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Northwest alumna Tiffany Fixter owns and manages Brewability, a bar and restaurant providing training and jobs in the brewing and hospitality industry for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. (Photos by Todd Weddle/Northwest Missouri State University)
It’s a Friday night in November at Brewability in downtown Englewood, Colorado. Nearly every seat is occupied as local band Dear Marsha belts out classic rock favorites and leads crowd sing-alongs.
Brewability employee Jose sings with Dear Marsha during a Friday night at the Englewood, Colorado, bar and restaurant.
What people find at Brewability is anything but another joint serving pizza and beer. Rachel, who has Down syndrome, is waiting on tables, delivering pans of made-to-order pizza with purpose. Juliana, who is visually impaired, is gracefully working the bar and pouring glasses of beer. And when Jose, a kitchen worker who has Down syndrome, joins Dear Marsha for a rousing round of Prince’s “Purple Rain,” the crowd lovingly cheers him on.
“If you come to Brewability and you don’t leave feeling great, there’s something wrong with you,” Dear Marsha vocalist Raina Ayres says between songs.
Brewability – a bar and restaurant providing training and jobs in the brewing and hospitality industry for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities – brims with inclusivity, acceptance, smiles and laughter. It’s the dream-come-true of Tiffany Fixter ’07.
“People say ‘The vibes are good here.’ That’s what they say – ‘the vibes,’” Fixter says as she watches over the room with pride.
Fixter created Brewability in 2016 with a vision of a family-friendly space where adults with disabilities are gainfully employed and every aspect of the operation is purposeful.
Fixter, who grew up in Lincoln, Nebraska, is a daughter of entrepreneurial parents. Her father, who grew up in the Denver suburb of Englewood, has worked in the jewelry industry for most of his life, and her parents own an antique store in Estes Park. To help Brewability move to its Englewood location in 2019, Fixter’s mother sold her bakery.
“I should have taken some more business classes at Northwest ’cause now I’m doing it,” Fixter jokes.
Still, when Fixter headed to Northwest, her mother nudged her toward education. She became an elementary education major with a cross-categorical emphasis in K-12 special education. She also joined Alpha Sigma Alpha sorority and enjoyed participating in philanthropy activities to support Special Olympics, in addition to working with Maryville families with disabled children.
“Even growing up, in elementary school and middle school and high school, I was always helping out kids with disabilities,” she said. “I just kind of always have done that and a lot of charity work with my dad. He was involved in Kiwanis, so when I was in high school I started Key Club there. It’s really important to give back, so that was ingrained in me as a kid.”
After studying abroad for a semester in Australia, Fixter returned to Northwest to finish her bachelor’s degree and secured an internship as a practicing teacher in Kansas City Public Schools – an experience in an urban setting that presented numerous challenges for which she concedes she was not prepared. But she persisted and took on a master’s degree program through the University of Kansas, teaching during the day and attending classes at night.
“I actually wanted to work for Disney World, being the guest relations person,” said Fixter, who completed her master’s thesis about vacation experiences for people with autism. “I was really interested in people with disabilities and how they interact with the community.”
In 2014, Fixter decided to leave teaching and relocated to the Denver area to become the director of a day program for adults with disabilities. That lasted for barely a year until, Fixter says, she was let go for showing a lack of creativity.
“I really thought it was like moving up, being in charge of a huge program, but it was definitely a switch from being a public school teacher,” Fixter said of the program that had her overseeing the care of 135 individuals who had medical needs that required her to earn additional certifications.
“I realized that I only had one person out of the 135 who had a part-time job,” Fixter said. “It felt like wasted potential.”
Brewability is located in a century-old building in the middle of downtown Englewood.
So Fixter created Brewability in 2016 with help from a Kickstarter funding campaign. She envisioned a family-friendly space where adults with disabilities are gainfully employed and every aspect of the operation is purposeful. She wanted a place where employees and customers alike could feel safe and in control.
It hasn’t been easy. Fixter’s journey with Brewability has been a continuous process of trial and error in the face of pushback and threats from people who disagree with her inclusive business model. She trialed the concept at a Denver incubator for craft brewers and then opened Brewability’s first location in a garage at an industrial park in northeast Denver.
“It showcases what people with disabilities can do and how they should be involved in our community,” Fixter said. “They shouldn’t be hidden away in day programs. They should be out in the community. It’s OK if they want – if it’s medically OK for them to do so – to have a beer. They’re not children. Everybody needs a purpose.”
In 2018, one of Brewability’s customers offered Fixter a turnkey pizzeria in Denver’s Cherry Creek neighborhood. Fixter took it and opened Pizzability, although she didn’t have any experience operating a pizza restaurant.
“My mom and I went to the Las Vegas pizza convention and signed up for every class we could, just to learn everything we could about pizza,” Fixter said. “Then you’ve got to dive in and do it.”
Eventually, though, Fixter had to confront the complexities of managing two locations that she was leasing, and neither were prime spots for the accessibility Brewability and Pizzability needed. With both leases expiring, Fixter began looking for a location she could purchase to merge the two concepts.
She found it in the middle of downtown Englewood at a century-old building with history as a public market, appliance store and music store. With her mother’s help and some grant funding, Fixter moved the businesses into their current single location in late 2019.
Alex, a 32-year-old bartender who is visually impaired and autistic, was one of Brewability’s first employees. With his 8-year old guide dog nearby, he enjoys serving customers and talking sports with them.
Brewability is centered in a vibrant downtown strip of Englewood, near a hospital with a leading brain injury and spinal cord treatment center, as well as the Colorado Center for the Blind.
With about 25 employees who operate the business under her guidance, Fixter has implemented systems that enable staff independence. The beer taps are color-coded and have Braille labels. Menus are available with pictures for patrons who cannot read and in Braille for those who are visually impaired.
Brewability also partners with Special Olympics and hosts “Blind Bingo” nights with the National Federation of the Blind. On Saturday mornings, it offers programming that includes Zumba, adaptive fitness, wheelchair stretching, Pilates and self-defense training – in addition to being a hotspot for watch parties and birthday parties.
Fixter adds amenities and services largely based on ideas and feedback provided by patrons.
“I don’t have a disability, personally, so I think it’s really important to listen to people that do and not make decisions just based on what I think they need,” she said. “It’s just keeping a list of what people mention they might need because somebody else is going to come in and might need that, too.”
Rachel, 41, has worked at Brewability since 2019. Asked what she enjoys most about working at the business, she said, “I love making pizza and dancing, too, and singing.”
The Pizzability sign from the former Cherry Creek location hangs on a back wall of the Englewood building as a reminder of the business’s origins. In the meantime, Fixter dreams of expanding to the building’s rooftop, refurbishing its basement for additional dining space and adding an elevator. More than that, she wants to inspire people and show other business owners what people with disabilities are capable of doing.
It’s not uncommon for parents – particularly those bringing children with disabilities to Brewability for the first time – to cry as they settle into the restaurant’s warm and caring atmosphere.
“They can see that there’s an opportunity for their kid when they grow up, and there’s a safe place for them to dine,” Fixter said. “They’re accepted and not stared at. That happens almost weekly, but it still gets me every time.”
Brewability also has an effect on people who are not accustomed to interacting with others who have disabilities.
“It’s important to be so customer-facing and interactive because there are people that have never interacted with someone with a disability until they come in here,” Fixter said. “It’s a great opportunity to directly educate our customers.”
With about 25 employees who operate Brewability under her guidance, Fixter has implemented systems that enable staff independence
By around 10:15 p.m. on that Friday night in November, the band had finished playing and the noise that filled the room had dissipated to a soft buzz of conversation accompanied by the clinking of glasses and plates. One by one, as employees finished their duties for the night, they came to a table where Fixter was seated to exchange hugs and “love yous.”
Fixter beamed again as she watched them exit the building with caregivers or to catch their waiting transportation. The success stories surrounding her employees are so numerous now, it’s difficult for Fixter to pick out even a handful that are most meaningful to her.
“Every day there’s something,” she says. “It’s hard to remember where they started because they’re just so independent now. Everything just clicks. I’m really proud of them.”
