Widmer Brothers Brewing Closes Its Restaurant
Widmer Brothers Brewing closes its full service restaurant effective immediately as it transitions it into a new, revamped tasting room. The location will be closed until Wednesday, November 15, 2017 when it will reopen at 3:00pm as a new tasting room while under construction over the coming months. In its upcoming transition it will only serve light snacks while focusing on its beers from its soon to be expanded 10 barrel Innovation Brewery.
We were informed this morning that the kitchen staff was given notice of this drastic change. On a positive note we did learn that all full-time kitchen staff were given a severance package, something rarely seen in the industry. We hope that those affected employees land on their feet elsewhere very soon.
Three years ago Widmer completed a major remodel of its former Gasthaus into what turned into the new Widmer Brothers Pub. This announcement comes on the heels of a less than stellar Craft Brew Alliance 2018 Q3 earnings report as it relates to the Widmer and Redhook brands. Kona is the brand that continues to keep CBA afloat and is doing well in today’s craft beer environment. According to a report on Brewbound, “Widmer and Redhook sales to retailers declined 15 and 27 percent, respectively, during the quarter. Through September 30, Widmer depletions have declined 15 percent while Redhook depletions are down 25 percent.”
Here are more details from Widmer Brothers Brewing Facebook Page…
Hi friends,
Today we are announcing that our pub is shifting from a full-service restaurant to a dedicated pub/tasting room to support the focus on our new 10-barrel innovation brewery and small-batch beer program.
Starting today, we will begin remodeling the pub and building a new tasting room to expand our small-batch capabilities and give our guests more visibility and access to our small batch brewery, our brewers and the brewing process.
With this shift, we will no longer have an operating kitchen and will be serving light snacks only.
While we are under construction, the main bar area of the pub will remain open throughout the remodel. The pub will be temporarily closed for construction until this Wednesday, November 15, 2017. When we reopen, the new pub hours will be: Monday to Friday 3-10pm, and Saturday and Sunday noon-10pm (retail hours will remain the same).
As part of the remodel, we are:
– Creating more visibility into and putting people closer to our 10-barrel innovation brewery from both the current pub space and the new tasting room.
– Expanding our small-batch barrel aging capabilities and planning to package select small-batch releases in cans and bottles in 2018.
– Moving and expanding our retail store with beer-to-go/dock sales as part of the tasting room space.
– Upgrading our brewery tour to include better access to both breweries (innovation brewery and production brewery) – we are confident it will be one of the best brewery tours in the US.
We are planning a grand re-opening in Spring 2018 to celebrate the enhancements and new tour experience.
With these changes, we’re also planning to host more events at the brewery: brewer talks, beer releases, live music, and continuing to host community events like Pints for Portland.
The pub and new tasting room will be available for rent as private event spaces. The tasting room will be available for local community organizations to use free of charge (details to follow in March).
The beer garden, which we opened this past summer featuring beers brewed at the innovation brewery, will continue on a seasonal basis. We plan to explore hosting food trucks as a part of the beer garden on an ongoing basis.
Please note that during the remodel, we will not be holding tours, but our banquet kitchen will remain open for private events. Minors will be welcome during select hours and outside food will be welcomed, as well.
We hope to see you at the pub soon.
Prost,
The Widmer Brothers team
About The Author
DJ
D.J. is a Portland, Oregon based writer that spent his formative years in the Midwest. With over 25 years under his belt of drinking beer at festivals across America and the world, he has developed a strong appreciation and understanding of craft beer and the industry that surrounds it. He can be found in any of the great breweries or beer bars that make Portland the best beer city in the world. His writing can also be found in the archives of Northwest Brewing News and can be followed on Twitter and Instagram at @hopapalooza.
CBA has mis-managed everything from the start. Poor brand alignment with Redhook ( the Portland mafia preferred Widmer and killed an already national brand with product in the biggest growing market – IPAs), poor capital planning (building new brewing capacity and then having major facility sitting idle – Redhook again), and investing in remodels they don’t know what to do with. There business strategy is, “bet the house on Kona while we run everything else into the ground.” Dopes.
I am more than sad to hear of the Widmer’s Restaurant closing. It’s one of my most favorite restaurants in Portland. The food was excellent and decently priced, and the atmosphere was wonderful. It will be sorely missed by me, my friends and family. For heaven’s sake, keep serving your beer cheese soup!
The closing of the restaurant is very disappointing. I have found a dearth of reasonably priced restaurants with good food in this part of Portland. I have frequented Widmer’s for years. I stopped by last night to meet a friend for dinner and it is essentially gone. It’s a loss. I don’t get it, I was rarely there when it wasn’t crowded. Was it bad management, as the one writer above suggests? I should have known when they stopped offering chicken pot pie, and then wiener schnitzel, that it was a sign of worse things to come. Alas.
Holey Crap. We are old, and really enjoyed lunch and a beer. The food was wonderful. When the ‘kids’ came to visit, we always took them there for lunch, or early dinner… Someone really screwed up when they removed the food.. Salmon San, please,,(whine) Just go to Vancouver and the ‘Ice House’.
Just learning this now as I was planning my annual trip for the Oregon Brewers Festival. How sad they closed it. This was my first place to visit the minute I touched down in PDX. Instead of my friends picking me up at the airport, I told them to meet me at the Gausthaus. Knew my way to get there without a GPS
John – Widmer Brothers still has a tasting room with many taps of beers from its small brewery. Its just that its kitchen is no longer. The tasting room offers light snacks and occasionally has food trucks outside.