The Washington, D.C. flag’s iconic combination of three stars and two bars, with its roots originating in George Washington’s coat of arms, has long been an inspiring symbol of pride for our nation’s capital. It also served as the inspiration for Takoma, D.C.’s newest local craft brewery: 3 Stars Brewing Co.
3 Stars began as an idea shared by two best friends with a mutual love of beer. Mike McGarvey and Dave Coleman began home brewing just as a hobby about four years ago—and as they started getting better at it, they began to ask themselves “why we don’t have anything like this locally?”
“We just wanted something here in D.C. to represent the pride we have in D.C. and the pride we take in our beer, and so we started looking at what it would take to open said brewery,” said Coleman.
Coleman works as a bartender and serves as beer director at The Big Hunt, a bar in Dupont Circle with a great selection of microbrews. It was there that a “friend of a friend” introduced Coleman and McGarvey to one another — and, incidentally, where Coleman met his wife as well.
The two were a perfect match as both friends and business partners, each bringing a different skills set to the operation. McGarvey’s background is in mechanical engineering and business. He worked for Accenture for 10 years doing management and information technology consulting, and he most recently has worked at Sirius XM for five years in an IT leadership role as well. Coleman, on the other hand, has the market knowledge to bring in clientele.
“Dave has been really a cornerstone of the craft beer scene as it’s been growing in D.C. for the last eight or 10 years,” said McGarvey. “He’s really been great in managing the outreach and generating interest and getting demand, while I’ve been focused on getting the brewery up and running.”
Dave Coleman and Mike McGarvey.
