I had an office in Leonardtown many years ago. Back then, it was a sleepy little town that was the county seat of St. Mary’s County. So, I'll admit I didn't expect much from Leonardtown when I planned to return. What I found was a lively downtown with signs pointing to a "downtown district" and a "waterfront district." On Washington Street, in a building older than the Civil War, was Everyday Saint Brewhouse.
“Honestly, I really do love this town. A big part of me wants to offer another reason to come to Leonardtown.”
"Honestly, Jack, I really do love this town," co-owner Tyler Radez told me as we sat in his basement brewhouse. "A big part of me wants to offer another reason to come to Leonardtown."
After an afternoon there, I'd say he's done just that.
Introductions
Everyday Saint Brewhouse is the work of Tyler and Michelle Radez. Tyler runs the brewing side alongside his partner and fellow brewer, Todd D'Imperio. Michelle runs an antiques business in nearby Compton, and she gets credit for the taproom's look. That look stands out right away.
Tyler Radez in the Everyday Saint cooler.
Brewing is not anyone's day job yet. Tyler has spent 28 years in the St. Mary's County school system and is now an assistant principal at the county's technical high school, where students train in carpentry, electrical wiring, and auto tech. Todd is also an educator. Tyler plans to retire in two years, after his thirtieth year, "and hopefully do this full time."
Like most of the people I profile, Tyler started as a homebrewer. He brewed for about twelve years before going pro, and he got tired of beers that came out "pretty good, but not great." He wanted a more professional setup, and that hunger for better beer is still there. "When I go to a brewery, I'll probably like their IPA," he said, "but my question is what do you have that's very interesting and pushing boundaries? I want to try it."
The name says a lot about the people behind it. "The meaning of an everyday saint is someone who does things for the good of others," Tyler explained. "They're not looking for fame and fortune." With two career educators running the brewhouse, he said, "it jived with what we've been doing for the better part of our lives."
Origin Story & Vision
The Radezes are restless by nature. "We're always just 'rolling stone gathers no moss' type of people," Tyler said. Early in his teaching career he ran the first hot dog cart on the Leonardtown square, and he has started a floor hockey league and a poker league. A brewery seemed like the natural next step.
Michelle Radez in the ESB taproom.
The Radezes made a big bet to get it going. In 2019 they sold their house in a waterfront community and bought the Washington Street building outright. It had four apartments and two commercial spaces. The sale left them with nothing in reserve. "My wife and I, and our two kids, lived in my mother-in-law's basement for 16 months," Tyler said, until they could save enough to buy one of the smallest houses on a back street of Leonardtown. They renovated that house too. "There was no big nest egg to buy a huge brewery and walk in and open up on day one. It's been a labor of love."
They renovated the building one unit at a time. About two and a half years ago, Tyler and Todd began brewing professionally in the basement and selling to nine bars and restaurants around St. Mary's County. They also hauled kegs to festivals as far away as Frederick. "It seems like you don't get recognized until you have a taproom," Tyler said. The taproom opened in December 2025, and distribution has since stopped.
Tyler is clear about the plan from here. "We are a nano brewery. I have no interest in doing a canning line and expanding and taking over the world," he said. "I love being nimble." Guests keep suggesting cans, distribution, and expanding into the space next door. Tyler isn't interested in any of them.
"I measure success with happiness," he said, "not size or production."
Brewery Operations
The Brewhouse
Everyday Saint brews on a 2.5-barrel Psychobrew system, made in Michigan. Tyler found it during COVID on ProBrewer, the online marketplace where breweries buy and sell used gear. The seller was Bullfrog Creek Brewing near Tampa. Tyler had been shopping for about a year and a half, and this was the right fit. "Price was right. Why not start with a used system? And everything just about fit in this basement."
He sent $1,000 to hold it, flew to Florida the next weekend, and drove it home in the biggest U-Haul he could rent.
The system has his school's fingerprints all over it. Tyler converted it from direct fire to electric. A welder friend at the tech center welded the ferrules for the heating elements, and students welded a stainless steel hood. "There are so many little parts and pieces from the school that kids have worked on for me," he said. In return, he donates to the program. He built the walk-in cooler with his dad, and he was proud enough of it to ask me to photograph it.
Production and Distribution
Everyday Saint brewed about once a month during its distribution years. Now it brews once a week.
Today 100 percent of the beer is sold in the taproom. The first four months were frantic. "We had ten taps and sometimes five beers," Tyler said. A slow June let them catch up, and now the walk-in is packed. That leaves room to plan beers that need more time, like a fest beer.
Local Ingredients and Collaborations
Local partnership shows up all over the taproom. The brewhouse has no kitchen, so Michelle drives around town every Wednesday picking up treats for the weekend. There are moonshine cookies and "Ted Lasso biscuits" from a local bakery, and charcuterie boards from another nearby business. "It would be cheaper to have a Sysco rep come and stock full of potato chips," Tyler said. "But I think it's our way of sharing in the growth of Leonardtown." A screen in the taproom scrolls ads for other downtown businesses, and the space next door is leased to the Craft Guild of St. Mary's County.
The brewery's best-known collaboration so far is a tribute. Jubilation, a New England–style IPA, honors Dan Bedford, the former brewer at Jubilee Farm Fermentations. Bedford spent hours with Tyler and Todd as they built their operation. "He was very good at offering suggestions without being a know-it-all," Tyler said. Brewery-to-brewery collaborations are on Tyler's wish list for after he retires and isn't "burning the candle at both ends."
Brewing Style
Tyler's style is variety. He takes some playful jabs from purists who say, "I only brew what I love." His answer is that he loves a lot of things. "There's not one beer that I always get when I go upstairs," he said.
The ten taps show it. The best seller is Boy Genius, a red IPA. When it runs out, Tyler points people to another IPA until it returns. On my visit, the board also had a crushable session IPA in the low 4 percent range, a wheat ale, a sour, and an 8.2 percent double pale ale inspired by the Orange Crush, "now the cocktail of Maryland." Tyler also holds a federal vintner's permit, so there's cider and experimental mead. A house seltzer flavored with Monin syrups is the top seller, which Tyler has accepted. It means everyone in a group has something to drink.
Next up are cask ales, a beer engine, and barrel aging. A beer engine would suit the room's English pub feel.
What Tyler Loves Most
I asked Tyler what he likes most: the science, the business, the people, or the creative side. He answered without hesitating. "It's probably the science and being creative." He gets the most joy from sharing what's coming next. "I love grabbing little samples from the bright tank, just because I know someone's raving about this beer. I'm like, hold on one second, let me grab you something that no one else has had yet."
As an introvert myself, I understood the rest of his answer. "I love working down here more so than being upstairs," he admitted. "I can put on a face and talk to people, but it's not my happy place."
Location
Why Leonardtown and Why This Building
Tyler moved to Leonardtown in 1997, when, he said, "Leonardtown was really nothing." Around 2015, he saw the start of a revival, and he knew the people pushing it, including Mayor Dan Burris and Town Administrator Laschelle McKay. Tyler credits them with a willingness to change. Building outside town had advantages, but the Radezes wanted "something in town, something where people could walk to." Leonardtown is now a designated Maryland Main Street community.
Finding the building took some legwork. Almost nothing downtown was for sale, so the mayor gave them a list of building owners to call. The owners of 22760 Washington Street lived in Annapolis and rented the building out. Once the Radezes shared their plans, the owners agreed to sell.
What Makes It Unique
The building is the story. It dates to the 1840s and is the oldest continuously used structure on Washington Street. Tyler is still filling in its history, but he says it began as a single-story Methodist church and was later raised to two stories. Since then it has been the town hall, a silent movie theater, a men's debating society, a library, a family home, and rental apartments for local bartenders. According to local lore, Al Jolson performed there as a teenager. It's also, Tyler says, "slightly haunted, but all the ghosts are friendly." His security cameras have picked up footsteps upstairs after hours.
Michelle's antiques eye makes the taproom feel like a great-grandmother's parlor rather than a warehouse. There's an auction-found painting of fighting roosters and vintage pennants rescued from a family attic. Flights arrive on old tin beer trays, and the floors were patched with salvaged yellow pine from Baltimore's Second Chance. Enclosing the side porch with clear three-season curtains doubled the seating that first winter. "That kind of saved us," Tyler said.
Everyday Saint outdoor sitting.
Hospitality is part of the design too. Staff ask what brought you to town and whether you need a dinner recommendation. Instead of selling mug club memberships, the "Loyalists" program uses point-of-sale data to reward real regulars with quarterly tokens for an old hotel-style key ring. Keyholders get perks, like pints from kegs of spicy pineapple wheat saved just for them. Tyler curates the bluesy, soulful playlist himself and plans live music under the pergola.
Nearby Breweries and Beverage Stops
Everyday Saint is on the St. Mary's Craft Beverage Trail, alongside Port of Leonardtown Winery down by the wharf, Free State Ciders, and the Southern Trail and Tobacco Barn distilleries. Dan Bedford, Tyler's mentor, now runs The Pub at Farthings Ordinary, a pub in historic St. Mary's City, which was my next stop that day. Mully's Brewery in Prince Frederick is about a half-hour drive north, which makes a good Southern Maryland beer run.
Things to Do Nearby
Tyler pitched his town to readers from Annapolis and Baltimore. "Southern Maryland and Leonardtown is not a part of the state that you drive through. If you drive down 95, you are not coming near St. Mary's County." Visitors can walk to waterfront restaurants and plenty of seafood. Parking is "a block or two" away, and he insists that's fine.
“Southern Maryland and Leonardtown is not a part of the state that you drive through. If you drive down 95, you are not coming near St. Mary’s County.”
Within a short walk of the brewery is The Slice House pizza across the street, The Front Porch next door, the Social Coffeehouse & Cocktail Bar, and The Rex Theatre for live shows. Down the hill is Leonardtown Wharf. The day before my visit, two couples tied up their boats there, walked up for a beer, and had dinner next door before heading home. "This is a community that you can get to by boat," Tyler said.
I asked Tyler what he hopes guests talk about on the drive home. He said they'll talk about which friends to bring back and which beers on the "coming soon" screen they want to try. Plenty of guests already come back. One regular was upstairs during my visit, and he had just decided he needed to bring his wife.
"We want people to know that we're going to take care of them," Tyler said. That's the everyday saint idea in practice.
Everyday Saint Brewhouse
22760 Washington Street
Leonardtown, MD
everydaysaintbrewhouse.com.
Hours:
Sunday Closed
Monday Closed
Tuesday Closed
Wednesday Closed
Thursday 3-9 PM
Friday 12-10 PM
Saturday 12-10 PM
