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<\/p>\nOne building, two front entrances. Right for pizza, left\u00a0for beer. Once inside, you\u2019ll find that pizza and beer whizzes between both sides. This two-for-one special, Ziggie\u2019s 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\u2019s, brothers Christian and Floyd Ziegler. Despite the takeover and slight name change of the bar side, both\u00a0halves retain their core identities.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
A few times a week, regular Brad Dillon stations himself at Topher\u2019s 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\u2019s rotating menu. On Friday nights, he\u2019ll also go for a pizza, usually\u00a0the BYOP, build your own pizza, or the \u201cMs. Frizzle,\u201d a white pizza with a pistachio pesto base.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Brad Dillon is always sipping on a different spirit each time he stops in at The Topher Taproom. (BARBARA IVINS)<\/p>\n
How\u2019d you first find Ziggie\u2019s Pizza and The Topher Taproom?\n<\/p>\n
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\u2019s Bottle Shop. Then when we moved back here, I was like, \u201cHey, I wonder if that place is still open.\u201d I went there, and then this place [The Topher Taproom] is literally walking distance. So typically, my Friday night, \u2026\u00a0I get to go out and do my own thing. I come get a pizza. I get a beer.\n<\/p>\n
\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
What makes it stand out?\n<\/p>\n
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\u2019s worth coming. So I love all the bartenders. They\u2019re always super nice; they\u2019re always knowledgeable. And then, also, it\u2019s cozy. I mean, even during the day, they don\u2019t have the lights super bright.\n<\/p>\n
\u2026 There\u2019s some regulars that are here five nights a week. It\u2019s just a tradition for some people. They\u2019re an eclectic bunch, that\u2019s for sure [laughter]. \u2026 We\u2019ll all sit together and talk about what\u2019s going on in our lives, lament about jobs or other things. I\u2019m one of the few that has a young child. A couple of them have older children, and most of them have none at all.\n<\/p>\n
\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
Tell me\u00a0about your family.\n<\/p>\n
I got a three-and-a-half-year-old and a wife \u2026 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\u2019ll just be carrying around a leaf, and I\u2019m like, \u201cHey, buddy, you want to play with your toys?\u201d\n<\/p>\n
And he\u2019s like, \u201cNah. I got a leaf, Dad. I\u2019m good.\u201d\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
What do you do for work?\n<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t! I am a stay-at-home dad, and I\u2019m in my master\u2019s for librarianship. I\u2019m only just starting it. I\u2019m in my first few classes; I\u2019m going to USF. It\u2019s my alma mater as well. Since [becoming] a stay-at-home dad \u2026 whenever there was downtime in my life, because my kid also goes to daycare, I\u2019ll 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\u2019s, got in, and that\u2019s what I\u2019m \u2014 aside from raising him \u2014 that\u2019s what I\u2019m striving for.\n<\/p>\n
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. \u2026 A lot of hospitals have even two or three libraries inside of them. \u2026 My original degree is in sociology. I went to college for so long.\n<\/p>\n
\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
How long?\n<\/p>\n
Fifteen years. I have over 250 hours of classes taken. It typically takes 120 for a bachelor\u2019s. I\u2019ve taken a lot of classes!\n<\/p>\n
\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
It sounds like you really enjoy learning.\n<\/p>\n
I do, yes. I love random facts. I love education. Again, that\u2019s part of why, whenever I had my downtime, I was like, \u201cI need to do something\u201d \u2026 and education was kind of the answer. I don\u2019t 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\u2019d get them. \u2026 Because I took classes one, two at a time, I was able to more easily pay them off.\n<\/p>\n
\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
Why do you think the education field, and the jobs\u00a0you\u2019re looking at, are important?\n<\/p>\n
Oh, third spaces. There are so many people that need third spaces, and they don\u2019t 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 \u2014 I went to the library this past week to do a project for my class \u2014 there were probably 30 unhoused people waiting to get into the library, just because it\u2019s a safe space for them. It\u2019s air-conditioned, and they won\u2019t have to be bothered \u2026 and [they can] just exist for a little bit not having to worry about this freaking summer heat.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
That sense of community is so essential. Can you speak to why the community here at The Thirsty Topher is meaningful to you?\n<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0I know enough people that, essentially, if I come here, I\u2019m going to know someone that I can talk to. Whenever you\u2019re home alone with a three-and-a-half-year-old, you kind of forget what it\u2019s like to talk to an adult [laughter].\n<\/p>\n
It\u2019s legitimately one of my favorite places to go on the weekends. I get to be around other adults. That\u2019s just really nice. It was pretty hard whenever we first moved here, because I went to daddy daycare\u2013type 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\u2019s 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\u2019s really nice, because for about six months, whenever we first moved here, I didn\u2019t have any friends, I didn\u2019t really have any bros. Coming to GB\u2019s and coming to Topher and Ziggie\u2019s helped create a community for me.\n<\/p>\n
\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
Any final thoughts?\n<\/p>\n
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 \u2026 they work here at least a couple days a week. You can see them in the back cooking pizza.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a story I want to tell. \u2026 I had met Christian multiple times. I had no idea who he was. I just thought he was a regular guy, and he\u2019s like, talking to me \u2026 and then eventually his wife came up, and she was like, \u201cChristian, we got to work.\u201d [Laughter.] He was chilling next to me at the bar \u2014 we\u2019re just having a conversation \u2014 and she goes, \u201cChristian, you gotta work. We\u2019re slammed right now.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
He goes, \u201cOh, OK.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
I asked the bartender, I was like, \u201cHey, who\u2019s that?\u201d\n<\/p>\n
He goes, \u201cOh, that\u2019s the owner.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
I had no idea. \u2026 He\u2019s very down to earth. Talkable. Floyd, too. They\u2019re both really great guys.\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One building, two front entrances. Right for pizza, left\u00a0for beer. Once inside, you\u2019ll find that pizza and beer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":295160,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[139,141,140],"class_list":["post-295159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295159\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/295160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}