Ska Brewing Turns Shipping Containers Into An Eatery

Matt Vincent, the co-owner and vice president of Durango's Ska Brewing, has always wanted to do something creative with shipping containers. He's noticed them cropping up a lot lately in construction projects.

"The idea of being able to repurpose things fits with our focus on sustainability," says Vincent. "We already have solar tubes to light the warehouse, recycled denim for insulation, former bowling lanes for tables? creating a restaurant space by repurposing shipping containers was another way to reduce our footprint. And it'll look badass."

That it does. The Container Restaurant, built out of two shipping containers, is now open at the beer garden at Ska Brewing World Headquarters on Girard Street in Durango. Open Monday through Saturday, The Container serves brick oven pizzas, salads, sandwiches and creative sweets like the s'mores pizza, all made from locally sourced ingredients. The Container's house-ground beef is even finished on Ska's spent grain. Many of the menu items, such as the Steel Toe Stout brownie and the Pinstripe Red cheddar ale soup, incorporate Ska's beers too.

The Container will includes products from nearby ranches and local companies like Serious Delights Bakery, Cream Bean Berry ice cream parlor, and Intolerant Italian gluten-free bakery.

Jeremy Storm, The Container's head chef and manager, attended the Culinary Institute of America and instructed at the New England Culinary Institute before he moved to Alaska to work as a chef on a commercial fishing boat. He finally landed in Durango so he could escape the Alaskan winters and ride his mountain bike more months out of the year.

The Container melds Chef Storm's expertise, versatile culinary experience and community-centric ideology about food with Ska Brewing's philosophy that good beer deserves good food. Cheers to that.

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