When it was founded in 1964 as a self-contained planned community, the Lake Anne area of Reston, Virginia, had a lot to offer, but not a brewery. That wouldn’t happen until 2016 when Melissa and Jason Romano opened the Lake Anne Brew House. By that time, a lot had changed in the community. There were still a lot of the architectural hallmarks that made this community so admired, but it had evolved from its original intent.
So the couple, who also live in town, decided that in opening their brewery, they would stick to the mid-century modern design that was popular in the 1960s. By offering something that hearkens to a specific era while tying it all together with beers that are popular today, Lake Anne Brew House is part of a niche that seeks to stand out from what can often be a cookie-cutter approach to taprooms.
Historical Build-out
Melissa Romano is an architect and a native of Reston. She says it was both gratifying and odd studying her hometown while getting her degree but that it forged a better relationship with the tourists who come to visit the community to revel in the Brutalist architecture and design. (Brutalism, which flourished from about 1950 to 1975, advocated utilitarian designs in which function trumped form with raw construction materials and nitty-gritty functions left exposed.)