In a approach, buying the Black Elks’ constructing was like coming dwelling for Ken Carson. The constructing sits in part of Albuquerque, N.M., he describes as “the ’hood.” Carson as soon as lived right here earlier than transferring to the extra prosperous Northeast Heights within the Sixties, the place he attended highschool with solely three different Black college students. It’s as if he’s “reverse gentrifying” the neighborhood by coming again to open a second location of his Nexus Brewery.
Carson sees his return as a victory. He grew up there, together with all of his Albuquerque mates.
“You bought a Black man going again to his previous neighborhood and upgrading a constructing,” Carson mentioned. “You’d need to be loopy to not admire the truth that we’ve been capable of redo an previous constructing that’s historic to the Black group and see the faces of individuals throughout the group who used to go to that place.”
Carson owns two areas of Nexus today: the Nexus Brewery & Restaurant and Nexus Blue Smokehouse in his former South Broadway stomping grounds. A 3rd location, the Nexus Silver Taproom, shut down in December 2019.
Regardless of the closure, Nexus has thrived, however life within the meals and beer enterprise wasn’t at all times what Carson had envisioned for himself.
From Banking to Beer
A standard thread in Carson’s life emerged years earlier than opening Nexus: being the one Black particular person round.
It started in highschool and adopted him into the skilled world when Carson labored his approach by way of school at New Mexico State College as a federal examiner with the Comptroller of the Foreign money. He moved into banking domestically and finally discovered himself in a deputy director function, the place he led the banking division for your entire state of New Mexico. He was appointed director when he was round 30.
After working his approach as much as financial institution president, he supposed to retire after a profitable profession. However being on the mistaken aspect of a shareholder combat meant his function as president was now not tenable. After which got here the monetary disaster of 2007-08, in any other case referred to as the Nice Recession, thought-about by many to be the worst monetary disaster for the reason that Nice Despair. The financial institution started to lose cash and enterprise slowed.
“I began pondering, this financial institution’s gonna fail, I’m going to be unemployed,” Carson mentioned. “Throughout the monetary disaster, an unemployed banker’s not going to get employed.”
The plan was to begin one other financial institution, however Carson thought higher of it. As a substitute, his ideas turned to a completely totally different pursuit: beer.
“I grew to become a fan of breweries earlier than it grew to become common,” Carson mentioned. “Within the Nineteen Nineties, we have been in Colorado so much. It was type of a behavior and a passion the place I might go and hang around at breweries.”
On the time, Black brewery house owners and brewers have been uncommon, with Garrett Oliver of Brooklyn Brewery being probably the most outstanding. Nonetheless, Carson was not deterred. Regardless of an inauspicious begin (his first batch as a brewer was “horrible”), he put collectively a marketing strategy and knew he wanted to seek out an skilled brewer.
Whereas constructing out Nexus, Carson started to listen to of numerous different breweries making an attempt to open. So he went towards his plans and added a 10-foot kitchen hood. He wasn’t positive what it could be used for, however his first inclination was fried hen and collard greens.
Combining meals and beer grew to become his mission.
A Soulful Starting
“On the time I might say we have been most likely the one soul meals brewery on the earth, again in 2011,” Carson mentioned.
A advisor tried to dissuade him from that includes fried hen, citing the difficultly degree. With a delay in building and cash working low, Carson let the kitchen advisor go. After hiring a brewer, Carson started researching what meals would work finest.
“I made a decision to do fried hen anyway,” Carson mentioned. He visited extremely rated spots just like the since-closed Gladys Knight’s Hen and Waffles in Atlanta, Roscoe’s in L.A., and Lo-Lo’s in Phoenix. Every place was well-known for hen and waffles, and every had traces out the door.
Carson’s menu can be headlined by hen and waffles, however he started incorporating New Mexican soul meals utilizing native pink and inexperienced chiles. His mother’s greens and turnips have been added to his hodgepodge menu that includes nachos, pink beans, rice, gumbo, fried catfish, and fried hen.
The eclectic menu caught the eye of Man Fieri, who filmed an episode of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives at Nexus.
“His remark was that he hadn’t had collard greens that good on this aspect of the Mississippi,” Carson remembers.
Brewing Award-Profitable Beer in New Mexico
The meals isn’t the one factor garnering consideration for Nexus.
In 2017, the brewery was awarded a gold medal on the Nice American Beer Pageant (GABF) for its Imperial Cream Ale. In 2015, it gained a silver medal at GABF for Honey Bear, a honey and chamomile wheat beer. Extra just lately, Beam Me Up (Greater), Scotty gained a silver within the Outdated Ale class of the 2022 World Beer Cup.
All three of Carson’s brewers have made award-winning beers. Carson mentioned there actually isn’t a technique to hiring medaled brewers—it’s extra of getting them attempt to match the meals high quality and giving them the reins to do what they need within the brewery.
When first submitting beers to competitions, Carson appeared to his prospects for inspiration on what to enter from Nexus’ portfolio.
“Once we gained the primary award, we simply knew the beer was good and our prospects preferred it,” Carson mentioned. “We simply picked the strongest promoting beers we had on the time. We have been actually stunned after we gained an award.”
Carson thinks the bar is excessive for beer high quality in New Mexico as nicely, however profitable awards validates Nexus’ mission.
“We really feel very appreciative,” Carson mentioned. “It’s an acknowledgement that the standard of our beer is up there with all people else. The employees is proud, I’m proud, our brewers are proud.”
Among the many medal winners, Carson recommends the Imperial Cream Ale because it goes with absolutely anything on the menu.
“It’s very gentle, it doesn’t have an entire lot of hops or opposite flavors,” Carson mentioned. “It simply goes very easily with all the things.”
What’s Subsequent for Nexus?
As Carson continues to get all the things dialed in for the unique location, he’s additionally engaged on creating the Smokehouse, which he calls a piece in progress regardless of gross sales doubling within the final 5 months. He has additionally signed a contract to serve beer in a neighborhood meals corridor.
When requested what recommendation he would give to different BIPOC trying to open a brewery, Carson mentioned, “You simply have to simply hold preventing to do your finest to perform your dream. There’s two issues that I actually love that I grew up with: barbecue and soul meals. And that’s precisely what I’m doing.”
Recipe
Collard Greens
DINERS, DRIVE-INS AND DIVES
Nexus Brewery and Restaurant
Recipe creator: Ken Carson
Serving Dimension: 8
Prep Time: half-hour
Cook dinner Time: 4 hours
Whole Time: 4 hours half-hour
Elements:
- 6 bunches collard greens
- 1/2 giant onion
- 1 Tbs. chopped garlic
- 2 crushed chile pods
- 1 small smoked turkey leg
- 2 teaspoons Frank’s Sizzling Sauce
- 1/8 cup bacon grease
- 1/4 cup diced bacon
- 1 Tbs. salt
- 8 cups water
Methodology:
Wash collard greens. Begin by folding collard greens in half and de-stemming every leaf. Take away the massive stem within the center. Chop leaves at about 1 inch increments.
Boil turkey leg in a big pot for about an hour. Then place greens, onions, crushed chile pods, garlic, bacon, scorching sauce, and salt within the pot. Convey to a boil then simmer for about 3 hours till turkey leg and greens are tender.
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