Mosquito Ballroom
Mosquito Ballroom was a real place.
This beer was brewed as an homage to our shared local and personal history in collaboration with Pink Boots Society for International Women’s Day. Mosquito Ballroom is a dry-hopped grisette brewed with fresh lemongrass, lavender, and rosemary: all botanicals known to repel mosquitoes. This beer also features clover honey, 100% local Valley malt, and Yakima Chief’s latest Pink Boots hop blend, with Loral, Ekuanot, and HBC 586.
In 1937, Alice and Telesphore Leblanc opened Lashaway Dance Pavilion in North Brookfield. Because of its location across from Lake Lashaway, it came to be known as “Mosquito Ballroom.” It has been said that visitors would arrive by boat from the East Brookfield side of the lake, some even bussing in from Worcester. Though it seems to have closed at the beginning of World War II, the legacy of Mosquito Ballroom has since become folklore.
Some of Alice and Telex’s great-grandchildren are part of the Timberyard team and discovered this piece of history while trying to learn more about their grandparents, Frank O’Connor and Eleanor LeBlanc. Frank played trumpet at Mosquito Ballroom, where he met Eleanor – Alice and Telex’s daughter, a dancer. It wasn’t long before they fell in love. Now, 80 years later, their grandchildren help to fill Timberyard’s taproom with live music every weekend, just down the road from where their ancestors did the same.
Here’s to Frank and Eleanor; in the spirit of heritage, folklore, and a jazz age love story. Share this beer in good health with good friends, and always listen to your grandparents’ stories.
A special thanks to Blaise Berthaiume whose father was also one of Al Kane’s Georgians, who helped us piece together parts of this story by providing original posters for Lashaway Dance Pavilion’s Grand Opening.
