. We got the crazy idea that we needed one in Sarasota. The summer of 2013 we came up with the idea and in the fall of 2013, I quit my job and went full force trying to make this happen. When I decided to do this, I traveled around to several beer gardens across the country and I picked up pieces of beer garden food I wanted in ours. I hired Christian Hershman, gave him my ideas and said put it together in the menu.

What is your favorite thing about owning Mandeville Beer Garden?
When I take a step back and look around on a busy Friday night and see everyone enjoying the space. Creating and transforming the space was a lot of fun for me and to see families and people with their dogs outside laughing and having a great time is so rewarding. People enjoying the space and enjoying themselves — that's what I wanted this place to be.

If you had to eat one thing on your menu for the rest of your life, what would it be and why?
The kale and quinoa salad with grilled chicken and avocados, because it is delicious and I drink a lot of beer so I need to eat a lot of kale.

If you had to drink one thing on your menu for the rest of your life, what would it be and why?
LoverBeer BeerBrunga — it's a sour ale with plums and it is quite possibly the best beer I have ever tasted.

If you could have anyone eat in your restaurant (dead or alive), who would it be and why?
John Hickenlooper, the sitting governor of Colorado. I’ve always wanted to meet him and pick his brain over a beer. He started Wynkoop Brewing Company in Denver and really through his love and knowledge of beer had a huge hand in not only starting this craft beer movement, but also revitalizing downtown Denver.

What is your favorite thing to make at home?
I love to cook. I make a chicken dish with figs that everyone at home loves.

What is your favorite drink, besides beer?
Dewars and soda

What is your favorite beer?
I tend to be a hophead, so anything that is still on the palate 10 minutes after drinking it is my kind of beer.

What is one thing you will just not eat?
Lima beans. They are just disgusting. I eat everything but I won't eat those — they are waxy and awful.

What are some fun things that customers would never guess about you?
I am a pretty good piano player and I read The Economist magazine cover to cover every week.

Describe Mandeville Beer Garden with one song.
"Porch Song" by Widespread Panic. It just embodies the whole spirit of the beer garden.