Post Ride: Bikes and brews in Cd'A

Bicyclers drink beer.

It’s probably no secret.

So do runners, hikers, climbers and skiers.

And paddleboarders. They do, too.

And because these outdoor aficionados — these pundits of powder, of waves, of cold gneiss or the long ride — like to hang out together, they can often be found at the same watering holes.

Drinking beer that is.

Alex Castagno, who owns a downtown Coeur d’Alene bicycle shop with Chris Caro, knows this.

Castagno and Caro and the many bicyclers in the local riding community often spent a bit of time after bike rides sipping a frothy brew at their favorite gathering place.

“We have a great bicycling community,” Castagno said. “The outdoor community in general is a great community.”

But since the Slate Creek Brewery folded this year, the peddlers who gathered there post-ride were left without a hangout.

“We don’t like to go to the other bars,” Castagno said.

Outdoors people like to socialize with outdoors people, he said.

So, sans a community tavern to accommodate them, what were local outdoor enthusiasts to do?

At Castagno and Caro’s Coeur d’Alene Bike Company on Third Street and Indiana Avenue just a couple blocks north of downtown, the men and their crew sell and maintain bicycles, gear and apparel, host seminars, clinics and workshops, and now, sell beer.

The last item is new on Coeur d’Alene Bike Company’s menu.

When Slate Creek closed, Castagno said, and the cyclers, sometimes 20 or more in a group after a ride, yearned for a post-ride brew, it became obvious that Coeur d’Alene Bike Company needed a bar.

“So we opened our own,” he said.

The Post Ride’s big opener, (a soft opening this week drew more than 75 people) where anyone can sit and sip a locally crafted beer from the Kellogg-based Radio Brewing Co., or Post Falls Brewing Company or Hayden’s Mad Bomber brewery, is set for Friday. Castagno and company are soliciting area breweries to sell their product at the tap.

“We’re going to keep it local,” Castagno said.

The opening of the Post Ride, which adjoins the bicycle shop, coincides with a holiday giveaway. The shop will collect lightly used clothing, new toys for its Toys For Tots bin and gifts for needy families. Revelers can drop off the items at the shop. They will be distributed to local charities.

Castagno, a southern Idaho native who completed the police academy before joining the Army and touring Iraq, said he moved to Coeur d’Alene several years ago to attend college and work at a bike shop.

He and Caro worked together at Terra Sports. When the East Sherman Avenue shop closed, the duo opened the Coeur d’Alene Bike Company in the former Bakery by the Lake building.

“It was a seamless transition,” Castagno said.

The 5,500-square-foot structure accommodates the retail and repair shop. It has plenty of room for the tavern with its hand-made pine bar and tables.

“In today’s world you can’t just be a bike shop,” Castagno said. “We’re a bike shop that has a bar in it.”