High School Students Built Tables for Local Pagosa Restaurant

Wednesday night Celtic music event at Dublin Crust and Brew, Pagosa Springs. Screenshot.

by Megan Pihlaja

Every table at Dublin Crust & Brew was built by local high school students. Over six months, students in the local high school’s woodworking class, led by teacher Mr. Carter, replaced each of the restaurant’s old Formica tabletops with solid wood, stained dark to match the chairs. No two are exactly alike. The project wrapped up this fall, just ahead of the pizza pub’s first anniversary on November 10.

It started when Landon, a high school student who works at the restaurant, showed owner Patricia Hanson a butcher-block cutting board he’d made in class. “I was like, ‘Wow, I’d love that for my tabletops,’” Patricia said.

She is now planning a pizza party for the students to say thank you.

Patricia came to Pagosa Springs in 2025 looking for a new home. She found it at 175 Pagosa St., the former Mountain Pizza & Taproom, established in 2018, which she took over on November 10, 2025. A year later, it’s a casual, family-style pizza pub with house-made slow fermented pizza and a room full of personal touches from the community. Cesar, the husband of the restaurant’s back-of-house manager Maribel, built a long wooden bench under the windows so families can push tables together. The glassware is a mix of mugs from Colorado breweries and finds from the local Humane Society thrift shop.

“This is my home now. My restaurant is my home, and everybody who comes in is treated like part of the family,” said Patricia Hanson, owner of Dublin Crust & Brew. “You can put your feet up on the bench. You can come in with muddy boots from skiing. It doesn’t matter. We’ll look after you.”

Here’s a 3-minute video about the restaurant:

At the center of the room is a 20-tap self-pour wall powered by iPourIt, a self-pour beverage technology company, filled with beers from Colorado microbreweries, a few Irish favorites and wine. Guests tap a wristband and pour by the ounce, so visitors can sample a few Colorado beers before settling on a pint — whether they’re in town for summer, hunting season or skiing at Wolf Creek. In its first year, guests have poured 291,873 ounces at the wall, the equivalent of more than 18,000 pints. Regulars even have their own trick, wrapping the wristband around the glass instead of the wrist, and they pass it along to first-timers.

“At home in Ireland, the bar is where people talk to each other, and that’s what’s happening at our wall,” Patricia said. “Total strangers are asking each other, ‘Have you tried this one?’ My guests sell it to the next guest.”

The restaurant employs about 15 people, including six full-time staff and a crew of local high school students, with tips shared by everyone on shift.

Its Wednesday night Irish music session, open to the public, has become one of the busiest nights of the week, local musicians play most other nights, and the restaurant has hosted community fundraisers, including one for the high school’s after-prom party.

“Pagosa Springs can go from quiet to packed in a matter of weeks, and Patricia’s small team has to be ready for both,” said Flinn Flexer, CEO of iPourIt. “What she’s built shows what self-pour can do for an independent restaurant: no dedicated bartender, a wall that keeps pace in peak season, and regulars proud enough of it to teach the next person through the door.”

About Dublin Crust & Brew
Dublin Crust & Brew is a casual, family-style pizza pub at 175 Pagosa St. in Pagosa Springs, Colorado, serving house-made slow fermented pizza and a 20-tap self-pour wall of Colorado craft beer, Irish beer and wine. Learn more at dublincrustpagosa.com.

About iPourIt
iPourIt provides self-pour beverage technology for hotels, restaurants, entertainment venues and other hospitality concepts. Its platform allows guests to pour beer, wine, cocktails and other beverages by the ounce while giving operators tools to control access, monitor inventory and track pour data. Learn more at ipourit.com.

Megan Pihlaja is Digital Marketing Specialist with iPourIt Inc.