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New food and beer ventures highlight old Syracuse

The good old days.
Image courtesy U.S. National Archive via Flickr
The good old days.

Enjoying Syracuse history doesn't have to come from stuffy museums or books. A couple new ventures show that history can be found in a glass or at a local eatery.

"SyracuseDiners.com" is a multimedia guide to diners in Syracuse. It's interactive, displays menus, and informs readers about diner culture.

Another company is a student start-up called "BrewingHistory." The idea is to dust off old beer recipes from almost a century ago and bring them to life again.

The recipes the students found so far have come from the region's historical association, such as the formula for a lager from the Haberle Brewing Co.

Jason Newton, a co-founder of Brewing History, said Haberle produced beer up until the 1960s, but couldn't compete with macro breweries.

Now that a microbrew culture is in the midst of a renaissance, the spirit of Haberle has a chance to strike back.

These students are trying to put their business model together over at the Student Sandbox, an incubator in Syracuse.

On a side note, look forward to hearing more from student startups in Syracuse (including Brewing History) on Monday.

Innovation Trail alumnus Ryan Morden is originally from Seattle. He graduated from the University of Washington with a bachelor's in journalism, minoring in political science and Scandinavian studies. Morden was Morning Edition producer and reporter at WRVO before moving over to the Innovation Trail project. Before landing at WRVO, Morden covered the Washington State legislature as a correspondent for Northwest News Network (N3), a group of nine NPR affiliates in the northwest.