Restaurants

Vinyl bar with a cocktail menu opens in Trillium’s Fort Point location

The cocktails at Headroom are made using Trillium's spirits products.

Headroom, located at Trillium in Fort Point, is the brewery's newest vinyl bar. It serves cocktails using Trillium's spirits. Courtesy Trillium Brewing

By Katelyn Umholtz

May 30, 2024

Trillium Brewing has opened a new concept at its Fort Point location, adding to the growing scene of vinyl bars in Boston.

Headroom took over the second floor of the brewery, turning the space into a swanky, mid-century modern listening lounge just up the stairs from its craft beer taproom.

JC Tetreault, Trillium owner, said the curation of records for the lounge was not an “overnight thing,” like it might be when putting together a Spotify playlist. The process started over e-mails between Tetreault and Will McNeil, Trillium’s food and beverage director, first picking apart their individual collections. Then they contacted record shops and online collectors and vendors.

A press release said their collection includes “thousands of LPs,” but Tetreault said they’re still developing and growing the number of records they have.

They used the help of music database website Discogs to organize their records, which include multiple genres — jazz, progressive rock, and electronic, to name a few — as well as a mix of musicians’ key albums and their lesser-known LPs.

But also, there will be a balance between older and the more current pop tracks, Tetreault added, to have music on hand that fits an audience at any given time.

“Part of our responsibility is to understand and read a crowd,” Tetreault said. “Experiment with things, and if that works great, keep going down that road.”

Listening lounges originated in 1950s Japan, a space where people gathered to listen to albums, and they weren’t meant for lively conversations. In the last several years, listening lounges — also called vinyl or hi-fi bars — have taken off across the country, and in Boston.

The ultimate guide to independent record stores in Greater Boston

In Downtown Crossing, Jamie Bissonnette opened vinyl bar Temple Records alongside a Korean restaurant and a sushi counter with restaurant group BCB3. The hidden Chinatown bar Offsuit also spins records, and Bow Market’s record store Vinyl Index also has drinks in partnership with next-door cocktail bar Nook.

At these American listening lounges, there tends to be more talking, and sometimes even DJs curating the music, as will be the case at Headroom. Tetreault said they’ll have a rotation of DJs nightly.

“They’ll bring in some LPs themselves to make sure they can have specific songs they want to be able to play, but they’ll also go through our library,” Tetreault said.

Legend Has It includes Ardito amaro, lemon, and blueberry froth for $14. –*Courtesy Trillium Brewing*

The new space is also an opportunity to serve up Trillium’s spirits, which have been available at the Canton location, in the form of craft cocktails. Guests can order drinks like the Maraud for Ears ($15), a nod to Award Tour by A Tribe Called Quest, which pairs Trillium’s bergamot-infused gin with a sweet housemade vermouth, Agrumi Amaro, and a cask smoke — a take on the Negroni, Tetreault said.

For an old fashioned, get the Barrel Thief ($16) that uses BBQ fat-washed whiskey and their JC Tetreault orange liqueur.

“We’ve been working on our spirits program for years, and we wanted a space to really help communicate our focus and attention to our spirits program,” Tetreault said. “We want to make sure that people know and recognize us as a distillery and maker of spirits and incredible cocktails as well.”

Of course Trillium brews are available, and there’s also a mocktail menu, wine by the glass, and a hard seltzer.

The food menu features shareable plates different from the bites downstairs, with items like scallop crudo ($14), latkes with creme fraiche ($12), or Island Creek Oyster tinned fish boards ($20-$26). Headroom has two bigger plate options: a lamb with carrots, feta sumac yogurt, and mint chimichurri ($28) and a pork belly dish served with broccolini, apple, and a sambal vinaigrette ($26).

Now open daily, guests can view Headroom’s full menu on their website, and a list of guest DJs will be available on their Instagram account.

Headroom; Open 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday; 50 Thomson Place