Three Brewery Closures in Eugene, One Reopening
In Eugene, Oregon, three brewery taprooms have closed suddenly and another is reopening, a microcosm of what is happening in much of the entire craft beer industry these days.
Ninkasi Brewing opened a restaurant in 2020 called the Ninkasi Better Living Room (BLR). This was Ninkasi’s first foray into a full brewpub outlet, they had their small tasting room and patio at the production facility from early on, but the Better Living Room was far more ambitious and grand with a true locally sourced menu serving gastropub food of exceptional quality. BLR was almost universally loved, and in our opinion it immediately ranked as among the top brewpubs in Oregon (and thus the country.) From nearly all accounts the BLR was always busy, the last time we visited for dinner it was an hour plus wait and that was with the full beer garden/patio full. So it really took people aback when the brewery announced last Thursday that BLR would close after Sunday, October 29th, with just 4 days notice to patrons and staff - our friends at BeerStone.com covered the initial shock.
“Busy is not successful,” says Ninkasi Brewing co-founder Jamie Floyd, drawing an important distinction.
“Sourcing local food and paying benefits to your employees and all the things you do has never been profitable. We had profitable months. But the restaurant business is really difficult,” says Floyd.
Floyd counters social media theorizing that pinned the blame of the closure on Ninkasi’s new California parent company and a costly building that used to be the main headquarters and is now the brewpub. Some commenters even suggested that Floyd and co-founder Nikos Ridge no longer were invested in the brand. Floyd is currently a board member of the Oregon Brewers Guild, and still very active and invested in Oregon beer and Ninkasi. “For people to question whether all of that was genuine from the beginning really hurts.” he says.
Although the restaurant was busy, the prospect of a slow winter and losing half of their outdoor seating to the weather was going to be a big net loss for the company, one that would potentially drag the entire operation down during a time when everyone is really feeling challenged to keep going.
“It is one business, and if there is a part of it that is not working then the whole thing is not working,” says Floyd. BLR never had to pay rent on their space, since it was already an underused Ninkasi property built as a headquarters when the industry was bright and sunny with all signs pointing to continued growth trajectory. “We never justified the benefits or the cost of this restaurant on rent, It [BLR] would never exist anywhere else if it had to pay rent. The building is expensive, when we built this it was a $5 million bid and in the end it cost $11 million dollars. With the headwinds that are coming, we gotta stabilize the brewery,” says Floyd.
It is the all too common story of food costs rising, profits falling, and customers staying home more to save money or not drinking at all. Floyd says that if they charged the true cost and markup on the menu, people wouldn’t come out and profits would fall even further. But even accepting that, many are questioning the decision to notify employees that they would be losing their job in only 4 days while the company almost certainly could have given them much more notice.
“That decision to do it and how to do it is never easy. There could have been more communication about what is going on,” admits Floyd, who says he was out of town when it happened. But he also defends the short notice to staff, saying, “We know that when we give employees 2 weeks they often leave earlier. There is just no winning when you have to shut a business down. That part wasn’t executed greatly, its not a sudden decision but its an important decision to make. “
On Sunday, Ninkasi BLR’s final day, the brewery issued an apology and clarification on instagram writing that ‘all of the proceeds from sales at the Better Living Room on Friday, Saturday and Sunday will be split amongst our incredibly talented staff.’ Which was something they had planned from the beginning says Floyd, but was not communicated in the initial brief announcement.
While it is not easy, some businesses shut down or reduce hours and services in the winter to cut costs. But Floyd says the prospects for BLR reopening in it’s current form are slim. “It has to be re-imagined in some fashion, it just doesn’t make money now and we cant keep doing what we are doing and make it successful. Its a hard time for everybody, its time for everybody to have unity over beer. Everyone who is open right now wants to make and serve beer to their community.”
Ninkasi will re-evaluate a taproom again in the Spring, but it is unclear if that could be a different model in the old BLR space or reopening the significantly smaller tasting room they operated prior to that in the brewery building. It is possible they could even do something outside of the NInkasi campus. Floyd says he is hopeful that the BLR space will emerge again, but things need to start looking better in the industry before they can consider doing so.
The Roseburg, Oregon based small brewery Old 99 Brewing seemed to be a small town success story as recently as last year when they acquired and merged with Loggers Pizza, and expanded to a total of three Old 99 locations including their newest outpost in south Eugene, Oregon. When the merger was completed in January of 2022, Old 99 Brewing was excited for their future, announcing the development of a new property and food cart pod and opening a larger brewery. At the time, they said a management team had been formed to oversee business development, operations, risk/safety, and human resources. Owner Sam Gross said, “We have waited a long time to be able to be in a position to put this type of team together. Myself and our partners are looking forward to our future!”
Reality came crashing down on September 29th, when Gross announced on youtube and shared on facebook that they were potentially closing and short on making payroll. Asking the public to come in to support them to pay bills, Gross posted “My #1 priority is getting our team members paid. #2 priority is getting any of our amazing contractors and vendors paid for anything we might owe them.”
One day later another update, “It looks like as long as we keep doing what we are doing we may be able to keep the Roseburg store open. Unfortunately, that isn't the case with the Eugene store. And as of right now it is a toss up on the Winston store.”
The Eugene location of Old 99 Brewing is closed, and the overall company future does not look so bright. The partnership between Old 99 and Loggers may have well laid flat the company. As one commenter on their final social media post offered his assessment - “When every 6 pack a beer that purchased started being flat, I had to give up and find another brand. It is a shame that once the beef and brew location closed for Loggers, the food has also just never been the same. Change is inevitable, but 99 beer and Loggers were both so good before it all went down hill.”
Alesong Brewing & Blending opened their second taproom at the 5th Street Public Market at 248 E 5th Ave #25, next to the posh Inn at 5th hotel in central Eugene in 2020. The supplemental taproom was a more central location to visit than the 30-40 minute drive to their primary countryside location with a more rustic aesthetic. On the same day Ninkasi announced the closure of their Better Living Room brewpub, Alesong announced the 5th Street location would end it’s run on November 12th, with one last exclusive Blender’s Circle Club member event on the 13th.
In the social media announcement of the closure, Alesong says that their recent food menu expansion at the countryside taproom as well as the brand diversification into cider and wine has pulled their focus elsewhere. The 3-year lease on the 5th Street location is also expiring, and the continually higher end development makes that lease increasingly expensive in a sales climate that has been unkind to craft beer and especially wild farmhouse ales as of late. Alesong co-owner Doug Coombs says the location was doing ok, but, “with the lease coming up for renewal, it seemed like time to reevaluate and prioritize where we spend our energy. We only have so much bandwidth and are more excited about some of the things we’ve got going on at the brewery at this point, so want to make sure we have the capacity to really execute well on those and to do the fun things we want to do like pairing dinners, etc. that have sort of fallen by the wayside for lack of time.”
The countryside tasting room set on the lower half of a hill in the valley below King Estate Winery is easily worth the extra drive for the experience at the barrel room. Meanwhile the brewery is offering vintage beers from their cellar every day for the next two weeks at the 5th street market taproom before it closes. And there is always the possibility of another Alesong taproom opening up in Eugene or even Portland if the right opportunity comes up says ownership.
Gratitude Brewing is partnering with Tradewinds Catering to reopen their brewpub at 540 E 8th Ave, Eugene, OR 97401. It’s been 6 months since they last opened, and most of us thought they were done for. But the new partnership allows Gratitude to focus on beer and get help on food and kitchen operational costs to benefit both brands.
In May of 2023, Eugene’s nearly 4 year-old Gratitude Brewing announced a temporary undetermined shut down. Before that they had been plagued with a few inconsistent closures, suggesting drama behind the scenes. Original co-owners Josh Cosci and Tristan Cooley had split, with Cosci exiting the company amid disagreements on how things should be ran. At the time, Cooley told us “construction access issues are just the latest in a series of events that have contributed to Gratitude’s struggles to draw customers to our pub. The first and most overwhelming was, of course, the pandemic. Three months after our grand opening in late-december 2019 we were forced to shut down due to the covid-19 epidemic. We never really were able to recover from that initial blow.”
Josh Cosci has a slightly different perspective, “I will admit that throughout our time as a business we had challenges but in my eyes and when I looked at it as a business owner nothing was ever insurmountable,” he says. Making moves to increase outside sales, Cosci got them set up with a Wild Goose canning line, regular distribution to the Eugene area, and had just signed Gratitude up with Upstanding Distribution to build the brand in other parts of the state such as Portland. “Admittedly the pub did struggle,” he says. “I was working on a plan to build up a food cart area when my partner decided to give me the news he wanted to sell the business.” Cosci says Cooley made the start-up capital investment at their outset, and he was forced to agree to either buy out his partner or sell his share of the business, he chose the latter.
Gratitude Brewing reopens on Wednesday November 1st with Tristan Cooley managing the operations as they head into an uncertain winter. Tradewinds Catering will handle all the food, while Gratitude provides their taproom staff and are gearing the brewery back up with a dozen beers, three of them brand new as of the reopening.
“We wouldn’t be able to reopen without this partnership,” says Cooley of Tradwinds Catering. “Mark and Abbie are very accomplished and have a huge existing customer base due the popularity of their South Eugene location. It is a great opportunity for us. Hopefully we will see good sales even for winter and that will drive us into a 7 day schedule and longer days heading into the Springtime.”
Gratitude Brewing still has a listing up for a turnkey brewery and restaurant for $415,000. The 4,500 sq. ft space with a 10 Barrel Brewhouse, three 10 Bbl Fermenters, a 20 Bbl Fermenter, and the expandable new canning line.
“The business is still up for sale but this enables me to play the long game a little easier and mitigate loss in the meantime,” says Cooley. Gratitude Brewing will be open again Wednesday through Saturday initially, bringing back trivia on Thursdays, and adding in Sunday soon.