Hi! It's so wonderful to see you all here. As you know, we're about to move our meadery to a new location.
This move will allow us to produce more mead. But it means we will have to close the Mead Hall as we know it. The response from all of you has been overwhelming. Both your joy at our growth and your sadness at the end of an era. We did not want to move at this exact time, but things have lined up to push us along to that next stage of business.
So, what about the mead hall? We didn't fully understand what we wrote when we wrote the mead hall mission on our website back in 2015. We wrote "Colchester's Mead Hall is not merely a restaurant, brewery, or bar. The Mead Hall is so much more.” I don't think it was because we wrote those words that the Mead Hall became such an important place to so many people.
I believe that it was because everyone who has participated in the hall has understood and lived that mission, whether they read our little manifesto or not. Everyone on our staff, all of our regular customers, all of the people who have partnered with us to host events from comedy nights to metal shows to Halloween bazaars to Viking craft fairs, have helped us make the Mead Hall what it is today and helped us live up to our mission. So, as we work on moving our production facility up the road, we're working on moving our Mead Hall on the road. And at first, I was nervous about this transition. I thought we needed to have the Mead Hall in a fixed location in order for our mission to survive, but all of you have shown me otherwise.
The Mead Hall is not a place. It is its people. It is the space they create when they come together. Therefore, I suggest a new version of "Mead Hall with a Mission.” The Mead Hall is not a restaurant, brewery, or bar. Certainly, there will be food and drink aplenty for those who desire it. But the Mead Hall is so much more. We believe that at the heart of every strong community, there is a strong Mead Hall. A place that stands as a last bastion of community and civility.
The Mead Hall exists to be the heart and soul of the community it serves. The Mead Hall is a space to turn back to one another. Not only to those we already know and love, but also to newcomers. Come feast with us. To the Mead Hall!
