Goal oriented: Vision City Brewstillery expands from the pitch into former Boxing Bear space

Having a vision is one thing. Properly executing it is another matter entirely.

Thus far, Vision City Brewstillery seems to be making all the right moves to establish a foothold in Albuquerque, Corrales and the surrounding areas.

“The idea of Vision City is really like being a visionary, dreaming something up, having a pen on a napkin and making what’s not real, real,” said co-owner Martin Ulloa. “That’s really the idea of why we started doing this. I had a passion for brewing and distilling, and when I met my partners at the time, we all brought something to the table and made it work.”

The establishment got its start in 2021, when it launched a nanobrewery in a small space inside the International Indoor Soccer Arena. Nico Muniz, who co-owns IISA, is also one of the founders of Vision City. As it turns out, indoor soccer league participants and craft beer were an ideal match.

“We get a lot of players who play two, three games, come off the pitch and are really thirsty,” Ulloa said. “And so it’s really easy to reach for a beer. We found immediately that the community responded very well.”

In October of last year, Vision City was able to expand into the former Boxing Bear Brewing Company space near Corrales. It was an ideal spot for the brewery to continue its growth.

“I’m a believer in spaces that have really good energy,” Ulloa said. “This has been a bar for over 20 years. Before Boxing Bear, it was Elliott’s, and that place had a lot of loyal customers. So I thought, ‘Man, it’d be nice to be in a space where there’s sort of some magic and some history.’”

When Vision City launched at IISA, it focused on four beers: the Mexi Lager, Hazy IPA, Dunkel Nico (named for the co-founder) and the Lime Salt Lager. Those remain the foundation of Vision City’s offerings at the Corrales location — but with the larger space comes opportunities to add more options.

“We initially started with the one-barrel system (at the soccer arena). So in layman’s terms, that’s really small,” Ulloa said. “We do four really solid core beers. And so right now our lineup is streamlined to what we do well.

“Now that we have the space, we have extra capacity, and we’re gonna be getting some equipment in here (in Corrales) that’ll let us attack more beer styles that I think folks really want to see.”

For the time being, there are plenty of guest taps to accompany the Vision City staples, as visitors can also select beer options from La Cumbre Brewing Co., Ex Novo Brewing Co. and of course, Boxing Bear.

“This building, apart from being big, also has a lot of taps,” Ulloa said. “So I couldn’t fill all of them — at least not yet. It was really easy just to call up some friends that I have in other breweries and say, ‘Hey, man. Do you want to fill some of these taps?’”

In addition to beer, Vision City offers a wine and cocktail menu, and Ulloa, who has roots within the distilling community, plans to eventually start making his own spirits. Additionally, having a kitchen at the Corrales location allows the brewery to provide a menu with a variety of bar food and sandwiches. To make it even more of a destination, Ulloa is offering comedy, trivia nights and live music.

According to Ulloa, the community has been thrilled that Vision City has kept the Corrales location alive as a place to gather and share a pint. While it might be a little bit down the road, further expansion into Rio Rancho is also part of the “vision.”

“We’ve identified some spots that we like for a new construction build (where) we eventually want to put a production space out there,” he said. “… I think in the next couple years, we’ll identify a location, put some building plans down, and go from there. I’d love to have a string of locations.”

Goal oriented: Vision City Brewstillery expands from the pitch into former Boxing Bear space