SBDC @ Western New Mexico University
Teresa Dahl-Bredine and Dave Crosley founded Little Toad Creek LLC in 2012. The company operates in two locations:Little Toad Creek Inn & Tavern at Lake Roberts and Little Toad Creek Brewery & Distillery in Silver City. The Toad is the cornerstone of an area renaissance. Crosley first approached the SBDC-WNMU in early 2008 with his dream of brewing beer. In 2012, Teresa and Dave opened Little Toad Inn & Tavern at the intersection of Highways 35 and 15 thirty miles outside Silver City, New Mexico. The following year they added a craft brewery and nano-distillery on the premises. After the first season of operating the brewery and distillery in the heart of the Gila National Forest, Dahl-Bredine and Crosley realized their products had the ability to attract a much larger audience. In December of 2013, they opened a tasting room and fullservice restaurant in downtown Silver City, Little Toad Creek Brewery & Distillery. In their first year downtown, demand for Little Toad beer tripled and spirits sales took off. “We didn’t imagine the success we’d have there; our tiny production plant could barely keep up,” Dahl-Bredine said. Thanks to a LEDA grant from the New Mexico Economic Development Department and a loan from Western Bank, plans have been commenced for a downtown brewery and distillery to be located in the old Silver Skate Rink in Silver City. The building will be renovated and outfitted with state-of-the-art equipment; expanding brewing capacity from 200 barrels a year to 9000 barrels a year. Distillery capacity will triple. The operation will create 10 production jobs over the next three years and support sales of products such as “Whatever Wheat“ and “Amphibian Amber“ beyond the borders of New Mexico.
LITTLE TOAD CREEK BREWERY & DISTILLERY
“Jane Janson at the Small Business Development Center have been instrumental in helping us develop our brewery expansion plan in a way that is thorough and realistic. SBDC-WNMU has also helped us find the support we needed to put the financial plan in place to move forward. We are now at the juncture of turning these goals into reality and find ourselves reaching out to SBDC-WNMU on a regular basis for advice along the way. It’s fantastic to find such a wealth of knowledge and support in our local SBDC office!”
-Teresa Dahl-Bredine, Co-Owner, Little Toad Brewery & Distillery, Silver City, New Mexico