The Bruery is closing Provisions

Pretty shocking. I'll miss Bruxie

 

Wow. Really sad to see it go. It is a lot easier convincing the wife to come along with me to a classy place like Provisions than the tasting room.

 

i too am very sad to see the provisions close its doors and im pretty sure the rising cost of store fronts in old town orange is the reason they are closing

 

Yeah, Haven is cool, but I'm not going to go to Orange to go there. I'd be way more inclined to visit the area to go to Bruxie, honestly.

 

that said, I wonder how those Antique stores are doing and if they'll also be leaving...

 

Sad day. Can't read Patricks Post yet, since the site is down, but I know for me, I now wonder if the decision to move RS pickups to the tasting room was because they saw/knew this was coming, or if it was purely a economical business decision.

In any event, my two cents, moving away from pure taster flights, including guest taps, to a full pour license was not the way to go, imo. Just tasters allowed people to taste more, including guest taps, before purchasing bottles (of Bruery beers, and other beers they sold retail) When they went away from that, it lost something unique, and was more of a bar, which is common. I went there less, and I know many did also as a result. With that said, that's just my opionon, for all I know, they increased revenue by going full pour.

Also, moving the RS pickups to the new tasting room, also directed traffic away from Provisions as well, where as before I had to go there, and usually got a flight, other bottles, and at times some a cheese plate too. Though those sales may have not been cost affective, since all beers produced by the Bruery, they likley transported themselves from the main site to the Provisions.

Also, it always irked me just a little bit then the RS discount only applied to their merch, and their beer, but nothing else at Provisions. Seems they could have priced things in a way to account for RS discounts on anything sold under their roof, which is how most wine clubs work when they have a retail shop full of knick knacks, and offer club members discounts.

Anyhow, none of those things ever stopped me from going and enjoying it, and this really is too bad. Very, very sad news. The place was great, had a lot of charm, a great staff, comfortable, and a place I hoped to visit many more times as the years went on. Hope the staff is all staying on in some capicity with the company. RIP Bruery Provisions.

 

Dear Bruery Supporters,

I regret to inform you that the decision has been made to close The Bruery Provisions in Old Towne Orange, CA. This decision comes with a great deal of heartache. Provisions has become an important part of the Orange County craft beer scene. Family, friends, co-workers and I have enjoyed many pints and cheese plates, and I’ve have had the distinct pleasure to work with a number of passionate and talented people at Provisions. As fantastic as Provisions is, it has taken a disproportionate amount of The Bruery’s resources to operate and I decided it would be best for the long term success of the company to focus on making beer rather than operating a bottle shop and beer bar.

Opening Provisions was the realization of a dream for me. After travelling to many wonderful beer establishments around the country, the places I’ve enjoyed the most are a unique combination of a beer bar and a bottle shop. Other than being a one-stop shop for all beer needs, I noticed a common trait in that they have a great sense of community. This format is a great opportunity to educate about the diversity of beer, and a place to express a common interest in craft beer. When the opportunity arose to open such a concept in Old Towne Orange, steps away from my alma mater, Chapman Law School, I had to do it.

Having Provisions as part of our efforts over the last three years has been a great education for many of us within The Bruery on the retail side of the beer business. The Provisions Team has done a superb job in operating a first class operation, and their commitment to Provisions has made this decision all the more difficult. However, after examining Provisions within the context of what The Bruery should be, I realized it has taken a significant amount of our efforts away from our core purpose. To put it simply, we are a small company, we can’t do everything.

Our core purpose is to make beer, really fantastic beer, and to continually improve the quality of our beer. We’ve made some huge commitments to this core purpose by investing in fermentation capacity, which has increased our production capacity by 130% in the last few months. About 40% of our beer is aged in barrels for a year or longer, and we’ve amassed a collection of over 3,000 barrels to achieve this. In evaluating how The Bruery should operate in order to achieve its goals, it became apparent Provisions is not the best use of our limited resources. At this point, the best use of our efforts is focusing on innovation and quality in brewing, working with our many distributors and the thousands of establishments that carry our beer, and serving our customers directly through our Tasting Room, our website and our Society membership bases.

If Provisions was a tool to educate people about craft beer and help move the industry and culture forward, then it was a rousing success. Since its inception, we’ve introduced thousands of people to our passion for craft beer. We leave the customers of Provisions in good hands with numerous other locations that have been established within Old Towne Orange, and beyond, that serve and specialize in craft beer.

We will continue to serve Orange County’s craft beer needs through our Tasting Room, adjacent to our production facility in Placentia, which has recently undergone renovations as well. It now comfortably seats nearly 100 people and offers up to 40 different beers on draft at any given time along with our full selection of bottled beer available to-go, all hand crafted by The Bruery. We’ve also completed our 3 BBL (93 gallon) pilot system that will allow us to hone our recipes and offer unique, experimental batches on draft. All of us at The Bruery hope to see many of you picking up where you left off - with a flight of beer at our Tasting Room, watching us brew.

As Winston Churchill once said, "This is not the end. This is not even the beginning of the end. It is, instead, the end of the beginning.” And so it is for The Bruery. Our first 5 years are coming to a close and we are now putting ourselves on track for the next 5 years of craft beer and beyond. We are thankful to our customers and employees who have joined us on this journey.

Sincerely,
Patrick Rue
The Bruery

 

Thanks for posting the transcript. Good read, I'm sure this has been a bit heart wrenching for Patrick and crew. I can see the distraction, and the drain on resources from their primary goal. Perhaps some day it will be resurrected in some capicity.

 

What other OC brewery has both the financial resources and brand recognition to make that space work? Stone is the only other Southern California brewery that has entered the retail-only location model, and while it actually might be a decent fit for them (if they're even interested, they're not lacking for projects right now), I can't think of anyone else who could sustain a retail facility in a fairly high rent location.

 

Surprised but not shocked at the news. Probably been there a half dozen times. Great selections but a little over priced. But I'm sure part of that comes from being in a high rent area. I cant see myself driving from HB to pick up a few bottles of beer when I can walk a block to purchase the same beer for less. Unless the Provisions has something that's hard to find. I feel sorry for all the workers there. Hopefully some of them can pick up other jobs inside the Bruery. Times are still tough going into 2013. We have so many new brewery's, brewpubs/restaurants from last year and more on the way. Some will make it and some wont. Maybe the Bruery will concentrate on expanding their production line and put out some more great beers. A sad day for the craft beer industry here in OC.

 

Is it really such a high rent location? I love the area but notice a lot of stores with little foot traffic.

 

Cracked open a bottle a few weeks ago and it is tasting fantastic!

 

First Russian River pulls out of Wa. and now the Bruery is pulling out of Orange Circle in order to focus on Pacentia.

I would imagine that it would be high rent area. I also wonder how much was sunk into making that back patio area. Whooooops.

I do agree with others. Making it full pint service slowed down my roll in getting beer there. As a flight sounded a lot more responsible than getting a pint of just one thing - and I realize you could have gotten a flight (of in house beer, but still)

Also moving pick up from provisions to tasting room did cut down my visits to provisions a great deal. Sadly though, I decided not to renew my RS because I figured that a lot of beers last year, and the bulk of what I was getting, just showed up at Provisions.

Welp, so much for that plan.

 

Sad to hear. Provisions helped me discover some cool little restaurants in the area as well. I really liked stopping by there on my SoCal trips, but apparently not enough other people did.

Hopefully this alleviates some stress and debt from the Bruery books...and it helps with the bottom line and overall success as Patrick hopes.

 

High for retail space? Not sure, I'm not a realtor. High for craft breweries who generally are in industrial/business parks? Definitely. It just doesn't make sense for most breweries to spend money on space that they can't brew in.

 

RIP Provisions. Here's to hoping for the best for all the cool staff working there who made every visit a joy.

 

Problem with that, Sandiego67, is that I think the bottle shop aspect of provisions wasn't all that successful. I would never see it really busy - the only aspect that got attention was the tasting/seated area. But bottles would just sit there. Heck, last I looked, they still had a variety of fiftyfifty eclipse bottles on the shelf.

 

Loved going to Provisions and any special beer they had went within hours of posting. So they had to have a good amount of foot traffic. The only reason I see them shutting down is that they just wanted the top guys to stop focusing on that side of the business. Sad day indeed for the Southern California beer scene.