Pickleball might not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think about cider. But Joe Bott, with Second Summit Hard Cider Company, says they’re a fitting match, especially for Utah.
The new cidery, located at 4010 S. Main St. in Millcreek, is set to open June 1. It features four regulation green and orange pickleball courts in the back, and once open, Second Summit plans to have about a dozen rotating hard ciders on tap for players and spectators to enjoy, as well as hard cider in cans.
So why pickleball and cider? It’s an up-and-coming sport and an up-and-coming beverage, said 28-year-old Bott, who’s director of operations at Second Summit.
“With Salt Lake being this very outdoor city where people want to be active and do a lot of things, this is a fun way to combine two things like that,” Bott said. Plus, cider is seen as a “little bit of a healthier drink,” he said — lower in sugar and carbs and easier on the stomach than a traditional beer.
“It’s a great alternative to have where it’s not quite a wine, not beer,” he continued. “So it kind of gives you that happy medium.”
Utahns who are new to pickleball can try it out on March 25, when Second Summit holds an outdoor open house “to introduce ourselves to the community,” Bott said.
There will be live music, two food trucks, nonalcoholic beverages, pickleball and a vendor market. Beehive Sport and Social Club will also be there to promote its pickleball league, which begins in May.
‘Want to open a cidery?’
Joe Bott has about eight years of experience working in everything from breweries and dive bars to craft beer bars. Two years ago, he was working at a cidery in Minnesota when his mom, Vicki Bott, called him one day and said, “Do you want to open a cidery?”
Bott said he couldn’t say no, and from the beginning, it was a “family and friends project,” he said, with his mom and a family friend on the financial side.
His mom started the groundwork, hiring a consultant to help with the necessary ordering and financial tasks. Once Joe Bott moved from Minnesota to Salt Lake City, they started looking at real estate. They found their building faster than they expected, Bott said, in a pocket of Millcreek near State Street that’s rapidly filling with new apartments.
“And then it was just kind of a whirlwind and started going faster and faster,” Bott said. Now, Second Summit is about two months out from hosting a “soft opening.”
One thing still remains in limbo, though: a liquor license. While Second Summit is licensed to manufacture cider and sell it to-go, it doesn’t have a full bar license. And since the state technically sees Second Summit as a winery, it needs a full bar license for patrons to legally purchase and consume cider on the premises.
Second Summit will be able to have cider available for tasting, however, up to 5 ounces per person per day, until they get their bar license.
“It’s one of these weird caveats where cider has been treated a little weirdly because it hasn’t been a mainstream drink for a long time,” Bott said. “That since it’s made like wine, it’s treated like wine.”
Currently, there aren’t any liquor licenses available, Bott said, but the hope is that more will be available in May or June, which would allow people to drink and play at the same time. “That’s the big hope, really,” he added.
Why pickleball?
The decision to have pickleball available to play at Second Summit is driven by a nationwide trend of people wanting to have something to do while they drink, Bott said.
“You can always just go and sit in a bar, and you can go sit there and have five drinks,” Bott said, “but let’s be able to do something, like play board games.”
A sports bar in Des Moines, Iowa, has a similar pickleball setup, Bott said. “You get eight people, you’re kind of trading off ... you’re dinking around, you’re not really playing [correctly] half the time because you’re not that serious. But you’re just enjoying it. So I think it’s just a nice thing.”
Plus, with its sturdy paddle and large, whiffle-like ball, pickleball is an “easy sport to get into,” Bott said.
As for whether Bott is worried about inebriated people playing pickleball, he said staffers will be trained to not overserve and will have some first aid training “just in case.”
“Hopefully, only some scraped knees and stuff and bruised egos will be the worst injuries out here,” he said. “But that’s why I like playing doubles pickleball, because there’s a little bit less running involved.”
An afternoon on the pickleball courts
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) A mural by local artist Lizzie Wenger is shown at Second Summit Hard Cider in Millcreek along with tables and chairs on Thursday, March 2, 2023. The new cidery, located at 4010 S. Main St., is set to open June 1.
Making the hard cider at Second Summit will be Brandon Baldridge, who’s been in the industry for 10 years, Bott said, and has worked at Houston Cider Company and several cideries and breweries in Colorado.
Some people have their own preconceived notions about cider, and imagine that it will be too sweet, Bott said, but that’s not the case with most good ciders.
“You have drier sides, you have sweet sides, you can have all these kinds of flavors off the wall, and people do some crazy things with cider,” he said.
When it opens, Second Summit will be the fifth licensed cider manufacturer in Utah, Bott said, as well as Millcreek’s first craft beverage business.
Once the bar is fully licensed, patrons will be able to drink inside the cidery or go out onto the pickleball court, where there will be ample seating and shade. A mural by local artist Lizzie Wenger of a mountain view painted in her “psychedelic cubist” style brightens up the north side of the building.
Hungry people will be able to order from Second Summit’s menu of hot dogs, visit a food truck out front, or just order food to be brought to the cidery itself. Then sip some cider while enjoying views of the Wasatch Range.
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