Shop Around: Vista welcomes Twisted Spur

This week the Vista welcomed the much-anticipated Twisted Spur Brewing at 705 Gervais St.

The brainchild of owner and Columbia native Chris Baldwin, Twisted Spur is a microbrewery with 15 tanks, 11 serving vessels and 12 taps online at the bar. Five beers are currently on tap including Baldwin's four made-in-house staples--a blonde, a red, an IPA and a wheat--as well as an India Chai Porter added Thursday.

"A couple of the beers--the blonde and the red--come directly out of the serving vessels through the tap without going into a keg which is really cool," said Baldwin, who has worked as a bartender and then a brewer in Reno, Tempe and Las Vegas for Gordon Biersch Brewing Co.

Twisted Spur is also a full-service restaurant that can seat 152 inside and outside on its covered patio which boasts a sizeable menu of 50-plus items and even an oyster raw bar which currently features seven types of oysters.

"We try to use all local ingredients and we make everything in house from scratch," Baldwin said. "We cut our own steaks in house; we make our own sauces and dressings."

The 5,000-square-foot Twisted Spur location is part of Columbia architect Scott Garvin's renovation and revitalization of the block of former warehouses at 700 Gervais. The three vacant buildings were built after the Civil War. Baldwin worked to keep the space's original decor such as exposed brick on the walls and even had the original wooden floors removed, re-milled and re-installed on the floors as well as on a portion of the walls.

"We wanted to preserve everything we could," Baldwin said. "The only thing we rebuilt was the fireplace because it was a safety issue."

In addition to Twisted Spur and luxury apartments there, the 700 Gervais block is now home to three other new restaurants: Grill Marks, Newks Eatery and Wired Goat.

This story was originally published April 21, 2016 at 1:28 PM with the headline "Shop Around: Vista welcomes Twisted Spur."