Hitch and the Giddy Up. Massive Diva. String Fingers. Symphonic Bodega. These are just some of the bands that tie together Nod Hill Owner David Kaye and Joe Farrell, owner of Walrus Alley, a Westport mainstay that recently opened an outpost at the Ridgefield brewery. Their friendship goes back more than a decade, and it’s hard not to see how one has influenced the other, back and forth, since the opening of Farrell’s Walrus and Carpenter back in 2013.
With the goal of creating something uniquely American, Farrell’s restaurant focused on Southern food with a smoker and exclusively American liquor. When getting a live music program up and running, bluegrass felt like a natural extension of that ethos. “We created something called “Brewgrass, so once a month we did a pig roast while Hitch and the Giddy Up played - I think we cut it up in the dining room.”
Seated at a table in the atmospheric event space of Nod Hill, Kaye nods his agreement. This is where Kaye enters the stage as Hitch’s lead mandolin player - a local favorite that turned into a Walrus and Carpenter fixture. After performing monthly for what turned out to be more than 80 shows, Dave looked at Joe and said “This sounds crazy but we’re thinking of opening a brewery. Would you guys carry our beer if we do?”
Since his days of homebrewing in college, Kaye had fantasized about opening a brewery, but never imagined that it would actually happen. After his family’s business, Riverside Fence, bought the building that would become Nod Hill, Kaye looked around at the wood shop (now the event space) and the storage area (now the brewing equipment) and thought “Wait a sec, this location could be really good.” What began as a thought experiment slowly progressed into a reality where, as Kaye puts it, “I guess we’re actually going to try and do this.”
After officially opening in 2017, Nod Hill began distributing beer, with a familiar place to go. “Joe was one of our very first customers, which was awesome,” says Kaye. “That was such a cool moment, seeing our beer on tap there and playing music there.”
Nod Hill quickly became known for its craft beers and laid-back atmosphere. They came out of the gate with a full flight of offerings including hearty IPAs, flavorful ales, and limited seasonal runs. The tap room up front is cozy, where rustic chandeliers hang over pine tables, and the warm wood gives up the spotlight to the vivid green cabinets surrounding the bar. “What I like that stands out about Nod Hill specifically,” says Farrell, “is a lot of breweries are these industrial-type spaces, where Dave’s aesthetic is more - this is a comfortable place to be. Oh yeah, and we make beer.” The doors of the tap room take you past the brewing equipment to an event space that can hold up to 100 people. Even for a large space it feels cozy, with large beer barrels lining a dark green wall, another bar, plenty of seating, and a small stage.
When the pandemic hit, plans got underway to expand the property with a proper outdoor biergarten. It took a lot of work - not only did Kaye have to double the size of the parking lot, but with their proximity to the Norwalk River came mitigation work, while also trying to make the site more environmentally friendly. By the time the biergarten opened in August 2021, surrounded by trees and a wildflower meadow, Covid-weary Ridgefield was thrilled. As one patron told us, “On the right night it’s ethereal. People play lawn games, laugh, dance, chat at the picnic tables. The string lights are lit. It’s a lightness I don’t know of being anywhere else in town. It’s basically a movie set.”
Back in 2019, even before the biergarten opened, Farrell and Walrus Alley had purchased a food truck. “We had just gotten that trailer to go to breweries,” says Farrell. “And we knew that Nod Hill was a great brewery to go to right out of the gate, so I had confidence in getting that trailer.” After Walrus spent a couple summers visiting Nod Hill for special events, Jeff Taibe (of Taproot in South Norwalk), who was running the resident Nod Hill food truck, decided he wanted to step away to work on other projects. It was an obvious fit for Kaye to ask Walrus Alley to simply take up permanent residence, offering their signature Southern fare both at the truck and as Nod Hill’s catering partner. “It actually didn’t take that much thinking,” according to Farrell. “It was like yeah … yeah, we should do that.”
As for the music, Kaye took a page from Farrell’s booking style, rotating a similar set of bands on a monthly basis. With a similar system up and running at Nod Hill, “we kind of continued that whole Brewgrass thing, you know, Dave sold tickets for a Hitch and the Giddy Up concert which included a Walrus buffet,” says Farrell, with Kaye adding “so we’ve kind of brought it full circle, which is cool.”
Both Farrell and Kaye influenced and impacted each other to the point where what was once just an idea is now a sprawling campus where each brings their strengths to create more than a restaurant or a brewery, but a vibe. “If you’re coming out, you hope you’re going to find the place you really … dig and you enjoy the environment because it’s not just about the eating and the drinking,” says Farrell. Whether it’s trivia night, “bring your own vinyl” night, live shows, or just a chill night in the tap room, Nod Hill and Walrus Alley offer a sense of community with a unique sensibility - a vibe that you won’t find anywhere else.
"We’ve kind of brought it full circle, which is cool.”
“We had just gotten that trailer to go to breweries and we knew Nod Hill was a great brewery to go to right out of the gate."