Coronavirus Diaries: How to Support Your Local Brewery This Winter
Last Saturday, I ventured into the drizzly night to procure a bit of take-out from our local Cuban joint. It was only 6:30, but the sky was already an hour into its blackness. My dashboard told me it was 42 degrees, and the few customers I saw crouched under awnings warming their hands over plates of food offered confirmation. Winter has come, and that means breweries, pubs, and restaurants are entering a dark time.
“We are your neighbors and friends. We have families and roots in our community. If you invest in us your investment will pay local and human dividends that you cannot put a price on.”
To make matters especially grim, we are experiencing the worst spike in Coronavirus cases since the pandemic started—an astounding 135,000 yesterday alone. States are closing up, and Oregon Governor Kate Brown yesterday announced new restrictions for Portland. Other states are doing the same. There is a glimmer of hope in the news that effective vaccines are being developed, but they won’t arrive until after the long winter—and its typical low retail sales—have passed.
As I drove past those restaurants over the weekend, I got really worried. Breweries have managed to limp through eight months of this, but how will they survive the next four? I reached out to my regular informants and put it to them: what do you need to survive? What specifically can we do to support businesses over the winter? Here are their answers. Heed them well. Some breweries just aren’t going to make it. If you want your favorite to be among the survivors, you will have to help them out. Here’s how.
There is much shared advice in all three of today’s Portland-based writers—and a fourth, Alan Taylor of Zoiglhaus, signed on to endorse Ben’s suggestions. I considered condensing them into a single post and eliminating the overlap, but that would eliminate the blood and emotion they bring to their comments. Listening to their complete thoughts, despite the overlap, brings a human flavor the advice alone can’t supply. Today we hear from Old Town’s Adam Milne. Old Town is an ambitious brewpub that had to close its original, 46-year-old downtown pizza restaurant because of Covid. Also Ben Parsons of Baerlic, a brewery with now three physical locations (see Ben’s announcement of a brand new one), and Van Havig of Gigantic. Gigantic, like Baerlic, has just opened a new location amid the pandemic.
Adam Milne
Sadly, I don’t think we have experienced the worst when it comes to the Coronavirus. When COVID arrived, it was March and we were moving into the spring. While there was the initial rough patch of restaurant and bar closures, Portlanders were biking and sitting outdoors in the warmer temperatures. Soon businesses reopened with patios exploding all over town. Even with expansion of outdoor dining, most restaurant and brewery pub sales were down from pre-pandemic levels.
Now that we begin to feel winter in both weather and COVID cases, we will soon face the toughest economical and health phase of the virus. Most of us find ourselves in a situation where we can only lose so much money.
For local craft beer fans trying to support their favorite breweries and brewpubs, there are a few ways to help:
Buy Direct & Pickup if Possible: Not all revenue is equal. Delivery apps take a big cut from businesses. Most of us find ourselves forced to use these apps, as do a lot of consumers. We can’t turn away any revenue right now, even if we only make tiny margins. Consumers also enjoy the convenience of ordering from home. If people can pickup (and tip) directly, that will really help breweries better cover their costs.
Tip: Employees working on the frontlines of breweries take a risk making sure that food and beer can go out to our community. Serving or cooking are not a jobs that can be Zoomed at home. This is also a tough time for breweries to be giving raises, so generous tipping is big “thank you” that both the employees and breweries greatly appreciate.
Purchase Gift Cards: If brewery fans really want to help out, purchasing physical and electronic gift cards are a huge help. They provide an interest free “loan” so-to-speak that is a 100% cash infusion into the business. This allows the breweries to basically “borrow” money from community individuals, with the promise to payback later. Buying gift cards though does come with a risk to the consumer. If the business closes and doesn’t make it though the pandemic, the consumer could lose all of their funds.
Dine-in If You Feel Comfortable: The last thing I’d suggest is to dine-in if someone has concerns. But for those that are okay with dining in, it typically provides a higher ticket amount for the business. Folks dining in purchase food and beer, which can require more to-go sales to match. There are also less to-go box costs and waste. For those that will be dining in this winter, we are trying to communicate that Old Town Brewing has very high ceilings, outdoor tables and tents and recently invested in COVID HVAC filtering system.
Push for National and Local Government Support:When the recession hit in 2008, our National government helped Wall Street, the auto and airline industry. For some reason, small business doesn’t seem to have that support or influence. By urging our elected leaders to prioritize small business, it could ensure that your local brewery survives. On the local front, downtown businesses need focused support. We have been decimated by the pandemic and safety perception. Yet our local leaders still don’t have a plan or strategy on how to revive downtown, after more than seven months of sitting and watching. Without vibrant downtown Portland tourism our craft beer and culinary industry could feel ripple affects throughout Oregon.
The hospitality industry has been hit incredibly hard. Small breweries are not just local bottles and cans on grocery shelves. To complete with the big guys our business model requires us to have some form of direct-to-consumer sales. When our brewpubs and taprooms lose significant direct sales, it turns our small businesses upside down.
What makes small breweries special is that we are not national corporations on the stock exchange that pay New York hedge funds quarterly dividends. We are your neighbors and friends. We have families and roots in our community. If you invest in us your investment will pay local and human dividends that you cannot put a price on.
Photo: Mark Graves/Oregonian
Ben Parsons
First and foremost, as the governor begins her '2 week pause' Wednesday, this is a great time for everyone who wants breweries to stay open to take her words very seriously. I don't doubt for a second that more severe orders are coming in the next few weeks if things don't improve. And with pandemic fatigue heavily setting in—myself included, I'm so f**king over this thing—I fear we are in for another shutdown of sorts. As for more practical asks:
Vote with your dollar. If you want a place to be here post-COVID, do what you can to support those businesses this winter. The financial stresses are only going to get worse for all small businesses as the weather shifts and outdoor seating is that much more difficult.
Buy direct. As easy as it is to purchase your local independent beer from the grocery store, know that if you buy direct from the brewery itself, that brewery is able to make as much as ~60% more revenue. When you buy it from the grocery store, that means the brewery sold it to their distributor and that distributor sold it to the grocery store, both of which took a cut of the revenue. You can give your favorite breweries more bang for their buck by buying direct.
Prepay and Pickup or Get It Delivered. Take advantage of all the hard work that breweries have been putting into their online ordering systems or home delivery programs. If these don't continue to be fruitful, then breweries will have to stop investing in them.
Support the businesses that support your favorite breweries. Small, independent bottle shops and beer bars run on small, independent breweries. So, do what you can to not only buy direct from your favorite brewery, but also do what you can to support your favorite breweries' best customers—small, independent bottle shops and beer bars. It not all about the breweries.
Tip big, if you're able. Our entire front of house staff has pivoted from that of beer educator/service rep/behind the bar 'counselor' to that of plastic covered order taker and janitor. The time of bullshitting at the bar with your favorite beertender is on serious pause right now and if we want to see the 'pub' culture return after this shit, then we need to keep our favorite bartenders in the game. So tip BIG!
Spread the wealth, if you have any. My most favorite thing about the Oregon beer industry is just how collegial and friendly it is. I love our brewery sisters and brothers in Oregon and the industry is more than the sum of its parts. Please do what you can to keep every brewery in Oregon open.
Keep on keeping on. We got this Oregon. We just need to hang on a while longer and this will be in the rearview mirror. Wear the mask. Keep the distance and just keep that patience hat on a while longer. This is where my dad voice comes in…
And lastly, if this gets posted on or after Wednesday of this week [it did!—Jeff], then I'll need people to Eat Pizza and Drink Beer at our brand new spacious and open and vast beergarden! We've partnered with Ranch Pizza to take over the former Blitz/Ladd Taphouse space for 6,000 square feet indoor pizza and beer garden…or piehall as I've coined it. Tables spaced at least 8-10 feet apart? Check. Lots of recirculating air through 4' thick Merv 13 filters? Check. All the safety protocols we can think of? Check. Draft beer and square pizza? Check. We hope to have a soft open Thursday of this week, so official announcements will go out tomorrow or Wednesday. So until then, please keep this on the DL. [Aye aye!—Jeff]
Thanks again Jeff! I'm more optimistic than I've been in a long, long time and seeing as 'ole orangey' is on the out, there's a lot to be grateful for! And if we can all just hang on til the spring, then I believe we'll emerge from the ashes that much stronger. But make no mistake, the hardest time for bars, restaurants and breweries is still in front of us. This winter will be extremely difficult and closures are sure to increase, if not exponentially.
Photo: Huck Bales
Van Havig
To be perfectly honest, if people did what they did in March and April, we will all be just fine, and that means to buy brewery direct. I think everyone knows that the grocery stores are doing great, what with people eating out much, much less than they were a year ago. If you don't buy beer from them, they're not going out of business. And to be clear, it's the smaller breweries that need the most help from direct customer purchases. Smaller breweries already rely on that through tap room sales much more than larger breweries do. If you normally buy Bridgeport at the grocery store (I know they're out of business, it allows me to talk about breweries of a certain size) and also pick up a beer or three from a smaller brewery there, think about just buying those other one or three beers direct from the brewery, either take away or delivery.
Sure, coming to the pub would be great, and I'm sure we'll all do the best we can to offer you a sheltered place to gather. But I also understand that it's about to be winter in the PNW.
I guess please just think about how you spend your beer money. Thanks.