Paulie and Me
“Paulie & Me” is a buddy follow-doc reality television show starring two friends trying to build and operate their own microbrewery. Paulie and Loren have been friends for many years but are as different as night and day. This modern odd couple resembles Oscar and Felix: Paulie is global and messy and Loren is specific and neat. Together their chemistry is hysterical as they plan trips, beer tastings, and meetings with beer lovers, owners, travel writers, investors, architects, contractors, and Brewmeisters.
The show follows the Paulie, Loren, and their staff on adventures to microbreweries nationwide to learn as much as they can about opening and running a successful microbrewery. In subsequent seasons, tours to other countries will be included. Taste tests always result in lively discussions with local patrons.
The first episodes show Paulie moving from his seven-story building in Grand Island, Nebraska to Dallas to work on the project with his friend Loren. Paulie pulls up in his old Cadillac that is falling apart. Loren is selling his house and has it “staged.” Paulie thinks Loren has been robbed because there is so little furniture and no microwave! The two plan out a strategy to crisscross the country learning about and tasting lots of beer from famous microbreweries.
To start they befriend a local microbrewery and use this Dallas location as their headquarters. An older woman becomes their mentor and friend. She is the anchor for every show as the boys eagerly share their new found wisdom. They set up shop in the back room and have a large map of the US with pins & flags.
They need two assistants and in the next episodes they hire the two beer apprentices. The skill sets include, logistics, marketing, finance, economics, merchandising, web development, driving, and operations. Naturally two people will be hard to find with that list of requirements.
They buy a big bus to travel the country and argue over the name, “the Brew Mobile,” “The Micro- Express,” etc.
Over the first season (13 episodes) they tour 10 different breweries nationwide. In the last episode of Season One, they begin zero in on a region where they will build their first microbrewery.
In Season Two they learn the art and craft of making beer and meet potential Brewmeisters. The Brewmeisters travel with Paulie & Loren and now hone in on a style and character for the microbrewery. At the end of Season Two they travel to Germany and Egypt to see the roots of beer making.
In Season Three, Paulie and Loren selects a location and start construction of the microbrewery. Headaches with the architect, city government, (Rockford, IL*) design, parking, food service, water, grains, and sales/marketing abound but by the end of the season the Brewery opens!
Backstory
Backstory: In the 1980s, Paul Warshauer was hired by the Margolese family as an “au pair” to look after 6 year old Michael Margolese. Michael is Loren’s little brother. Paul was finishing his degree at Cal State Northridge and moved in becoming a member of the family. Loren refers to Paul as being Michael’s “Nanny” which has been the source of many arguments.
When Loren returned from the Air Force, Paul was literally sleeping in Loren’s bedroom. Rather than ask Paul to leave, the Margolese family made Loren sleep in the living room until he got his own place. That also was the source of many arguments.
Still the two became friends and played pool, stole hubcaps, and drank beer. Over the past thirty years the boys have remained friends and worked on several real estate projects together.
On a recent trip to Dallas, Loren asked about a brewery project that the two had explored a few years ago. With that impetus, Paulie contacted travel writer Eric Warren who had written an article about the “Twenty best Microbreweries.” Paul and Eric met in Connecticut in the fall of 2010 and the three have embarked on creating a lively “follow-documentary & reality” television show about building a microbrewery from scratch! They will travel the country researching how to do it and end up building and operating an original microbrewery somewhere I nthe United States. “Paulie and Me; The Brewery Project” is the endeavor and should be filled with antics, lively dialogue, and will certainly test the limits of friendship.
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Let’s make something together.
Paulie and Me 