Overtime Brewing

From tire shops, recapping and auto repair to motorcycles, medical equipment, art and today’s brewery, 190 E. Elm Street is a workaday Fort Bragg building that has repeatedly adapted to whatever came next.

Overview

Overtime Brewing occupies a practical commercial building at 190 E. Elm Street, just off Fort Bragg’s Main Street corridor.

Its open, adaptable layout has served businesses involving tires, vehicles, motorcycles and medical equipment, followed by art and cultural uses before becoming a brewery and restaurant.

Overtime Brewing opened in 2018, bringing beer, food, music and a new gathering place to a building that had already served Fort Bragg in many different ways.

Location

The building stands at 190 E. Elm Street, close to downtown but outside the more visible Main Street commercial strip.

This part of Elm Street has long suited practical businesses, workshops and service uses. The building’s straightforward design and open interior made it adaptable for vehicles, equipment, storage and workspace.

Those same qualities later allowed it to transition from mechanical uses to art and eventually to brewing, dining and entertainment.

History

Some of the earliest community memories of 190 E. Elm Street involve tires.

The building is remembered as a tire shop in the 1960s, owned by Gary Rousanne, who later built and relocated his operation to the location where Coast Tire is today.

It was also associated with Fort Bragg Tire and remembered for tire storage and recapping. Another recollection places a Bandag truck-tire retread operation there in the late 1990s.

Retreading, or recapping, was once a common and economical way of extending the life of a tire, especially for drivers trying to keep older cars and trucks on the road.

The building’s automotive history extended beyond tires. It is remembered as housing a motorcycle shop around 1983 or 1984 and, at another time, Renzi’s Auto Repair.

Later uses took the property in a different direction.

A medical equipment business operated in the building, and local memories also recall an art studio there.

One of its most distinctive chapters was the Lost Coast Culture Machine, an art venue that brought exhibitions, events and creative activity into a space once associated primarily with tires and mechanical work.

Its open layout made that transition possible, just as it later allowed the building to become Overtime Brewing.

Community Memories

Longtime residents remember several different eras at 190 E. Elm Street.

Some recall the tire businesses and the days when recapped tires were an affordable way to keep a car on the road. One memory involved using recaps on a Mercury Comet in the 1960s and the unmistakable “flap, flap, flap” when a recap began coming loose on the freeway.

Others remember the motorcycle shop, Renzi’s Auto Repair, the medical equipment business and the building’s later artistic uses.

The Lost Coast Culture Machine remains an important memory from the building’s creative period, when a former work space became a place for art and cultural events.

Today, Overtime Brewing has created another kind of gathering place. Customers remember the burgers, beer, live music and dog-friendly atmosphere, continuing the building’s long habit of bringing people through its doors for very different reasons.

Why It Matters

The history of 190 E. Elm Street shows how a modest commercial building can remain useful by changing with the town around it.

Its uses have shifted from tires, recapping and mechanical work to motorcycles, auto repair, medical equipment, art and cultural events, and finally to brewing, food and music.

Those businesses may seem unrelated, but they all depended on the same basic qualities: open space, accessibility and a building flexible enough to be adapted again and again.

The property also reflects a broader part of Fort Bragg’s history. Working buildings were often reused rather than replaced, allowing one address to serve several generations of local businesses.

At 190 E. Elm Street, the signs and businesses changed, but the building kept finding another job to do.