Third Window’s Superb Sours and Smashing Smash Burgers

Five years ago this month, Third Window Brewing Company opened in The Mill on East Haley Street to much fanfare, powered by proprietor Kristopher Parker’s firm vision to craft Belgian-style beers with seasonal and vintage variation.

“All my beer ideas are essentially developed from wine — I don’t know how to think any other way,” Parker told me back then, referring to what he’d learned while growing up around the winery founded by his grandfather, the late actor Fess Parker, and still run by his family. “We will be totally uncompromising in terms of quality — growth be damned.”

By and large, Parker held to his word, for better — when considering his ever-changing, high-quality beers — and worse, when it comes to keeping your original partners and sticking to the business model. His family bought out those other partners a couple years ago, and they’ve used their wine industry acumen to push Third Window deeper into retail, among other efficiency-minded changes. They also helped The Mill spread an alcohol permit across the entire property, allowing beer to be served to guests at Potek Winery and vice versa; for years, you couldn’t cross the breezeway between the two, which created useless confusion.