Fat Heads Portland closing, will reopen as a new brewery

I was literally just talking about this with somebody the other day. The size and scope never made sense. I didn’t go very often, but they made some killer beer. Unfortunately, so does everybody else in this town.....and the pearl sucks

 

Unfortunately? For who? And why does the Pearl suck?

 

I figured @derftron meant it was unfortunate for Fat Head's. It certainly isn't unfortunate for beer consumers.

 

As a native Pittsburgher (who worked for years within walking distance of the original location) and a current Charlottean (who is eagerly anticipating the opening of the Charlotte location as announced some time ago), I am extremely disappointed in this news.

First because I genuinely want to see this brewery succeed in everything it sets out to accomplish. Secondly, because I fear that this news might impact the opening of the Charlotte location either via delay or complete cancellation. I feel that the latter could go potentially both ways though. Will they now have more resources to pour into the Charlotte launch? Or are they going to be second guessing their attempt at broadening their presence outside of the Ohio/Pennsylvania markets? Another factor in all of this is that they are currently expanding to another location in Ohio. So I'm not sure if that expansion combined with winding down their production in Portland might be a death penalty for Charlotte...or just a delay...or neither. I've literally heard not one peep about the Charlotte location since it was announced. So that doesn't bode well for me either.

Charlotte is insanely different than Portland however, with a LARGE amount of the population being midwesters or northerners, so I feel that Charlotte would be much more welcoming of a Fat Head's location than Portland was.

 

Just as predicted by many with good knowledge of the Portland beer scene back in 2013
https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/fat-heads-to-open-brewpub-in-portland-ore.91452/

Honestly lasted a little longer than I expected.

 

So how do people feel Modern Times will do in Portland next year? I know its not the same situation, but still an expansion into Portland and not a local.

 

which of the 14 pages did we make such a claim?

honestly, there's probably a lot of really funny material to pull out of that thread. i was once a FH "hater", but fell in love with IBUsive one day and never looked back.

 

Every time I stopped in here it was either busy or packed, so I don't think it was failing as a business. It sounds more like the owners aren't happy with the franchise terms and have a plan to transition out of them. A subsequent article has stated that Sean Burke of The Commons will be involved in the new venture - http://www.newschoolbeer.com/2017/12/von-ebert-brewing-will-open-former-fat-heads-brewing-space.html

 

Sounds more like a rebranding and not an outright failure. No one is losing their job over this.

I feel like Modern Times gets Portland and won't fuck things up.

 

Not a fan of their beers and the feel of that place is straight up Applebees. Gigantic portions.

 

unfortunately for fat heads......certainly not us beer drinkers

Maybe "suck" is a little harsh. The Pearl just isnt an area that I think of when I want to relax and have a beer. its a parking, driving, pedestrian nightmare filled with tourists and trust fund kids. just not my cup of tea

 

Doesn't make sense to me. Glad to say I got to visit before they closed, but when I was there I was visiting in the morning on a weekday, and the place was doing great business--which is not what you would find at any brewery here in Ohio, in the morning, on a weekday. Place was easy to get to on the way to and from other breweries, at least on foot, so much so that I ran into it on the way to somewhere else. Having completely forgot Fat Head's opened in Portland, it was an awesome surprise and I'm glad we stopped because it was one of the standout beer experiences in town.

This seems like it had more to do with a bullshit franchise scenario with Tom Cook than the actual success of the brewery. They should have never gotten involved in that sort of business arrangement in the first place--judging by the beers they were producing there, the quality of food* getting put out, and foot traffic during odd hours, if they'd found a way to be their own masters, they'd have probably become a permanent fixture like they are at their already overpopulated pubs here in Ohio.

Regarding quality of food, nevermind the style or portions--that is the Fat Head's shtick, and part of the reason they're named that in the first place as the original joint in Pittsburgh was a sandwich bar, not a brewery. Maybe they should have scoped out the food scene in Portland a little more, but it didn't seem to deter anyone I saw there from ordering a fat head-sized sandwich.

 

Sounds like it was the opposite of what most here think, it waa successful enough for a franchise owner to break free and do their own thing.

 

Even though, personally, Fat Head's beer is markedly better than MT, MT will probably do great, because their vibe fits Portland a heck of a lot better. Portland was a bizarre location to choose for Fat Head's from a cultural compatibility standpoint.

 

The Fat Heads location is situated in a perfect location for tourism. Within 4 square blocks (tiny Portland blocks), there's Rogue, Deschutes, 10 Barrel, Fat Heads, Backpedal, a couple McMenamins, and Henry's (not a brewery, but 100 taps). There's a significant parking garage in the middle of all of it, plus access to the streetcar. These aren't your top tier local breweries, but they almost all have national recognition. That's the reason you can walk into any one of them any day of the week and the person sitting next to you at the bar is almost definitely not from Portland. For any local or beer geek, that's probably not your preferred bar environment, but it's a great business model if you're a nationally distributed brewery.

 

A more thorough write-up in Willamette Week that I think pretty much captures what we've been talking about - http://www.wweek.com/bars/beer/2017...s-with-ohio-becoming-new-independent-brewery/