Laurelwood Brewing owner Mike De Kalb on closing the brewpub and changing business models
Laurelwood Brewing owner Mike De Kalb doesn’t have much time to talk to me about the recent closure of their flagship Portland brewpub. When I asked De Kalb about how he got started with Laurelwood Brewing and why he got into the brewpub business in the first place he replies, “Old news. My story is on our website from the 2001-2002 version. Go to the wayback machine to look it up.” You might think a guy that just shut down the last of his 5 brewpubs would have a little more time, but apparently business is booming. “Sorry if I was brief. I’m doing sales these days!” he says.
Laurelwood Brewing owner Mike De Kalb
On Monday, August 28th, Laurelwood Brewing announced their NE Portland brewpub’s closure, thanking staff and customers, and promising they wouldn’t stop brewing.
The announcement comes after a tumultuous few years dating back from even before the pandemic, and an accelerated series of events over the past few months that began with a changed service model, shifting contract brewing facilities, a hectic Portland Mercury Burger Week, and ending with a smoker fire on the roof.
When you think of the brewpub model (defined by the Brewers Association as a brewery with an on-site restaurant) Laurelwood Brewing is one of the first to come to mind along with McMenamins. Laurelwood pioneered the family friendly brewpub at their original location on NE 42nd, offering world-class northwest red, amber, IPA, porter, and stout from brewmaster Christian Ettinger (who went on to found Hopworks) and classic Americana pub grub with a full on kids play area. Other brewpubs followed suit, and Laurelwood expanded to a much larger building up the street and turned the OG pub into Laurelwood Pizza Co. The brand flourished for two decades, opening a location off of NW 23rd in 2005, a Sellwood neighborhood brewpub in 2014, another in Battle Ground, Washington and a satellite location in the Portland International Airport.
As the craft beer boom slowed, Laurelwood pulled back, closing all of the pubs except for the flagship two level restaurant and brewery at 5115 NE Sandy Blvd. Then in 2019 news broke that Laurelwood would be selling to Eugene, Oregon’s Ninkasi Brewing who had in turn merged with Legacy Brands, but the Portland brewpub would stay under the De Kalb family ownership as a separate entity that would license the Laurelwood name back. It was all a bit confusing, and didnt take long until it imploded with Ninkasi leaving Legacy and Laurelwood buying their brand back in 2022. It was all part of a new plan to package more beer and expand from on-premise brewpub to off-premise dependable grocery brand. Laurelwood flirted with filling demand with contract brewer Conspirator Beverage, which unceremoniously closed in July. Today their relationship with Ninkasi is still flourishing for contract brewing, with the Eugene brewery making all of their beer for 6-packs, as the Laurelwood brewpub handles their draft and 16oz packaged product.
In May, Laurelwood Brewing announced they would scale back their restaurant operations from full service to counter service only with a more limited food menu. This was following a trend away from families and pub food that had been going on for awhile since Laurelwood transformed a large section of their excess dining area into Portland Axe Throwing lanes. While De Kalb still thinks the brewpub business model can work, they are officially getting out of the game to focus on direct sales and distribution.
“A brewpub is a viable business model. It just needs to be in the right size location with the right combination of food and beer. Most of our “regulars” never ate. A lot of the people who ate didn’t drink more than one beer,” says De Kalb. “Peoples habits have changed so much over the years, and the pandemic accelerated change. A lot of people would rather grab a 6 pack and order Doordash instead of getting dressed and going out. Maybe once a week, but not several times a week like it used to be.”
De Kalb was serving that brewpub service model last Saturday on what turned unexpectedly turned out to be the brewpubs last day of business. It was one of the restaurants busiest days of the year as people lined up for their Portland Mercury Burger Week special “The Donny” (a Big Lebowski themed juicy burger with house-smoked pork belly slices, grilled onions, shredded lettuce and a double-sauced bun of sweet and tangy sweet chili aioli.)
“I smoked pork belly’s all week. I threw too many on the smoker (on the roof) on Saturday. It got smoky and someone called the fire department. The lady at the barbers took pictures of me on the roof in the smoke,” says De Kalb with a laugh. Noting that there was no actual damage to the kitchen and it was not the reason for Laurelwood’s closure. “Some how someone thought that a smoker is in the kitchen. You know how social media is, and then the media picked up on it.”
Laurelwood cut their Burger Week plans short, announcing on social media that: ‘The pub will remain open, and we appreciate your understanding.’ But it didn’t work out that way.
“The decision to close the pub was made early in the week. All the staff were told several days in advance, and we paid out PTO for everyone,” says De Kalb. They had planned to be open on Sunday but then the kitchen crew called out of work and they threw in the towel. “We couldn’t jeopardize our license by opening with no food. It’s not the way we wanted to end. There were a lot of upset customers.”
While others are expanding with satellite taprooms and more brewpubs, Laurelwood appears to be permanently out of the brewpub business. But don’t count out another pivot, because brewing will continue on-site and the pub is just going to be sitting there vacant. When I brought up the idea of sub-leasing the restaurant and bar to another operation like Great Notion is doing with Matt’s BBQ and Little Beast does with Lawless BBQ, De Kalb responded affirmatively if not definitively: “Your imagination is headed in the right direction.”
No matter the latest disappointing turn of events, Laurelwood’s sales are up 30% this year according to De Kalb. But it’s all about the wholesale off-premise market, a dramatic change of course for a brewery that made their bones as a family friendly brewpub. Despite the negatives, De Kalb seemed downright positive about the brewery’s trajectory, “Laurelwood will continue to brew, sell and distribute beer. I don’t have a crystal ball. The OBG [Oregon Brewers Guild] says beer sales are down. Our sales are up and we’re excited for the future.”
Laurelwood packaged over 700 cases of 16oz cans this week alone of their Pumpkin Ale and Fresh Hop Green Elephant IPA says sales manager Andy Schaefer.
