After more than 30 years in business, Pyramid Brewing Co. parent company FIFCO USA announced last week that it will permanently close Pyramid Alehouse in Seattle, Washington. The company notified staff Thursday, April 30, offering severance pay to help with their transition.
The state’s bar and restaurant closures due to COVID-19 have led to business decline, “creating insurmountable business challenges for the Alehouse to continue to operate,” according to a press release. Located in Seattle’s SoDo neighborhood, Pyramid Alehouse relied on sporting and entertainment events to bring customers to the neighborhood and support its business during “non-peak” times, according to Rich Andrews, CEO of FIFCO USA. The taproom is located across the street from the Seattle Mariners’ Safeco Field and a block from the Seattle Seahawks’ CenturyLink Field.
“This location has provided strong visibility for Pyramid beer in the great city of Seattle over the years,” said Andrews in a press release. “Our Alehouse business has become increasingly difficult to operate. The current environment will make it even harder.”
Pyramid beer will still be available for purchase at its retail accounts throughout the Pacific Northwest, and its beers will be brewed in Oregon’s Portland Brewery.
“Since we opened the Alehouse over 30 years ago, we have had wonderful customers and excellent employees who have been strong ambassadors for Pyramid,” said Bruce Kehe, brand director, Pyramid Brewing Co. “On behalf of our brewery, we want to thank them for their support as we shift our full attention to making great beer.”
The brewery’s production volumes have steadily decreased over the past several years, down 10% in 2018 to 54,000, according to not-for-profit trade group the Brewers Association
In 2012, Pyramid parent company North American Breweries was acquired by Cerveceria Costa Rica, which is a unit of the Costa Rican company Florida Ice & Farm Co (FIFCO). Pyramid’s Sacramento location closed in 2013 due to a “declining economic climate.” Its Berkeley, California location closed in 2015, part of a “company-wide strategy focused on consolidating production at its Portland, Ore., and Seattle, Wash. facilities,” according to a press statement. and its Walnut Creek, California location closed in 2016 for the same reason.
Montana’s KettleHouse Closes Northside Taproom
Missoula, Montana-based brewery KettleHouse Brewing Co has closed its Northside Taproom, it announced in a press release last week. Two other facilities owned by Kettlehouse, its Myrtle St. Taphouse and Bonner taproom, will continue to operate.
KettleHouse said it would provide “an enhanced severance, resources for support, and ongoing communication” for the six part-time and three full-time positions that have been eliminated due to the closure.
“After 11 years of service at the Northside taproom, we are grateful for the continued support of our loyal patrons, neighbors, and friends,” the statement said. “For the past 25 years, we have been committed to brewing and serving up high quality craft beer to our community. As we adapt to these unprecedented and challenging times, we remain dedicated to that mission.”
The Northside Taproom opened in 2009, and was home to KettleHouse’s canning operations through 2016, when it opened its Bonner, Montana location.
Destihl Brewery Shutters Champaign, Illinois Taproom
Destihl Brewery has closed its Champaign, Illinois restaurant and brewpub location, the brewery announced on its website. Its Normal, Illinois location will continue to provide curbside pickup and delivery service and its production brewery will remain open to produce beer for its retail accounts across 37 states and Sweden.
The statement on the brewery’s website identifies Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker’s extension of an order barring dine-in restaurant business through May 30 as the reason for the closure, claiming the decision was “unavoidable” due to the fact that there is “no phasing back in of restaurant businesses during that time or a clear plan or timeline to safely do so thereafter.”
“It is, thus, simply not financially viable to remain closed for an indefinite amount of time and then reopen the downtown location at some uncertain date this summer, and likely with limited occupancy restrictions even then,” the statement said.
Other factors, including the short time remaining on the location’s lease, and uncertainty regarding the University of Illinois’ indefinite closure, contributed to the decision to close.
“We are so grateful for the Champaign community’s support, loyalty and patronage over the years and for our Champaign team’s incredibly hard work, talent and dedication throughout our time in downtown,” the statement said,
The brewery’s flagship Normal, Illinois location opened in 2007, with its Champaign taproom following in 2011. The brewery planned to build a new location at the Carle at the Fields development in southwest Champaign, but announced those plans are currently on hold, calling the construction “not prudent or even viable due to the current and uncertain future economic conditions.” The statement said the brewery was only a few weeks out from breaking ground on the brewery, which was slated to open this fall, but that it will reexamine the development “when all of this is over, stabilized and the dust is settled.”
The brewery said it will be using this time for “exciting new product development to be announced soon.”