Rough months ahead for MSP tap rooms?

But history has proven it soon will become a thread dominated by such OT/non-beer posts.

 

From a personal perspective, my wife & I stopped going out & about except for necessities about two weeks ago. Unfortunately, that includes restaurants & taprooms. I know a few friends (but not even the majority) have done the same thing. I have no doubt foot traffic & sales have slowed over the past month or so with the G-Damn pandemic rearing its ugly head in a nasty way again.

I also hope it'll be temporary. Encouraging preliminary reports indicate this "Omicron" wave will be fairly short-lived. I don't want to lose any more breweries, anywhere, to this plague.

What kind of dumb comment is this from a brewery owner? Because I live in a suburb, I'm too delicate to brave the mad streets of Minneapolis? (though to be fair I have neighbors who are terrified of the big city...there's no fixing ignorance)

 

I'm not a complete shut in even now, but it makes sense that the amount of people going out is still pretty low and with the worsening case count will impact foot traffic.

I feel I'm more likely to go to the suburb breweries just due to convivence and I wonder if that impacts it some. People are hesitant to go out to start with but maybe if they do they'd rather just stay closer to home, not deal with parking and traffic (is there traffic downtown/NE area right now)?

 

I work downtown ,Traffic picked up in the fall both work foot and retail. Then Omicron hit and increased it spread. Companies in December stopped making people come in, so traffic and parking is way down right now to answer your question.January is always a slow cold month ,Omicron is supposed to peak by. February 1st, Can’t wait for Spring .

 

Is this stated somewhere in the BMTN article or one of the linked articles?

 

I live in outstate Minnesota - AKA, Rocks and Cows land.

Even if it weren't for the rules that Minneapolis and St. Paul have put into place, that prevent me from going to the breweries, the issue of out of control crime make me not want to go to breweries in those cities.

It hurts, because I've had a lot of fun at breweries in those cities in the past. Hell, there's a great pizza place in south Minneapolis that a gal I grew up with owns, that I don't want to because of the crime issues there.

I wish the best for the breweries in those cities. I know it's not easy in these troubling times.

 

I swung into Arbeiter on Tuesday evening to grab a couple of crowlers. They had trivia night in full swing and there were quite a few people at the brewery - probably more occupied seats than not. Hopefully the return to "normal" cold temperatures next week brings more foot traffic to the great breweries in the Cities.

 

I didn't want to reply to this, but I also don't want it to become "truth' because it goes unanswered.

I lived in St. Paul/Minneapolis for 37 years & other than losing a couple of CDs out of an unlocked car, crazy "inner city crime" never touched my life, my house, or my family (this included a stint in south Minneapolis in a terrible neighborhood). Are there some places I wouldn't walk around with a Rolex on after dark? Sure. But they're cities. If you're unfamiliar, at least make a slight effort to understand where you're headed.

If you want to go to a local brewery, go. Chances are stellar that all that will end up with is a fun night & however much buzz you want to catch!

 

I was at Arbeiter about 1 hour ago, about 3/8 of the chairs were taken I would say. Crime is real and I think under reported and it has been for years. But I still go out. Driving a car is dangerous any time of the day. People drive crazy around here. I don't like driving on Lake street west of the tracks by the burnt out police station.

 

Roughly 37.5% give or take a few tenths?

 

Moving to the suburbs in 2018 was perhaps the greatest decision I ever made. Breweries, bars, and restaurants here are doing gangbusters business, no mask mandates or vaccine passports. Last night I went out to a brewery with my wife and it was truly a great experience, probably the first time we went out and it truly felt like pre-covid times.

 

35 to 40% capacity seems about perfect. Some people but not too many considering the virus. I have not entered taprooms/restaurants recently if there too packed with people.

 

We use to love to go to Minneapolis a couple of times per year to check out all of the breweries. We're right between KC and Minneapolis and would choose Minneapolis about 1/2 the time for long weekend getaways. Once this Covid stuff is complete, I think we'll choose KC 90% of the time. It's not that I've had a bad experience in MSP/St Paul, it's just that other smaller cities offer similar entertainment without the down sides of big cities.

 

I know this post started off with trying to avoid the potential impact of covid but here's some data anyways.

Nearly 80% of people age 18+ in both Hennepin and Ramsey counties are fully vaccinated against covid-19. https://mn.gov/covid19/vaccine/data/index.jsp

So let's say conservatively 70% of the population that lives in Hennepin and Ramsey can still visit taprooms and breweries. Does this explain the reduction in brewery Business? Or does it have more to do with the general decrease in enthusiasm for local craft breweries in the last 2 years combined with rise in sales of other non beer low alcohol options like hard seltzer? What about the impact of weather? What about people staying in during the colder January and February weeks?

Also for those commenting that they used to come from out of town to visit twin cities breweries but now can't or won't due to the perceived rise in crime or vaccine mandate, these breweries didn't and in the future won't continue to survive because of business from people that live 100+ miles away. They survived and thrived because of local support.

 

I know a lot of people that are fully vaccinated, boosted and still don’t feel comfortable going out yet. Unfortunately many would’ve been going out to taprooms in their leisure time. I also know people from the burbs and out further that are limiting trips to the city due to the increase in crime, specifically the car jackings. I also know a few that won’t visit if there are mark or vaccine mandates. Add it all up and it’s a sizable chunk of business.

in regards to seltzer, that market has flattened. Pre made cocktails is the current boom.

 

For comparison's sake, myself and most of my friends are on a "no fly zone" to Chicago. We live in the NW burbs and it just is not worth the risk with all the crime in the City right now (and I love Chicago). I am a real estate attorney and it is INSANE the number of clients/people moving out of the City solely due to the rising crime. Hope it gets better sooner rather than later.

 

For another viewpoint, I live in the Chicago and don't see any difference in all at crime / danger. I think all of the explosion in crime is downtown, and I never went downtown anyway. Not sure if that's the case as well in Minneapolis.

All the food / beer / entertainment spots I went to pre-Covid, I still go to and I haven't been bothered in the slightest.