Too many kitchens?
It seems an increasing number of craft breweries are rejecting the traditional brewpub/restaurant model. Personally, considering the high rate of new restaurant failure, I’ve always wondered if the kitchen really added a viable profit stream, or acted as an albatross around the neck of the brewing venture. We lost three big brewery/restaurants in Rochester within the span of a couple years.
From where I’m sitting, it looks as if the greater consumer acceptance- check that- expectation of good beer has made the dining room less of a must have. I think brewers are looking much further afield for their customer base than their own premises. Traditional brewpubs are becoming small breweries that very much resemble the old breweries that dotted the nation prior to prohibition and hegemony.
I think that’s an encouraging sign. Craft beer is no longer a boutique product that’s out of place off the premises. It’s a vital part of the American beverage industry. Personally, I find having my beer of choice available at my chosen restaurant is preferable to having to constrain myself to the best of brewpub food.
Any brewers want to shout out on this issue? Is the brewpub becoming an anachronism? Is a kitchen a liability? I’d love to hear from the industry.
-Mark
i think its logical that the restaurant part of the brewery/restaurant is usually a liability because of the nature of what they are offering…pub food. why, in so many brewery/restaurants is pub food what is pushed…they are pushing quality beer but the food to match that beer to isnt even close to matching it…if you’re drawing in people that have quality taste buds for beer they are probably going to be using those same taste buds to eat too. There is good quality pub food but dont limit it to that…check this out the menu of this great brewery in san franscisco…delicious. www.thirstybear.com
I don’t know if I necessarily agree, B. In most brewpubs I’ve visited, while pub food was on offer, the menu aspired to be a notch above pub food, not fine dining, but a bit higher end and correspondingly more expensive.
Unfortunately, it seems rare for brewpubs to pull that off. All too often, the cooking remains at fryer/short order caliber.
Right but those places are still offering pub food…albeit, above average pub food, but the same combination of beer and food that are a dime a dozen…there are thousands of brew/pubs that offer crappy food and there are thousands of brew/pubs that offer above average pub food…thus, in these places the beer is the only thing that distingushes the brew/restaurant from others…
So i say if you’re a brew/pub and are gonna cut corners, resort to the fryer, and offer the same food that most places do its probably in your interest to nix the food and concentrate on the beer because you’re wasting time and money on items that arent unique, dont set you apart and wont draw people in. But, to add to this, if your a brew/pub and you’re gonna cut corners with brewing then its probably a good idea to just forget the brewing and work on the food for the same reasons.
However, if know how to swing it so that you have a great brewery AND a great and unique restaurant, then you’re drawing people in with beer and getting them excited about the food and drawing people in with food and getting them excited about the beer. It depends on whether you have the creative force and desire to drive the restaurant. But the life of the brewery depends on if you have the creative energy to drive it as well…
While I have little knowledge on the inner workings of brew pubs and the kitchens and the like, it would seem to me that just offering beer might lead to financial distress as well. When people drink, they tend to want to eat something at some point. If not to just be able to drink more beer. However, is a gourmet menu required? Pub/Bar food is what it is. How expensive can it be to run a friar, keep a stock of things to fry, and pay some clown 8 bucks an hour to fry things? Granted, not everyone wants to throw down chicken wings, potato skins, or jalapeno poppers. Maybe especially if they are drinking “high end” beer. But I can’t see offering a typical pub menu as being something that would cause a brew pub to sink. I mean if the place takes off, then shore up that menu with some quality offerings. Until then, it can’t hurt to carry the staples.
KROC, I agree if we’re talking about on-premise consumption, but what I meant was that craft brewers are increasingly starting out as standalone production breweries, selling their beer externally to bars, restaurants and stores in their city or region, instead of gearing for in-house sit-down consumption, which was the traditional brewpub model.