The Patch Brewery: What a Family Farm in Maple Ridge, British Columbia Looks Like When 145 Years of Legacy Meets the Right Technology

Jeff Laity did not grow up dreaming of running a brewery. He grew up on a pumpkin farm in Maple Ridge, British Columbia, on land his family has worked since 1879. The street outside bears his family name. His mother has run a pumpkin patch on that same property for over 35 years. His brother is usually out on a tractor.

The brewery was never the plan. Then the plan changed.

“Being born and raised here, we just built what we felt was needed and wanted,” Jeff shared. “People are showing up and having that same feeling.”

When British Columbia expanded its farm brewery licensing in 2018, Jeff saw something nobody in his family had seen before: a reason to build. He enrolled in a nine-month brewing program, started growing barley on the property, and spent six years turning a sketch into a structure. 

On August 22, 2024, The Patch Brewery opened its doors inside a sweeping red agricultural barn on 128th Avenue, serving farm-to-table craft beer brewed from ingredients grown on the land beneath it, wood-fired artisan pizza from a custom Forno Bravo oven, and specialty coffee pulled from a La Marzocco KB90.

What happened next, nobody predicted.

The expansive outdoor patio, welcoming to families, children and dogs alike, drew crowds from the first weekend and never let up. Parking attendants were brought in to manage traffic flow. The line stretched into the lot and stayed there.

For any operator who has watched a concept take off faster than the infrastructure behind it can handle, The Patch’s early weeks were a familiar and humbling sight.

“Yes, you can say it surpassed our expectations,” Jeff explained. “Worst case scenario, I'd brew some beer myself, pour the beer, and hopefully pay the mortgage. Now we have 158 staff.”

The growth was immediate and unrelenting. There were non-stop adjustments, and staffing was one of their biggest challenges; in fact, they had to hire 50 additional staff within the first week of opening. The hiring has continued ever since, alongside the training, the scheduling, and every operational demand that comes with running a destination at that scale.

Managing guest flow required its own evolution. The Patch moved from a handwritten waitlist to a text-based system before eventually adopting a fully digital solution that lets guests join the waitlist from home and check their place in line before they leave the driveway. Each step gave the team more breathing room. Still, none solved the deeper challenge. They needed a point-of-sale system that could absorb the volume and serve as the backbone of the entire operation.

When another POS went down on day two, the search led them to GoTab.

“We wanted something that was the whole package,” Jeff shared.

In less than two years, The Patch has grown into one of the most talked-about hospitality destinations in the Fraser Valley, with nearly 170 employees at its summer peak and a 400-person seating capacity that fills with little advertising. The city was skeptical while the barn was going up. Nobody quite knew what a farm brewery was supposed to look like at that scale.

Now they know. 

HOW GOTAB POWERS THE PATCH BREWERY 

• Full QR ordering and checkout across every table, indoor and out, eliminating counter lines that previously stretched 30 to 40 minutes on peak days.
• Hybrid ordering model supporting both QR and counter service, accommodating every guest without friction.
• Kitchen Display System (KDS) syncing front and back of house in real time across both the kitchen and food trailer.
• Guest-facing screens showed when an order item was delayed in the kitchen, giving customers clearer expectations during peak service.
• Daily sales reporting and operator-level analytics give ownership a clear picture of product movement and revenue without pulling from multiple systems.
• MarginEdge integration connecting front-of-house sales directly to back-of-house cost management in one operational view.
• Deep menu-level search allowing the team to pull item-specific performance data instantly.

A BREWERY THAT FINALLY RUNS AS WELL AS IT POURS

GoTab entered the conversation through Back of House, the foodservice solutions group whose representative Spencer Michiel had been in touch with the Laity family since the brewery was still under construction. After their first full summer, management walked through their options seriously for the first time.

The competitors on the list were exploring QR ordering or offering it as a future add-on. GoTab had built the entire platform around it.

“It had everything,” Jeff said. “It sounded like it was made for what we're doing. It sounded like a dream.”

What sealed it was not just the feature set. It was the origin of the product itself.

GoTab was founded by Tim McLaughlin, a technologist, serial entrepreneur and brewery and taproom owner who built the platform to solve a problem he was already living inside.

Jeff had done his research before the meeting.

“GoTab was like a good story too,” he said. “It was kind of brewery-focused in the beginning and the whole focus was how to reduce lines. And then it just made the product way better, integrated with everything, and just kept going.”

ORDER ANOTHER ROUND: HOW THE WAIT DISAPPEARED AND THE VISITS GOT LONGER

Once The Patch made the switch to GoTab, the results were immediate and visible.

QR ordering rolled out across every table inside and on the patio. KDS units connected the front and back of house in real time. Guest-facing screens showed when specific beer or food items were delayed in the kitchen or bar, giving customers clearer expectations instead of leaving them to wonder where their order stood. Servers who had been anchored to the counter were suddenly free to move through the room, check in on tables, and deliver the kind of attentive hospitality that turns a first visit into a habit.

“We've added more service since adding GoTab,” shared Madison Melanson, who is the Taproom General Manager at The Patch. “Servers are checking in on tables, doing a few checkpoints, making sure everything is running properly. The system handles the transaction and our team handles the experience.”

The behavioral shift among guests was almost immediate. Instead of ordering in bulk to avoid the line, people began ordering naturally, one round at a time, the way a great hospitality experience is supposed to feel. Visits stretched longer, food attachment increased, and revenue followed. 

“People used to spend 40 minutes of their visit waiting in line,” Jeff said. “Now they're just sitting with their family and their beer arrives. Before, they'd walk out. Now they stay.”

The team has clocked a beer delivered in 30 seconds from the moment an order was placed. On a packed Saturday, that number speaks for itself.

Sales at The Patch are up significantly since launch, a result that runs counter to what most operators experience. The first year of a new concept typically produces peak numbers driven by novelty and curiosity. Sustaining that momentum into year two, let alone growing it, requires an operation that earns return visits. GoTab helped The Patch earn them.

“It's very user friendly,” Jeff said. “There's so much information. Even just searching a specific pour size or pulling a weekly sales report, it comes up instantly. It's like Google for your operation.”

The Patch is also one of the only venues in the Maple Ridge market offering full QR table ordering. In a region where most operators are still running traditional counter or table service models, the guest response has been a signal that the format resonates well beyond the novelty of it.

“We really needed the technology to do a lot of the lifting,” he said. “So that we could focus on the people.”

WHAT COMES NEXT: A STRONG SUMMER AND A STORY STILL BEING WRITTEN

Step inside The Patch and the space earns its reputation immediately. Raw wood tones set against matte black accents, high ceilings, and natural light that makes an afternoon pint feel like a reward. Step outside and the mood shifts entirely. Red-painted chairs dot a sprawling patio against open greenery, with the valley stretching out beyond the property.

The beer program reflects the same depth as the land it is brewed on. Alongside flagship pours like the Fat Tractor and Hot Rocks sits the 1879 Patch Pilsner – named for the year John Laity first settled in Maple Ridge. To the brewers at The Patch, understanding local history and beer history are inseparable.

The program keeps expanding. A full cocktail menu now rolls out of a dedicated in-house cocktail station, featuring a Spicy Watermelon Margarita with tajin and lime, a Blood Orange Mule, a loaded Caesar, a Rum and Craft Kola, and an Extra Dirty Soda. Sparkling lemonades round out the non-alcoholic options.

The food operation has grown just as deliberately. When the custom Forno Bravo kitchen could not keep pace with weekend volume, the team added a fully equipped food trailer out back, complete with deep fryers and a burger program that has become as much of a draw as the pizza. Air conditioning was just installed in the trailer ahead of the summer season. At The Patch, the build never really stops.

Neither does the legacy surrounding it. Every October, thousands of school children descend on the north side of the property for the pumpkin patch Jeff and Doug's mother has run for over 35 years, tractor rides, apple cider, and all. A second patch now operates on the south side of the road. The brewery sits at the center of it all, the newest landmark on land that has been feeding and gathering this community for generations.

“We have an older demographic who comes in the mornings and they like to go to the counter,” Madison said. “But on weekends the QR ordering is a total game changer. People are sitting with their families and their beer just arrives.”

This summer, with a fuller menu, a new cocktail program, and a service infrastructure that finally matches the scale of the dream, The Patch is ready for whatever walks through the door. 

Given the track record, that is going to be a lot of people.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Venue: The Patch Brewery, Maple Ridge, British Columbia

Opened: August 22, 2024

Founders: Jeff and Rebecca Laity, and Doug and Kaitlyn Laity

Taproom General Manager: Madison Melanson

GoTab Customer Success Manager: Chanel Farago Stevens

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Concept: Farm-to-table craft brewery, wood-fired kitchen, full espresso program, and community gathering destination rooted in six generations of agricultural heritage on a family farm the Laity family has worked since 1879

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GoTab Implementation: Adopted after the first full season of operation, heading into their second summer

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GoTab Tools Used:

• QR table ordering and checkout deployed across full 400-person indoor and outdoor capacity
• KDS units connecting front and back of house in real time 
• Hybrid ordering model supporting both QR and counter service for every guest demographic 
• Live wait time display on guest-facing order screens 
• Daily sales reporting and operator-level analytics 
• Margin Edge integration for back-of-house cost tracking and food cost management 
• Deep menu-level search and item-specific performance reporting

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Why It Works: GoTab gave The Patch the operational infrastructure to match a guest demand that arrived faster and stronger than anyone anticipated. Counter lines that once stretched 30 to 40 minutes disappeared. Guests who used to leave rather than wait now sit longer, order more, and come back. Sales are up year over year in a market where second-year growth is the exception, not the rule. The technology handles the complexity so the team can focus on the experience.

‍Ready to build something like this? See how GoTab supports high-volume, community-driven hospitality at GoTab.com. Request a demo or reach out to our team to get started.