Surly Brewing Will Reopen Its Beer Hall Saturday Despite Calls to Boycott
It's been seven months since the craft beer behemoth closed its beer hall to patrons.
Surly Brewing Company will reopen the doors to its beer hall this Saturday, June 5 after closing them seven months ago on November 2. The announcement that the craft beer giant would be closing its beer hall came in early September 2020 citing significant loss of revenue due to COVID-19.
"We ran all the numbers," they said in a statement. "We looked at all the possibilities. But try as we might to find a way to keep the doors open and our team employed, the writing was on the wall: There was no longer a way forward for the Beer Hall. Since the start of the pandemic, Beer Hall revenues are down 82% compared with the same period last year. If the Beer Hall remained open, Surly would lose at least another three quarters of a million dollars this winter. A drastic change was needed to stabilize the company and ensure the continued operations of our core business, brewing."
Surly's announcement came just days after it was made known that some of the brewery's hospitality staff had announced their intentions to unionize, raising concerns and doubts as to the genuineness of Surly's intentions.
Several weeks later in late September, Surly did share an update to say that they'd "reached an agreement" and that "the union has withdrawn the unfair labor practice charge alleging that closing the beer hall was related to its organizing efforts."
March 31 of this year, Surly shared another update on the status of the beer hall, saying "Thanks to the remarkable progress being made on the vaccination front in MN, the Surly Beer Hall and Beer Garden will tentatively reopen on June 1st."
Now, Surly has shared an official statement regarding its reopen Saturday. In short, the beer hall and beer garden will reopen Saturday with beer service and the Surly food truck. Guests will find 20 tap lines available including a variety of year-round staples, seasonals and beer hall-only styles. There will be limited hours including Wednesday through Friday from 3:00 to 9:00 p.m. and Saturday to Sunday from 11:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. You can read the full announcement from Surly below:
Reception to the news has been mixed, with most excited; a minority are still upset at past wrongs against staff and are calling for change or boycott. You can follow Surly Brewing on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram and visit the website here.