Scottish brewery BrewDog has unveiled plans to build a new craft beer bar that straddles the border between the U.S. and Mexico.
“Beer has always been a unifying factor between cultures — and BrewDog was born from collaboration and an inclusive approach,” co-founder James Watt writes in an email.
The open-air watering hole, dubbed “The Bar on the Edge,” is slated to debut on a plot of land between Texas and Chihuahua, Mexico, though Watt and company have yet to release an exact location — or receive permission from local and federal officials on either side of the border.
“I’m sure there’ll be a few hoops to jump through,” he explains.
While the idea may seem far-fetched, it’s the latest in a line of cheeky stunts to transform President Trump’s proposed border wall into something positive.
Earlier this year, a group of designers, architects, and engineers unveiled a design for the “wall” that included parks, a regional ID card to facilitate cross-border travel, and a Hyperloop with stops in both countries, among other unifying features.
The actual physical border may not be the easiest place to open a business, but cross-border commerce and cultural exchange is nothing new.
With the high cost of dental procedures in the United States, tens of thousands of Americans cross into Los Algodones, Mexico, each year to have their teeth cleaned (and pulled, and root-canal’d).
Residents of Tijuana frequently cross the other way to shop at Southern California’s malls and big-box stores — and vice-versa. Several San Diego retailers have complained that President Trump’s tough immigration talk has exacerbated a decline in customers.
Some parents in Nogales, Mexico, even send their children to private parochial schools across the border to learn English, with the Catholic educational system strong in both countries.
Which raises the question: Could the border bar ever become a reality?
It’s unlikely under current law that “mandates that people and merchandise may only enter the United States after inspection at designated Ports of Entry,” as U.S. Customs and Border Patrol spokesperson Christiana Coleman explains in an email.
Nevertheless, the company says it plans to forge ahead with the project, at least for now.
“It would make it more difficult to build a wall if there’s a BrewDog bar in the way,” Watt said in a statement. “We’re planning on putting the bar there anyway until someone tells us to move it.”
If BrewDog succeeds at turning beer-drinking into a form of protest, the Bar on the Edge is certain to mint plenty of new activists in no time.
