Photos courtesy of Kelli S. Hewett.
Left: Cat-n-Bird Winery and its beer component, Spitting Llama, operate out of an outdoor pavilion setting in Chelsea off U.S. 280, featuring live music, rotating food trucks, farm animals and special events ranging from yoga classes to trivia sessions every Saturday from noon to 6 p.m. Right: Regulars Brandon and Allie Zajac enjoy the outdoor space.
On a blue-sky Saturday at Cat-n-Bird Winery in Chelsea, Allie Zajac isn’t here for a big scene. She’s here for peace.
She settles next to her husband, Brandon, on a blanket near the pavilion, wine slushie in hand, taking in the live guitar music, the cornhole games, and kids darting between chairs and tables.
“I come out here even if I just don’t feel like being in the mood of being around people,” said Zajac, who also comes for the special-event yoga classes. “You can keep to yourself or mingle. It’s just a really fun, calm, peaceful place to be.”
That’s exactly what proprietor and owner Matt Lyons is going for with Cat-n-Bird and its brew component, Spitting Llama.
Open only on Saturday afternoons, Lyons hopes it harkens back to the place “where everybody knows your name” — “Cheers,” the beloved 1980s bar-based sitcom.
“We have about half of our normal crew where everybody knows everybody,” Lyons said. “It’s kind of like ‘Cheers,’ right? The other half are people that come in [and] are, like, ‘Wow, I want to be a part of this,’ so it ends up snowballing.”
Crowds spill out under the pavilion, regulars greet each other by name and newcomers quickly feel like they’ve stumbled onto someone’s ultra-chill backyard party.
The outdoor setting — with farm animals grazing nearby — builds on that “Cheers outdoors” feel.
Children feed apples and carrots to the horses and miniature donkey, Pedro, while adults linger over their beverages, on the porch bed swings and in conversation. Well-behaved dogs are always welcome.
When Lyons began pouring beers under the Spitting Llama name, he gave beer drinkers and wine lovers a shared place to land. What was once a predominantly female clientele is now a pretty even mix of males, females and children of all ages.
The added taps didn’t change the winery’s laid-back feel; instead, Spitting Llama folded into the scene, expanding Cat-n-Bird’s reach while keeping the focus on community and connection.
The one-time basement winery of Matt and his wife, Robyn, has grown over nine years into a community hub with music, a different food truck of the week and special community events.
Yoga and cookie- and cake-decorating classes, line dancing, trivia nights and other events have all had their turn, but the through line is the same: giving people a place to relax together.
For Lyons, the draw behind Cat-n-Bird and Spitting Llama comes down to something simple: togetherness.
“It’s its own little ecosystem,” Lyons said. “It’s truly a community.”
For regulars like Zajac, it’s less a business and more an unexpectedly perfect hangout close to home.
“It’s nice that there’s something like this here,” Zajac said. “Because it is right off of [U.S.] 280, I think it’s full of surprises. You just have to kind of look for it. I tell people about this place all the time. It’s a great way to hang out outside.”
Dedicated patron-turned-tap-maven Jill Harig, who joined the team in 2023, loves the place so much she had the winery logo tattooed inside her wrist.
“The world is not great sometimes; I think people just need community,” Harig said. “This is like a happy little bubble where it is just all love, community, friendship. This is my favorite place in the world.”
Cat-n-Bird Winery and Spitting Llama are open Saturdays from noon to 6 p.m. For more on offerings and special events, visit cat-n-bird.com.
