Jason Fehon, Co-Owner
Jason can’t sit still for long…unless he’s got a pint of beer in one hand and good BBQ in the other. But the road to founding Bill’s Best didn’t begin with a love of BBQ or beer. At age 16, Jason bought a Gibson Les Paul, a Marshall amp, and learned to play the guitar. After realizing he wasn’t the next Jimmy Page, Jason focused his love of music on building a career in radio at the legendary FM station, WMMR. Jason parlayed an internship in 2001 to a position on the promotions staff, on to producing the Mid-Day show with Pierre Robert for ten years, and since 2004 he has been a staple in the DJ lineup. You can hear Jason cracking the mic on WMMR every Saturday and Sunday from 6-10am. When you meet him at the brewery, point at him and say, “5 seconds,” and he’ll immediately tell you the title, album and artist of whatever song is playing.
While he loves music, beer is an obsession. There is nothing in this world, except for his wife and two daughters, that Jason loves more than beer. Not only has he been a dedicated home brewer for the last decade, he regularly travels the world in search of that perfect pint. Most people’s paradise would be a sandy beach in a tropical location with a cocktail including a tiny umbrella. Instead, Jason dreams of sitting at the bar in a tiny pub in Bruges (Belgium) called t’Brugs Beertje talking to friends about beer and drinking a bottle of Drie Fontanein Golden Blend.
Diane Fehon, Co-Owner
Diane has spent most of her adult life being a wife, mother of five sons, and building her career in museum education at Glencairn Museum in Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania. As her sons grew, so did her responsibilities at the museum. Family and career were on a lock-step path. In the midst of this, in the early 90s, Diane’s husband, Bill, created the recipe for what is now Bill’s Best Original BBQ Sauce. Then in 2009, Bill was diagnosed with a rare form of dementia, called fronto-temporal degeneration, at age 55. The life they knew was forever changed; everything shifted repeatedly as his disease progressed. Working full-time and caring for her husband were Diane’s top priorities, requiring all of her time and energy. After 5 years, Diane made the tough decision to place Bill in a facility where he would get the level of care she could no longer provide. Soon after, she retired from her beloved museum to assist her son Jason with the budding business, manufacturing and selling Bill’s Best Organic BBQ sauces.
Finn Synnestvedt, Brewmaster
When Finn was 21 years old, his older brother had just begun homebrewing, and he was quickly shown the ropes of how to make beer in an igloo cooler in a garage. He can still remember that first all-grain batch of brown ale he made there, and upon tasting it realizing, “Oh, I can do this.” For the next many years, brewing was always a part of Finn’s life. Sometimes in the background, other times the forefront, it led to some great experiences–among them spending a month in England to attend a short course at Brewlab UK, then apprenticing at a small microbrewery in Bristol, UK. Not too long after that he spent some time assistant brewing at a local PA microbrewery, where he received invaluable instruction and mentorship in the ways of commercial brewing. When the opportunity to be a brewer for Bill’s Best came up it made perfect sense as a way to keep learning about, creating, and sharing beer with people.
When he’s not occupied with brewing duties you can find him playing the drums, biking and hiking (sometimes to and from a new brewery that needs to be checked out) and reading some good fiction.
Cheryl MacMinn, Bar Manager
Cheryl has been the rock of our bartending staff since we opened. She’s incredibly knowledgeable when it comes to beer and she makes the best Bloody Marys you’ve ever tasted! In addition to her incredible bartending skills she’s also a hard working mom of four. You’ll often see her kids and her husband Shawn, hanging out in the brewery.