As the fog began to envelop the coastal areas of Santa Cruz County Tuesday evening, the sun beamed, uninterrupted, on a building up the hill that, from a distance, looked like there could be aircraft stationed inside.

A remote-controlled copter buzzed about the open field next to it, swooping this way and that. Someone swept the patio outside. Someone else wiped glass panels along the edge.

It’s been a long road to the opening date for Faultline Brewing Company’s Scotts Valley location, in a building designed to look like an airplane hangar. Its form reflects the history of the airstrip once located out the front window, a greenspace that still serves as a touchdown point for medical evacuations.

But the Sunnyvale brewer’s Santa Cruz County expansion date had finally arrived, and the excitement in the air was palpable—particularly given the seemingly endless construction delays due to pandemic challenges and supply chain bottlenecks.

“We just kept getting pushed back and pushed back,” says Sam Ghadiri, the 38-year-old who owns the business with partner Joe Jean. “It’s frustrating when you order something in September 2021 and you receive it in March 2022.”

He’s thinking about the hood for the kitchen, for one, a key component they needed in place before many of the other puzzle pieces could be assembled.

“All of these things are made to order,” Ghadiri says. “It was a little frustrating. But now, when you see the light at the end of the tunnel, all is forgotten. All the hardships, the aches and pains, they go away when you’re on the precipice of opening.”

From updating the layout to comply with Americans with Disabilities Act requirements to heading to auctions to source equipment when Plan A got jammed in logistics snarls, the developers behind the restaurant say it certainly wasn’t easy to get here.

“It just becomes a joke,” says Corbett Wright, of CW Land Consultants, Inc., noting the team wanted the facility to be as sustainable as it was sparkling. “It just takes a lot of time, energy and money—lots of money.”

But as front-of-house staff cleared the dust from outdoor tables and checked the orientation of disc golf and apparel merchandise by the front door, the pain of the coronavirus era could almost be forgotten.

And it seems the community can’t wait to get in on the action, either.

When Faultline opened reservations for the soft opening, Saturday, they were flooded with 70 reservations of over 200…