The
Pointless Brewery & Theatre opened on the east side of Ann Arbor a few weeks ago, but the craft brewery and improv stage is anything but pointless.
Tori and Jason Tomalia started working on the project a little more than a year ago in response to Tori’s diagnosis of stage 4 lung cancer. The young couple were able to fight off the cancer so that is now under control. Their next move, open the theater and brewery they always talked about building.
"When I got sick it threw life into a different perspective," Tori says. "We asked ourselves what do we want to do? How do we want to spend this time."
The Tomalias have always been theater people. They both big fans of improvisation comedy and craft beer. They always talked about opening a micro brewery or a theater but work life and family (they have a 7-year-old boy and twin 4-year-old girls) always came first and ate up most of their time.
When they started talking seriously about opening Pointless Brewery & Theatre the question came up of would this be the right decision? That’s when they started asking themselves what's the point of doing anything if you follow your dreams. Would working the same day job they weren’t as passionate about be just as pointless when it comes to their quality of life.
"Maybe everything anyone ever does is pointless?" Tori says. "Maybe we should open up this brewery and theater because it can be pointless?"
Pointless became their rallying cry and then the name of their latest venture. They signed a lease for 2,000 square feet of at 3014 Packard Road and spent the last year turning the old sushi restaurant into a craft brewery and improv theater.
It opened in late December with an improv troupe hosting shows on the weekend and craft beer brewed in small batched served at the bar. The venue seats 55 people and does performances every weekend this winter. The Tomalias, who have turned this into their full-time jobs, plan to expand the showtimes within a few months to accommodate more performances.
The Pointless Brewery & Theatre host improv performances at 8 p.m. Friday, 8 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. Saturday. There is an open-stage night on Sunday evenings and a kids performance at 10:30 a.m. Saturday.
Source: Tori Tomalia, co-founder of Pointless Brewery & Theatre
Writer: Jon Zemke
Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
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