By Matthew Young
For HDMedia
“Before you brew beer, you drink it.”
That’s what Jason Martin, owner of newly opened Ursus Brew Works in downtown Charleston, said while explaining the motivation behind his wanting to open a brewery.
“I joined the military right out of high school,” Martin said. “I was in the Air Force for six years and had a crash course in how to handle your alcohol.”
The Owner
After finishing his military service, Martin met his partner, Megan, who introduced him to craft beer.
“She created a monster,” Martin said. “I started drinking craft beer, and started researching different styles of beer and trying different styles of beer.”
One year for his birthday, Martin added, Megan’s grandfather gifted Martin a Mr. Beer home-brewing kit. “I made some really terrible beer in my kitchen one day.”
Martin said even though the beer was awful, he enjoyed the brewing experience.
“I read books and got more nerdy into the beer world,” Martin continued. “I started taking my home brew to a small brewery in Crofton, Maryland, where I got to know the owner. He was also the brewer there — it was a really small operation.”
After two years of that, Martin decided it was time to start learning how to brew beer commercially. As fate would have it, the owner of the Crofton brewery no longer wanted the responsibility of brewing, so he hired Martin to do it, teaching him along the way.
“I quit my job that I had,” Martin said. “I had a pension and everything. Gave it all up to learn how to brew professionally.”
After spending several years honing his brewing skills, Martin decided it was time to take the leap into entrepreneurship.
Homing in on the Strand building
After departing Maryland in May 2024 for West Virginia, where he had family, Martin purchased the historic Strand Building at 207 Hale St. in Charleston. Once home to a long-established, well-known billiards parlor on the first floor and a dance club on the second, the building had been shuttered since the early-2000s. It was the first and only property Martin looked at before deciding it would be the future home of Ursus Brew Works.
Martin immediately went to work remodeling the historic structure, working with an interior designer to give Ursus a crisp, neo-modern aesthetic while preserving the building’s history and legacy as an institution of the downtown shopping district. The massive wall cabinet that greets patrons as they enter the brewery is original to the building, while the bar area and kitchen offer more modern amenities and a polished appearance.
After nearly two years of upgrades and renovations, Ursus Brew Works held its soft opening on March 4. The brewery is named for West Virginia’s state animal, the Ursus Americanus, also known as the black bear.
The chef
Donnie Smith said becoming a chef “was never a want. It was more of a realization.”
“I started off wanting to be a musician,” Smith explained. “But I started learning how to cook when I was 5. It’s just something that I’ve always done, and then I started to get really good at it.”
A lifetime resident of Charleston, Smith bounced around the city for several years, all the while working under and learning from some of the most successful chefs in the area.
“Finally, I got my shot to be a chef, and I took it,” Smith said, “and here we are now.”
As Martin explains it, his introduction to Smith was a stroke of good fortune, and entirely the result of a desire that other downtown restaurants have to see Ursus Brew Works succeed.
“All the breweries here in town have been awesome,” Martin said. “They’ve really helped me out. I’ve gotten to become good friends with a lot of the people who work there. And John [Query] Over at Fife Street [Brewing], he said, ‘Hey I’ve got this guy, and he’s a chef. I think that he would be perfect for you.’”
Smith came to meet with Martin the next day, armed with a freshly prepared pepperoni roll. After trying the roll, which Smith made using his great-grandmother’s recipe — and with the strong recommendation from Query — Martin was sold.
“[Smith] came on as more of a consultant for a while,” Martin noted. “As we got to know each other and I had more of his food, I told him that if he wanted to be the chef here, he could go right ahead.”
“It has been absolutely fantastic ever since,” Martin added. “This guy has been rocking in the kitchen.”
Handmade food, in-house brewed beer
With Smith at the helm, the kitchen at Ursus offers everything from sandwiches and wings to perogies and black bean burgers. Cookies, poutine and brunch on Sundays are also available.
For in-house brews, the selection will vary from week to week, with the most recent options being a hoppy brown ale and Irish stout in honor of St. Patrick’s Day.
‘Part of a brewery district’
Query, the general manager of Fife Street Brewing, said brewers are all part of a bigger community, especially when there are several operating in one town or city. Query is thrilled to add Ursus to Charleston’s growing brewpub clan.
“We could not be happier about it,” Query said. “When we opened in 2022, we wanted to be part of a brewery district.”
That group in Charleston now numbers five.
“I’m really happy to have another brewer in town.”
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