To find a good brewery, does a person have to go to the big city? No. In fact, we’re going to visit the state’s smallest town with an active brewery.
Lucas Hass and Grant Wagner are the owners of Fly Boy Brewery & Eats in Sylvan Grove. Both Lucas and Grant are originally from Bennington.
“I’ve always loved food and cooking, and also a good beer,” Lucas said. He worked at a steakhouse in Emporia before taking a job doing business analytics at a manufacturing company in Salina.
Grant became a chef at top-end restaurants in Kansas City before moving back to north central Kansas to be near family.
In 2014, Clay and Linda Haring bought a building in Sylvan Grove, remodeled it, and started a brewery and restaurant. Clay is an agricultural pilot and Linda is a teacher. Because Clay was a pilot, they decorated the establishment with an aviation theme and called it Fly Boy Brewery & Eats, or Flyboys for short.
Grant Wagner helped them set up the kitchen. When Clay and Linda got so busy with their other work that they decided to sell the restaurant, Grant approached Lucas with the idea of buying it. Together they became the new owners of Fly Boy Brewery & Eats. “This is a great restaurant and we didn’t want it to be lost,” Lucas said.
“We try to make all the main dishes from scratch,” Lucas said. The menu features steaks, burgers, sandwiches, seafood, chicken and salads. There’s the Landing Strip Burger, Plane Jane burger, Crop Duster, Hanger Over, and more.
“At heart, we’re a steakhouse,” Lucas said. “Our ribeye, KC strip, and chicken fried steak are really popular.”
