Alex and Hillary Rausch first met while working in the restaurant industry. But it was their marriage that actually brought them into brewing.
"I kind of learned how to brew beer for the first time for our wedding. I saw a more personal touch on it, I guess, rather than just buying kegs of beer," says Alex, who now owns the North Monroe district hot spot Four-Eyed Guys Brewing Co. with Hillary.
When the two met, they were coworkers at a casual dining restaurant. Hillary worked the front-of-house while Alex worked in the kitchen. That dynamic continues at Four-Eyed Guys where Alex handles the brewing, which is done in the back of their taproom, and Hillary works more on the customer-facing side of the business, behind the bar.
"She's a great people-person for sure. I am, uh, adequate," Alex says with a laugh. "It's just a good combo to have, you know, somebody who's very passionate about the product, and somebody who's very passionate about presenting the product."
"I just love bartending," Hillary adds.
Before opening the taproom, the couple had been operating Four-Eyed Guys as a small, distribution-only brewery. Hillary was busy bartending around town during that time. "I worked at The Flying Goat and at places that would sell my husband's beer and I would be like, 'Here's my husband's beer,' and people loved it. It was nice to get the word out in that way whenever I could of telling all our regulars, 'Here, drink this beer.'"
The two signed a lease on their taproom at 910 W. Indiana Ave., half a block off North Monroe Street, in April of 2020, just as the restaurant industry was grinding to a halt in the pandemic. They made it through the lockdowns and opened in a limited capacity later that year, thanks in part to their deep connections with Spokane's service industry community.
One thing that drew customers to Four-Eyed Guys both before and since they opened the taproom is that they're not married to any particular style of beer. Their offerings aren't dominated by IPAs or confined to any specific regional flavors.
"We always have staples, like the Vienna Lagers and West Coast IPAs and things like that," says Alex.
"The main thing we do is try to experiment as best as we can. We do all sorts of weird stuff. One of our favorite ones is a banana coconut sour on nitrogen, but it's completely fruitless. It's a hefeweizen yeast and Sabro hops, which is very coconutty. It's all the ingredients of just plain beer, but it has so many different layers to it," says Alex.
When I visited in late April, the beer the Rausches described as their "weirdest" on tap at the time was a cranberry and fir needle sour called the Ariana — all their beers are named for employees, family or friends — brewed with fir needles from the Christmas tree they cut at Greenbluff.
They've also been a pioneer in the local seltzer boom, with multiple taps dedicated to their house-made and adventurous fizzy drinks.
Beyond the booze, Four-Eyed Guys has been working to establish itself as a standout, all-ages spot for food in a neighborhood already loaded with them. With their background in the restaurant industry, the Rausches developed a menu based around charcuterie boards and sandwiches which may sound simple but maintains the creative style of their beer menu.
"We make our own hummus, and we make our own butter," says Hillary.
They've also been known to take a seasonal approach to their menu, introducing reubens around St. Patrick's Day and taco salads for Cinco de Mayo with recipes all developed in-house. There are even plans for a thematic tie-in to the midcentury aesthetic they've created inside the taproom with fondue nights in the future.
"We really dig the midcentury modern vibe. Not only aesthetically, but it's one of my favorite eras because I feel like that whole midcentury era was all about hospitality. We like having something for everybody," Alex says.
