Fans of Manhattan-based Torch & Crown Brewing have two new places to drink Almost Famous IPA and Tenement Pilsner, whether they’re spending summer in the city or at the beach.
Torch & Crown has kicked off seasonal residences at Union Square Pavilion in Union Square Park and at Dive Bar Pizza on the easternmost point of Long Island.
The brewery’s new Union Square Pavilion beer garden opened earlier this month and will operate seasonally. Co-founder and CEO John Dantzler called the historic park “New Yorkers’ New York,” compared to New York City’s more tourist-thronged areas like Times Square.
“When we got the opportunity to take over this historic site that’s right on the park and really be a part of the park and of the city, of the community, of the events that are going on, it was just a really surreal moment for us that we had to jump at,” Dantzler told Brewbound. “We think it fits our brand perfectly.”
Torch & Crown has signed a three-year lease to operate the space from May to October through an agreement with Union Square Partnership.
“At the heart of New York City, Union Square is a neighborhood for all New Yorkers and visitors, seeing up to 350,000 people each day,” Union Square Partnership acting executive director Ed Janoff said in a press release. “Torch & Crown Beer Garden will be a fantastic gathering space for summer hangouts, from evening happy hours and post-Greenmarket bites to family celebrations and weekend lawn games with live music. We are honored to welcome the Torch & Crown team to the center of it all in Union Square.”
The beer garden is housed in an open-air building that includes a full-service bar and restaurant. Torch & Crown plans to offer a similar drinking and dining experience to the one found at its brewery, also located in lower Manhattan about a mile away from the park.
“It’s a big structure that should be perfect for what we’re doing, and it also has a full kitchen, so we will have a similar kind of upscale pub fare,” Dantzler said. “We like to say as a brand we’re a pretty good mix of highbrow and lowbrow. At the end of the day, we make beer. We don’t take ourselves too seriously. But, you know, there aren’t many breweries that you’ll find a well cooked seared ahi tuna dish.”
Union Square Park has long been home to the famed Union Square Greenmarket farmers market, which draws 140 farmers, fishmongers and bakers from the tri-state area several times a week.
“Our chef goes there three times a week shopping for produce that’s already incorporated in some of our dishes,” Dantzler said. “So again, another reason that it’s a perfect fit for us is that it’s already intertwined with our production on the food side.”
Fruits and vegetables aren’t the only locally sourced ingredients at Torch & Crown’s own-premise locations. The brewery’s spirits selection is “entirely New York-based,” Dantzler said.
“We like the ability to give other small, local brands a pedestal,” he added.
In addition to Union Square, Torch & Crown will kick off a summer residence at Dive Bar Pizza in Amagansett, between the Hamptons and Montauk.
“These are really awesome people that have opened a year-round operation, which is pretty rare out there,” Dantzler said. “They’ve become a hangout spot, not just for the tourists but for the local community. People live out there year-round. And that was important to us in searching for a partner.”
From Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day, Torch & Crown will take over Dive Bar Pizza’s backyard on the weekends with an outdoor bar and live music.
“We’re not overthinking anything,” Dantzler said. “It’s beach vibes, beer garden, some lawn games, good music – very laid back atmosphere.”
Running 3 Businesses at Once and Eyeing 10,000 Barrels in 2023
Dantzler and co-founder and head brewer Joe Correia have been building out Torch & Crown’s multifaceted business since 2018. It has grown to include the flagship Manhattan taproom, which opened in 2020; a production facility in the Bronx, where they contract brew for other breweries; and a self-distribution business.
“These are three very capital-intensive, very low-margin businesses that are very complex to run,” Dantzler said. “It’s a challenging – and you might say ambitious to the point of stupidity is the tagline I like to use – endeavor to do all of that at once, and so if we don’t execute that well, then there’ll be a reason for our failure, which is we took on way too much at one time.
“It was impossible to build it all simultaneously,” he continued. “But on the flip side, if we are able to build this kind of immersive consumer experience that touches every drinking occasion, that’s a pretty amazing feat that really hasn’t been built before.”
Still, Torch & Crown is targeting 10,000 barrels in volume in 2023 and is working to deepen roots in its existing distribution footprint, which includes 1,000 retail accounts reached via self-distribution in New York City and Long Island and wholesaler partnerships with Remarkable Liquids (Upstate New York and New Jersey) and Craft Collective (Massachusetts).
“We’re hiring salespeople, distribution, logistics, drivers like crazy, and we’re really increasing our footprint,” Dantzler said. “The market response has been phenomenal so far.”
More control over the entire journey from brewery to tap handle is what drew Torch & Crown to self-distribution, which has more layers of complexity in New York City than nearly any other U.S. market.
“The reason that we’re so passionate about doing our own distribution locally is that we’re able to guarantee cold chain start to finish,” Dantzler said. “The guy carrying the heavy kegs down the stairs is taking beer classes twice a week, and he’s also able to turn to bartenders and front of house staff and tell them exactly what hops are in the beer and how to serve it and how to sell it and what we’re about as a brand.”
During the pandemic, Torch & Crown developed a direct-to-consumer home delivery service that it has continued, offering same-day delivery in New York City and nearby Westchester and Nassau counties. In lower Manhattan, the brewery guarantees one-hour delivery.
Between Torch & Crown’s two breweries, multiple hospitality ventures and distributorship, the company’s workforce has grown to 130 employees.
“We’ve made it a core tenet that we offer health insurance for all our full-time employees from Day One,” Dantzler said. “Creating jobs worth having has been a huge part of why we’re doing this and is definitely the most gratifying part of it for me.”