PD Wappler
Age: 35
Hometown: Dover-Foxcroft, Maine
Profession: Entrepreneur
Bar of choice: The King’s Head Pub
Drink of choice: Boozy Cold Brew
The wharf upon which the King’s Head Pub sits was built atop debris created when King George III’s navy shelled and burned Portland (then called Falmouth) in 1775. Today, a portrait of King George looks down from the pub’s sign, his smug, self-satisfied mug a sharp contrast to the cheery, welcoming faces you’ll find inside.
The King’s Head Pub looks a lot like the taverns you’ll find in many small English villages. Its dark, wood-accented interior is cozy, and the wraparound bar encourages patrons to chat with each other. The pub’s food is comforting and familiar, and the extensive beer menu covers traditional ales and lagers along with many other styles from Maine and around the world.
Also like many U.K. pubs, The King’s Head is a living shrine to its regulars. Plaques on a wall honor the Beer Club members who’ve consumed 100 different brews, and some bar seats have plaques dedicated to “super regulars” who always sit in the same spot. The King’s Head contains multitudes, as does the super-friendly regular with the loud, gregarious laugh: PD Wappler.
“Our regulars are the heart of the bar,” said Andrea, who’s bartended there for three years. “PD brings really good energy. He’s willing to pitch in, and we value him a lot.”
When did you start coming to King’s Head?
About six or seven years ago. I saw that they had thirty-five taps or whatever in this huge wraparound bar. One of the first times I decided to come in on my own, I had a great time. I just kept to myself, and the bartender, Lindsey [now the general manager], was nice. I ended up leaving my notebook when I left, and I didn’t realize it until I got home. I came back the next night and they gave me the notebook back, and Lindsey had written a note that said, “Left behind. Nice guy, don’t throw out.” That was the beginning of me coming here as a regular. It just had all the things I wanted. It had an amazing beer list, nice people. The longer I came, the more I got to meet the other regulars. Now, I can’t bring a notebook in here because there’s no chance I’m gonna get any alone time to write.
What are the other regulars like?
It’s a lot of working-waterfront folks, and a couple of them dock right on this pier. In general, they’re sweet, sweet guys, fun. Sometimes when I bring people in here, they’re like, “Oh jeez, there’s a lot of rough-looking types in here.” But they’re like the sweetest people I’ve ever met. Lunchtime is just like a bunch of lawyers who work upstairs. Also lots and lots of tourists. It’s an interesting mix. It’s a good spot to send people because it’s a little bit off the beaten path, but not off of Commercial Street, so it’s not away from anything. The bar itself, I think, is the main feature of this place. The shape of the bar means that on a regular night — one that’s not crazy busy — it’s just a bunch of regulars dotted around. You don’t have to sit next to each other. You can talk to each other anywhere. You can see everyone everywhere that you’re sitting.
How has your relationship with the staff evolved over the years?
Some of them have turned into my really, really good friends. They’re wonderful and amazing people. Basically, with that bar, you’re in the center of the room, like you’re on a stage. You are performing and taking care of everyone all at once. It’s like twenty-something seats at the bar, and if you’re not a good person, you can’t be behind that bar, especially because there’s so many regulars who come in every single day. If you’re not the type of person that cares about people, and you can’t remember people’s names, it’s probably not gonna work.
How long have you lived in Portland?
I’ve been in Portland for fifteen years. I transferred to USM, and I just got an apartment in Portland, and that was pretty much it. I went to school for Philosophy, but then that morphed into Media Studies, which is like a branch off of Communications with a focus in film. I loved Portland so much that I never left.
Did you end up using your degree?
I actually started my own production company with three other friends that I graduated with. We mostly did nonprofit work for music programs and whatnot. I did some projects for 317 Main Street in Yarmouth, and then a small art studio called Side by Side, right here in Portland. It was a cool little team and everyone had their own specialties. Once everyone else got jobs that paid way more than the projects that we were working on, everyone was like, “I don’t have time for this.” I finished the last projects on my own and closed up shop. I also ran a toy store for ten years, and I ran a brewery.
How did you get into brewing?
A friend brought me to Mama’s CrowBar on Munjoy Hill, which is where Munjoy Hill Tavern is now, and it was beer only, cash only. That bar is the reason why I like bars. That started me down the path. As I got to try more things, I was like, “Oh, you can do some pretty cool things with beer.” Craft beer was really starting to get its resurgence around that time, and so many breweries were starting to pop up. There were four or five in Portland at that time, around 2011. There’s some beers that are really shitty, even though they’re the same style, like, “What the fuck is that?” So I started brewing. I had a roommate who was also really into beer and brewing. We just started upgrading our equipment and brewing as much as we could. Eventually he started working at Allagash, and within the first couple years of him working there, they did employee home-brew competitions, and we won one of them. So, that was really cool. I continued my beer journey, and tried all the different styles and read up on all the tasting notes and home-brew judge guides.
It just kind of kept going and going, and the beer scene here just kept exploding. It was at a time that, like, sometimes every single batch of a certain type of beer tasted a little bit different. It was kind of exciting to be like, What did they do differently now? Did they change their hops? Was this a mistake? If you’re hanging out with a bunch of other beer nerds, you’re all speculating. It was kind of like a community thing in itself, just getting into beer on its own.
How did you go from home brewing to opening up a brewery?
After I got my taste of running a business with the toy store, and then the production company, it was just something that I knew I could do, and if I could mix any of my other skills with it, it just seemed like a win-win scenario. I had always wanted to at least give it a shot, and was basically just waiting for the right person who was as ambitious as me, and willing to take that type of risk, and hopefully have even more skills that are going to help us be successful. And that’s kind of where I met Dante, who was my business partner for Hi-Fidelity. He was a friend of a friend. We hit it off. We both like beer. We both brewed our own beer. Over seven years or so, we slowly picked away at shaping our ideal brewery.
Live music seems to be an important feature at Hi-Fidelity. Are you also a musician?
I’m a lifelong musician. My mom started me on the piano when I was like five or something. From there, yeah, piano, cello, guitar, drums, bass, ukulele. Writing music was my passion, and even all through, like, middle school and high school, I was doing my own little recordings. So, music’s always been really important to me. As I got busier and busier, music kind of became less of a priority for me, but I wanted to bring the music back in the brewery. That was really the space that we were trying to make, and I think we pretty much got it.
What are you up to these days?
I am in the process of launching my own bookkeeping firm. Since leaving the toy store, I have continued to do their books and payroll and be their tech guy and whatever. I realized through having to hire my own bookkeeper for the brewery that I don’t like how most bookkeepers operate, and people seem to like how I do it. I’m hoping by early next year, we’ll be launching and taking on a bunch of new clients and hiring on some more bookkeeping contractors. I’m no longer involved at Hi-Fidelity. I’m still playing music, though.
Know an interesting bar regular? Send them our way at theregularsmaine@gmail.com.
