Brix Experience offers plenty of what its name indicates. The Moncton business also marks the revival of a long-vacant historical property in the city’s downtown.

Brix’s director of operations, Anne Marie Picone, said Brix is actually a combination of five venues under one roof. She says it all started with the owner’s purchase of a coffee machine.

Picone said the centrality of 245 St. George Street made the building the perfect place to deliver culinary experiences. She noted that owner and founder David Ford had bought it several years ago but didn’t know what to do with it.

That decision came when Ford bought a Sanremo Café Racer – a commercial-sized espresso machine.

“He decided he’d put a coffee shop in the building and do other great things, and hence the idea was born,” said Picone.

That first idea is now a café, open to the public from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., Monday to Saturday, serving coffee, wine, and beer.

“If someone is on their way back from work and wants to meet up with friends and have a glass of wine and a charcuterie board, they can stop in and just relax before they go home,” Picone said, noting that Bix may extend the café hours in the coming months.

The café is the only part of the business that is regularly open to the public – the other four facets are available only by appointment. Those include cooking classes and mixology classes – both hands-on and spectator-oriented demo sessions – led by professional chefs and mixologists.

“We have a beautiful kitchen where people can sign up for classes,” noted Picone. “Our chef will guide you through how to cook and then you sit down to a beautiful meal you have created.”

“In our demo sessions, you can sit around and the chef explains what he or she is making through every step – and serves you along the way.”

Brix’s interactive classes can fit up to 18 people.

“You’re in there with a friend and partner but you have 14 other people that you don’t know, but you’ll start cooking with them,” said Picone. “People can book that, and you can call and book for birthday parties, Christmas parties, anniversaries, engagements, or bachelor parties.”

Meanwhile, a similar type of education in mixology awaits guests on the cocktail-side experience.

Guests are guided – mixing alongside a mixologist or just watching – through the process of making three cocktails in Brix’s cocktail room.

Brix also features a wine cellar in the basement that can seat 24 – suited for wine tastings catering to both newcomers to the wine world and the discerning oenophile. Potentially, there could be some whiskey tastings, too– as well as a 32-seat multimedia room that can handle larger meetings and education events.

Also in the basement is Brix’s Highland Room – a rentable space that’s home to four club chairs, suited for anything from private meetings to whiskey tastings.

The plan to launch Brix in the heart of Moncton was a four-year endeavour that involved a heavy facelift for the site of the former Loyal Orange Lodge, which had sat vacant for quite a while.

Picone said converting 245 St. George into Brix required its complete gutting.

“The building has been completely renovated and we had to dig down to make a new basement – it was a crawl space, before,” she said.

That process, inevitably, was slowed by Covid-19. Picone said contractors worked through the roughest part of it but are still waiting on electrical components to arrive.

While it’s not a designated heritage property, Picone said Ford recently received the Rehabilitation and Adaptive Use Award from the Moncton Heritage Conservation Board.

The building was built over a century ago by George Steeves, a Monctonian contractor in an architectural style not common in the Hub City.

Photo: Resurgo Place

Its masonry contains a tacit nod to its heritage, with a cornerstone engraved with the initials, L.O.L.

Brix’s nearest neighbour is Dolma Food and it’s down the road from the Moncton Fish Market and across the Street from Xeroz Arcade Bar and the iconic Our Lady of the Assumption Cathedral.

The building also features a contact centre and three loft apartments on the upper floors.

According to information from Service New Brunswick’s online property assessment tool, the property, located at the intersection of St. George Street and Archibald Street had an assessed value of $691,700 for 2022.

Sam Macdonald is a Reporter for Huddle Today, a content-sharing partner of Acadia Broadcasting,