One building, two front entrances. Right for pizza, left for beer. Once inside, you’ll find that pizza and beer whizzes between both sides. This two-for-one special, Ziggie’s Pizza and The Topher Taproom (previously Thirsty Topher), was once separately owned businesses sharing a roof. Then, last year, Topher founders Ron DiDonato and Jason Perez passed their space off to their building-mates and the founders of Ziggie’s, brothers Christian and Floyd Ziegler. Despite the takeover and slight name change of the bar side, both halves retain their core identities. 

A few times a week, regular Brad Dillon stations himself at Topher’s bar to sip and chat with other frequenters. The drink in his glass varies, partly from his own wish to try something new, and partly thanks to the taproom’s rotating menu. On Friday nights, he’ll also go for a pizza, usually the BYOP, build your own pizza, or the “Ms. Frizzle,” a white pizza with a pistachio pesto base. 

Originally from Lakeland, Dillon moved with his wife, Laura McKenna, to Gainesville. Then, to Orlando, where Dillon discovered what was then Thirsty Topher. It has become a place of solace and community for him for over three years now. When we spoke, Dillon told me about what this place means to him, his life as a stay-at-home dad, and his boundless passion for learning and education. 

Brad Dillon is always sipping on a different spirit each time he stops in at The Topher Taproom. (BARBARA IVINS)

How’d you first find Ziggie’s Pizza and The Topher Taproom?

I wanted to find places that had good beer selections, and probably 10 years ago, I was in this area for a bachelor party, and I saw GB’s Bottle Shop. Then when we moved back here, I was like, “Hey, I wonder if that place is still open.” I went there, and then this place [The Topher Taproom] is literally walking distance. So typically, my Friday night, … I get to go out and do my own thing. I come get a pizza. I get a beer.

 

What makes it stand out?

The number one thing is always going to be the bartenders. Even if you have bad beer, if you have good friends, good family, it’s worth coming. So I love all the bartenders. They’re always super nice; they’re always knowledgeable. And then, also, it’s cozy. I mean, even during the day, they don’t have the lights super bright.

… There’s some regulars that are here five nights a week. It’s just a tradition for some people. They’re an eclectic bunch, that’s for sure [laughter]. … We’ll all sit together and talk about what’s going on in our lives, lament about jobs or other things. I’m one of the few that has a young child. A couple of them have older children, and most of them have none at all.

 

Tell me about your family.

I got a three-and-a-half-year-old and a wife … I love my family. I love our interactions. I love being able to take care of a three-and-a-half-year-old. The wonder that he has is really amazing to watch, because he can seriously entertain himself with a leaf. He’ll just be carrying around a leaf, and I’m like, “Hey, buddy, you want to play with your toys?”

And he’s like, “Nah. I got a leaf, Dad. I’m good.” 

 

What do you do for work?

I don’t! I am a stay-at-home dad, and I’m in my master’s for librarianship. I’m only just starting it. I’m in my first few classes; I’m going to USF. It’s my alma mater as well. Since [becoming] a stay-at-home dad … whenever there was downtime in my life, because my kid also goes to daycare, I’ll have five hours that I am doing nothing throughout the day, and it just felt kind of empty. So I was like, hey, I want to do more. And I went and applied for my master’s, got in, and that’s what I’m — aside from raising him — that’s what I’m striving for.

I am thinking about archiving and health informatics (or health information), and what would work well, because my wife is a nurse practitioner. I would possibly become a librarian for hospitals. … A lot of hospitals have even two or three libraries inside of them. … My original degree is in sociology. I went to college for so long.

 

How long?

Fifteen years. I have over 250 hours of classes taken. It typically takes 120 for a bachelor’s. I’ve taken a lot of classes!

 

It sounds like you really enjoy learning.

I do, yes. I love random facts. I love education. Again, that’s part of why, whenever I had my downtime, I was like, “I need to do something” … and education was kind of the answer. I don’t have any debt for college because I worked my butt off to make sure that I was paying off all of my classes whenever I’d get them. … Because I took classes one, two at a time, I was able to more easily pay them off.

 

Why do you think the education field, and the jobs you’re looking at, are important?

Oh, third spaces. There are so many people that need third spaces, and they don’t even know what a third space is, or if they exist at all. And for many, many people, that is a library. And then on top of that — I went to the library this past week to do a project for my class — there were probably 30 unhoused people waiting to get into the library, just because it’s a safe space for them. It’s air-conditioned, and they won’t have to be bothered … and [they can] just exist for a little bit not having to worry about this freaking summer heat. 

 

That sense of community is so essential. Can you speak to why the community here at The Thirsty Topher is meaningful to you?

This is one of my third places. This is one of the things that I really like, because I get to come here and I get to meet many of my friends. I know enough people that, essentially, if I come here, I’m going to know someone that I can talk to. Whenever you’re home alone with a three-and-a-half-year-old, you kind of forget what it’s like to talk to an adult [laughter].

It’s legitimately one of my favorite places to go on the weekends. I get to be around other adults. That’s just really nice. It was pretty hard whenever we first moved here, because I went to daddy daycare–type things, and I just never hit it off with a lot of the other dads that were in these groups. So, it was nice that I could come to a bar, and people [here] were open about their issues. I think that’s one of the big things I would say, is that we get to come and commiserate together about our issues and the things that we accomplished. And that’s really nice, because for about six months, whenever we first moved here, I didn’t have any friends, I didn’t really have any bros. Coming to GB’s and coming to Topher and Ziggie’s helped create a community for me.

 

Any final thoughts?

Drink beer, eat pizza. I mean, it sounds stupid, but helping communities just by [supporting] them is super useful. This is a family-owned business by two brothers [Christian and Floyd Ziegler]. Trying to do what they did was hard … they work here at least a couple days a week. You can see them in the back cooking pizza. 

There’s a story I want to tell. … I had met Christian multiple times. I had no idea who he was. I just thought he was a regular guy, and he’s like, talking to me … and then eventually his wife came up, and she was like, “Christian, we got to work.” [Laughter.] He was chilling next to me at the bar — we’re just having a conversation — and she goes, “Christian, you gotta work. We’re slammed right now.”

He goes, “Oh, OK.”

I asked the bartender, I was like, “Hey, who’s that?”

He goes, “Oh, that’s the owner.”

I had no idea. … He’s very down to earth. Talkable. Floyd, too. They’re both really great guys.