FOX31 Denver

Brewpub happily provides jobs for people with disabilities

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (KDVR) — Brewability is a brewpub that serves handcrafted beer and homemade pizza. They take pride in the fact that they are staffed by people with learning and physical disabilities.

On Friday, 18 Denver Public Schools students with learning and physical disabilities are learning the ropes of working in a restaurant.

“The goal is to support the students to live as independently as they want in their lives, so we do a lot of soft job skills. We do a lot of work stuff, we do a lot of independent living,” said Christine Parra, Denver Public Schools special education teacher.

The field trip was just one of many that take place at the Englewood brewpub.

“We do everything that you would do in a restaurant, so getting it ready, cleaning off the tables, doing the chairs,” said Tiffany Fixter, Brewability owner.

Brewability is teaching these young people the ability to work in the hospitality industry, like 20-year-old Miranda Barnstable, who will be soon graduating from North High School.

Barnstable learned the fine art of creating the perfect pizza pie.

“There is a huge workforce out there that is untapped, and I think that if restaurants really embraced it, they would have an amazing staff,“ Fixter said.

Restaurants industry-wide are hungry for employees. Brewability has a waiting list of more than 500 applicants who would love to work for them. Like Miranda Barnstable.