Coronavirus at One: Harsh Lessons for Brewpubs
In this ongoing series, I have been posting the reflections of brewers and cidermakers as they navigate the coronavirus pandemic. This week we'll have a series of our regulars discussing the pandemic at one year. You can see other posts in the series here.
< Previous Diary | Next Diary >
The week started out highlighting the resilience and creativity brewers brought to the challenge of the pandemic. But some breweries were dealt very poor hands. Old Town Brewing started life 46 years ago as a downtown pizza parlor, adding the brewery to a second brewpub location in Northeast Portland several years back. With no office workers nor shoppers, Covid has hollowed out downtown commercial and retail businesses. Owner Adam Milne has scrambled to save his business and the jobs it provides with a series of creative moves—including the purchase, announced just a couple weeks ago, of a pizzeria in Southeast Portland. Covid dealt Adam a pair of threes, and he refused to fold. Still, it’s been incredibly hard.
What a whirlwind the last year has been. While I haven’t lived through a major war in my lifetime, this pandemic seemed to have some similarities. COVID was the enemy and we all had to come together to make it through the many challenges. Staying healthy was first and foremost. So many lives were lost that it is staggering to reflect on. It also sinks in now and again how surreal our new world has become. I walk into grocery stores where everyone is wearing a mask. We had a few job interviews last week where candidates were masked up. Yet it seems “normal” now.
Looking to the future I ask myself How will Old Town push forward? 2020 was really tough on our company. Partly because we are primarily a restaurant. However, our biggest challenge to our survival was due to our downtown Portland location. When sales eventually hit $18.75 one day in July, we had to temporarily close. Shutting Old Town Pizza really hurt. It was a well-known location that provided a foundation for Old Town Pizza & Brewing. How were we going to make it? We made it this far mainly because of the PPP loan. Without those funds we couldn’t have afforded the big losses.
So what now that the PPP bandaid is running out? I’ve been trying for months to answer that question because downtown is still in trouble. It’s been a year since COVID hit. Early on The Oregonian interviewed me and other downtown business owners asking for suggestions. Most of us responded that we needed our City leaders to help come up with “a plan.” The plan didn’t need to be perfect, but we needed to do something. A year later, there is still no strategy.
In an effort to come up with our own solution I started looking for another location in case downtown Portland became too slow reopen or never comes back. My thought was to open another Old Town in an area that was more stable. During that process, I was fortunate to meet the owner of Baby Doll Pizza who was looking to make a change. Baby Doll has an incredible New York style pizza and loyal following. The owner and I hit it off and we soon began the transition process.
When COVID is over I hope to be able to reopen Old Town Pizza downtown. There are so many questions though: Will office workers come back? Will tourists return? Will our City government support the downtown small business community to help us relaunch our businesses? And the biggest question is: Will Porltanders continue to avoid downtown after COVID goes away?
One of the most difficult parts of the last year were our employees who lost their jobs. These were people who deeply cared about Old Town. Thankfully the Biden administration and Congress are supplementing their income through September. Yet what happens after that? Will restaurant workers want to stay in the industry?
2020 provided some harsh lessons for smaller breweries like Old Town. First, draft sales to bars and restaurants took a major hit. Second, consumer trends in packaged beer started to shift.
It seemed that beer drinkers gravitated towards 6pack 12oz cans at low price points. The flagship beers of bigger breweries became the staples to stock your fridge with. Small breweries who brew at 7-10 barrels at a time and pay a mobile canner just can’t complete at that package size. There’s no way to go head-to-head with a 10 Barrel Brewing on price. Our best avenue during the pandemic and beyond is selling 16oz cans—that cost a little more than 12oz cans—to the craft beer lovers who continue to show support for Old Town beer. That community keeps us relevant and strong.
On a final note, I’d like to say ‘thank you’ to all that supported their small breweries and local restaurants. It was amazing how many came in, endured the snow, ice, and smoke storms to keep us in business. Gift cards were purchased at a higher rate than ever before. Home delivery and the Brewers Market allowed us to connect with you—our valuable consumers—in a new and unique way. And I’d be remiss if I didn’t thank our brewing community. Great people like [ Reverend Nat’s] Nat West and his team who brought Old Town beer with their amazing cider to Portlanders’ homes. Our friends like Dharma and Jack at Rogue who trucked over a pallet of crowlers when we couldn’t get any. Dan at Stormbreaker who consistently shared some great memes to bring a bit of levity to a terrible year. Van and Ben at Gigantic who teamed with us to get the vote out one IPA at a time. All the local beer writers who constantly put out stories of new outdoor patios and beer releases to spark visitors. All the love and support is what I will remember most about the last year.
Photos courtesy of Old Town Brewing.