Palmer City Ale House set to open this week in historic location

PALMER — In a few days, Valley residents will have a new spot to sate their appetites for good food and drink.

After purchasing Rusty’s at Dahlia Street in early January, Matt Tomter began a remodel of the space in the historic Colony-era building that includes new paint, tables, chairs, six 60-inch TVs and a new interior floor plan that adds a U-shaped bar to the middle of the room. He said the backside of the bar opens onto the covered deck area so during warm weather customers can order food and drinks for delivery to the outdoor seating area.

Perhaps the biggest change will be the tap system coming up out of the floor behind the bar, which will feature 48 mostly Alaska and West Coast craft beers. There are a few exceptions. The Palmer City Ale House also will sell a select few domestic beers — like Coors, Coors Light and Pabst Blue Ribbon — and some well-known draft favorites like Newcastle and Guinness, Tomter said.

But don’t go to the new Palmer City Ale House, 320 E Dahlia Ave., looking for beer in bottles or cans.

“All we sell is draft beer,” Tomter said.

The restaurant also will sell food that goes well with beer and wine, he said. That’s the same recipe that has also proven a success for the businessman in Nome and Eagle River.

Tomter said he came to Alaska in the 1990s as a pilot. He landed in Nome and eventually started a business delivering pizzas there to remote sites by airplane.

He sold Airport Pizza in Nome in August 2011 and began looking for a place to open a similar burger and brew joint on the road system, he said. Tomter said the Valley was his first choice for a location, but he couldn’t find a suitable venue here at that time, so he opened the Eagle River Ale House 2.5 years ago.

Folks familiar with that alehouse will see — and taste — a lot of similarities at its sister location in Palmer, he said.

“We’re sticking with the same business model,” Tomter said.

He said the remodeled interior of the Palmer restaurant also will look a lot like the Eagle River Ale House, complete with a custom-made tap system he had built in New York and was due to arrive by barge in Anchorage Saturday.

Tomter said the new business is neither a bar nor a gourmet eatery.

“We are a restaurant with a lot of beer on tap,” he said.

Do show up expecting to enjoy top-quality burgers, pizzas, sandwiches, salads, prime rib, burritos, tacos and more.

“We want this to be a place you can come by yourself and have a burger and brew, or bring your family,” he said. “It’s for everybody.”

Tomter said one of the features that drew him to the historic space was the south-facing covered deck that backs up to the city’s grassy town square. Come spring, he said he plans to add a stage area where musicians can stage outdoors shows on the lawn Friday and Saturday evenings.

“We want to try to enhance Friday Flings with live music on the green Friday nights,” Tomter said. “It’s too great of a location not to do something outdoors.”

So when will the Palmer City Ale House open?

Tomter said staff spent the weekend stocking shelves and preparing for a final inspection on Monday. If the tap system is delivered and installed according to plan, he said the restaurant should begin serving guests by Thursday or Friday. He said the plan is to announce the opening on Facebook.

Palmer City Ale House is open daily from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Contact the restaurant at 746-2537.

Contact Heather A. Resz at 352-2268

or heather.resz@frontiersman.com.