Downtown Cidery Request Bears Fruit

New Haveners will soon-ish be able to enjoy locally made hard cider in the basement of a downtown office building — thanks to the entrepreneurship of fermented-apple-juice enthusiast and aerospace engineer Antonio Rivera.

Rivera received approval to use the basement space for his cidery at the latest monthly Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) meeting, which was held at City Hall and on Zoom Tuesday evening. 

The zoning commissioners approved Rivera’s request for a use variance allowing a portion of the finished basement at 65 Trumbull St. to be used for the small-scale production, serving, and sale of hard cider. Carol Horsford, founder and broker at Farnam Realty, owns the building through a holding company called 63 Trumbull LLC. The building also houses office spaces for a local law firm and construction company.

Rivera showed up on Tuesday evening with a pitch deck he honed at CitySeed’s Food Business Accelerator, which he said provided him mentorship, business curriculum, and the drive to move quickly into the development stage of his business.

Rivera’s love of fermentation began back home in Puerto Rico, where mavi — a fermented bark beverage — is a popular drink and emblem of the island’s cultural heritage. When he moved to Connecticut eight years ago, he wanted to keep this part of his culture alive and mix it with New England’s history of cider. So he started growing apples and ​“messed around with fermenting” — all while working as an aerospace engineer.

“We live in New England, historically associated with hard cider, but there is none,” Rivera told the zoning board. ​“So this project is trying to bring back culturally relevant heritage, a tradition that’s somewhat been lost for a variety of reasons but that is part of the identity of the area.” 

Rivera hopes to produce about 2,000 gallons of cider a year. He has been making cider for six or seven years, crafting much of his equipment by hand at MakeHaven, a nonprofit community workspace.

“I’m using local stuff — 100 percent local apples, working with farmers … using local woods to age the ciders in barrels,” Rivera told the board. ​“And hopefully bringing back something that’s important to this region and has sort of vanished.”

He found a big barrier to scaling his cider business: The cost of real estate.

“Unfortunately, there’s no affordable place for me,” Rivera told the board. ​“I’ve found a spot in 65 Trumbull that is essentially a dark basement with concrete floors, floor drains, with very little light. All of these attributes make the place undesirable for a residence or an office — and that’s why no one is living there, and it’s just vacant. It’s sort of perfect for hard cider because it stays cool; it’s dark.”

Local attorney Ben Trachten voiced his support for the variance request, pointing to the space’s current vacancy and adding, ​“We need to support our small businesses.” Rivera’s request also received six letters of support from locals.

“From both a personal & business perspective, the Escape New Haven team would be really delighted to have Antonio’s Cider Project as our neighbors,” Ethan Rodriguez-Torrent, co-founder of neighboring business Escape New Haven, wrote in one.

BZA Commissioner Errol Saunders asked if Rivera had explored other options for his business. Rivera said he had — and had been left not knowing how to proceed due to price and statewide regulations around liquor production.

“This place seems like the best stop for the next step because the rents are so high it’s just inaccessible,” Rivera explained.

After the board voted unanimously to approve the variance, Rivera is onto the next steps of his business: outfitting the basement with the proper equipment. Come November, he’ll start preparing the cider batches to ferment. 

“I can’t believe the board approved everything,” he said. ​“This is really exciting.”

He hopes to eventually plant some ​“old school Spanish high-tannin apples,” like the ones that grew where his extended family is from in Spain.