Vero Gets Its Much-Needed Third Place
- Vero Minute
- 5 hours ago
- 2 min read
Most good things in this town take time. Hogan Yards took nearly a decade, and it was worth the wait.
Tom Corr and Alden Bing started talking around 2016 about bringing to Vero Beach what Corr kept finding on family trips out west. Breweries where kids were welcome, the food was amazing, and the whole community showed up. "Everything was happening at these places," he said. "They were like hubs of the community."
Urban planners call it a third place. The corner bar, the barbershop, the town square. Sociologist Ray Oldenburg argued they are the connective tissue of a healthy community, yet American towns have been losing them for years as more of us live our lives almost entirely on screens.
Corr and his wife Tiffany purchased the former Hogan & Sons building on St. Lucie Avenue in 2021, a 1950s-era frame structure that began as a tomato packing house, converted to Indian River grapefruit in the 1960s, and closed operations in 2016. Most people drove past it without a second look. Together with Alden and Valerie Bing, who co-own Orchid Island Brewery, they preserved the bones and built out a taproom, alongside Central Texas BBQ from Pepper & Salt, pickleball courts, a live music lawn, and a wraparound Florida veranda.
On a recent visit, the place was buzzing with families on the turf lawn, cornhole going, children safely playing on the lawn, parents socializing, board games going inside, OIB poured cold and Pepper & Salt served hot. It's a soft launch and wait times can run long. Go anyway.
As Corr puts it: Juice the Joy.
Hogan Yards · 2745 St. Lucie Ave.
Photos by Chris Cronin
