Two more popular craft breweries have announced that their taprooms will be hibernating this winter as colder weather makes outdoor service infeasible, and COVID-19 cases continue to rise nationwide.
Chicago-headquartered Revolution Brewing and Canton, Massachusetts-based Trillium Brewing both said this week that they will be temporarily shuttering their locations for on-premise service through the winter.
After a back-of-house Revolution employee tested positive for COVID-19, the company closed the taproom at its production brewery on Kedzie Avenue and its brewpub on Milwaukee Avenue on October 19 and has decided not to reopen.
“We made every effort to safely welcome folks into the pub for a few beers and a meal and are proud that our team rose up to this new challenge with poise and embraced the safety measures we put in place,” Revolution wrote on Twitter yesterday. “Unfortunately, the business has not been financially sustainable, the public health crisis is now getting worse and it doesn’t make any sense to just open the windows for fresh air and try to struggle further down this path right now.”
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Thursday ordered the shutdown of indoor dining and bar service in nine of the state’s 11 regions. Bars and restaurants may remain open for outdoor service, but must close at 11 p.m. Reservations are required, and “dancing or standing indoors” and “congregating indoors or outdoors while waiting for a table or exiting” are banned.
Revolution is planning to reopen in March 2021. Revolution’s Kedzie Avenue location will remain open for curbside pickup sales.
In Massachusetts, Trillium’s location in Boston’s Fenway neighborhood and Canton taproom will close for the winter on November 8. Its beer garden on the Rose Kennedy Greenway in downtown Boston reopened for the season in late September, and will close November 1. Trillium’s taproom in Boston’s Fort Point neighborhood has remained closed for on-site service.
“COVID is still a very real concern for your safety and that of our team, and winter in New England is coming,” the company wrote on Facebook. “For those reasons, we’ve made the difficult decision to pause on-site food and draft operations until spring. For a growing small business, scaling back is the last resort and not a move to make lightly. That said, our crucial core values of safety and hospitality have guided our planning.”
All brick-and-mortar Trillium locations will remain open for beer-to-go, and the company’s popular home delivery service will continue.
In an email to members today, the Massachusetts Brewers Guild shared that the commonwealth’s Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission “did not believe that there would be any major changes to the [state’s] current guidelines between now and Thanksgiving.”
“If there is another COVID spike in Massachusetts (a trend we are headed towards) there will not be another statewide rollback on restaurants, taprooms, beer gardens, etc.,” the guild wrote. “It will be a city or town rollback where the spike occurs.”
Both Revolution and Trillium have furloughed their hospitality staff, and will continue to provide health insurance for affected employees during the closures.
Trillium and Revolution are hardly alone in opting to close on-premise spaces. Minneapolis-headquartered Surly Brewing’s beer hall will shutter indefinitely November 2; Frederick, Maryland-based Flying Dog Brewery and Munster, Indiana-based Three Floyds both announced indefinite closures in the spring. Sierra Nevada has paused brewery tours and closed taprooms at its Chico, California, and Mills River, North Carolina breweries, as has Wisconsin-based New Glarus Brewing.