Olivia Dickinson: Behind the scenes at Dogfish
For nearly 20 years, Olivia Dickinson has been the woman behind events at Dogfish Head in Rehoboth Beach.
She's seen the company grow to become one of the largest craft breweries in the country.
"It has been a lot of change. I think I saw the biggest change when 'Brewmasters' came out and Sam (Dogfish founder Sam Calagione) did the series (in 2010). It got national recognition, and I saw a big takeoff at least at the pub after that. Obviously, I love the company or I wouldn't have stayed so long," she said.
She said a few things have been constant at the brewpub: Tuesday night is still Burger Night and Thursday night is still Pizza Night, and she still sees people who have been coming in since the beginning.
Clad in her white, Dogfish-branded Patagonia jacket, the easygoing and youthful-looking Dickinson speaks from a picnic table at Dogfish's Milton brewery, near where she lives, surrounded by symbols of the company's growth: the expanded Milton brewery, the Steampunk treehouse and the wood-fired smell from the Bunyan's Lunchbox food truck.
It's quite a change, she said, from when she started as a server at the Rehoboth Avenue brewpub in 1999.
"It was very small. It was me and a few employees and Sam was there a lot; he was always there at the end of the bar. It was not busy," Dickinson said.
The brewpub used to have a bar in the upstairs dining room, which was removed later but now, she says, a bar upstairs is the No. 1 request she gets from customers.
Originally from Smyrna, Dickinson grew up splitting her time between Smyrna and Rehoboth Beach after her parents divorced and her father moved to the Cape Region. She moved to the area full time in 1995 and now lives in Milton.
Dickinson went to school and became a registered nurse but found she preferred working for Dogfish Head. A mother of three, Dickinson said after working at the company for several years, she fell into event planning. "For me, it gave me something to do a little bit extra in addition to serving," she said.
Dickinson works a part-time schedule as she raises her three boys; her oldest just went to college. She credited Dogfish with enabling her to be an active parent raising her kids.
"That's the best part of why I've stayed so long. I've never had to put my children in day care. I've been home with them until they go to school. My husband works days, I work nights. It's been great for raising the children. This is the first year they are all in school full time, so I notice I'm bored during the day," Dickinson said.
Talkative and friendly, Dickinson says her duties include booking rehearsal dinners, homebrew clubs, parties, meetings and wedding receptions in Dogfish's upstairs room.
She said booking events has been difficult over the past two years as Dogfish planned and began building a new brewpub on the same site as the old one.
"I can't wait," she said of the new brewpub. "I hope we can replicate the charm and the aura. I'm excited."
Dickinson said going to the beach is her favorite thing to do, and her kids are interested in surfing - although like many locals, she prefers to avoid the summer crowds, which she noted was much different than when she grew up.
"We would come for a day trip and come to Rehoboth and go to Grotto and go to the beach on the Boardwalk. I love those things and have such good memories about that, and it's completely different living here. We go to the Cape Henlopen State Park and do the drive-out.
"It's so different living here and getting used to those things," she said.
