Projo Politics Blog

Most businesses hoping to come to Rhode Island don't get to make their pitch from the speaker's rostrum.

But most businesses aren't Narragansett Beer.

Officials for the Rhode Island brew with the famous name hit the State House Thursday to tout their plan to build a new Narragansett brewery here in the Ocean State.

Despite its namesake, 'Gansett hasn't been brewed here since the company closed its Cranston plant in 1979.

As staffers passed out shot glasses filled with the frothy libation, company owner Mark Hellendrung stood beside House Speaker William J. Murphy, urging lawmakers to "drink their part." To raise the money needed to build a full-scale brewery here, Hellendrung said the company needs to sell 7.5 million cases of beer a year.

"We have the chance to rewrite history together and rebuild Narragansett," Hellendrung said, adding that a new brewery would create much-needed jobs. "I'm here to offer our company, this great brand and a great beer, a beer that's always been owned by the hearts and minds of Rhode Islanders and New Englanders...as an example of what business and government and local leaders can do together when they have a shared vision and a common goal."

It was a rousing speech, and one that ended in a standing ovation and an invite to lawmakers from the owner to join him next Thursday for a rally by the Biltmore Hotel, complete with " 'Gansett girls" and a trip to a local bar afterward.

Their mini beer cups empty, lawmakers then regaled the executive with their own Narragansett stories -- tales of bygone bars and good times that stretched back decades. Warren Rep. Jan Malik even joked that the executives should bring the 'Gansett girls to his liquor store.

"Whatever the Rhode Island House of Representatives can do to help you accomplish your mission of opening a Narragansett brewery back here in Rhode Island, we'll do whatever we can," said Murphy.

 Tags  Narrangansett beer

---