Milwaukee taprooms looking for ways to reopen smartly, safely
Eagle Park Brewing hasn’t yet finished construction of its 20,500square-foot restaurant, brewery and distillery in Muskego. It’s probably unfair to ask what the taproom protocol might look like post-quarantine. Unfair but necessary.
“In early June, we hope to have things worked out,” said Jake Schinker, who owns Eagle Park with Max and Jack Borgardt. Muskego, S64-W15680 Commerce Center Parkway, is the second location for the brewery, which also has a taproom and restaurant at 823 E. Hamilton St.
“I’m expecting it isn’t going to happen all at once,” Schinker said.
Last week, Eagle Park polled customers on things like when they think they might feel comfortable enough to return and what safety features would they like to see happen. Would they agree to temperature checks as they entered the building?
Out of 2,124 responses, 39.2% said they expect their next trip to a taproom will happen sometime in June, and 48.9% plan to visit a brewery in the two weeks after it’s open.
Among the protocols customers said they wanted to see in place: regular sanitation, reduced capacity, contactless payments and spaced-out seating.
Since metro Milwaukee’s brewery boom took off in 2014, taprooms have been the place where a brewery tells its story. Sofas in the corner of the room convey the feeling of a living space to snuggle into. Board games in the corner suggest something to do while you sip a brew.
The long public tables that mimic those of a beer garden were meant to inspire socializing.
That was pre-coronavirus. From March through June, the beer industry stands to lose $8 billion in onpremise sales because taprooms are closed, kegs are cashed in and beer that otherwise would be flowing at baseball games or festivals like Summerfest is, like those events, on hold.
“On-premise sales account for 9% of the industry’s $328 billion annual economic impact, which translates to $3.1 billion per month,” Brewbound, a beer industry newsletter, recently reported.
Breweries want you they’ll have to do it right.
The sofa will likely be gone. The board games have already been banished. At some taprooms, they’ve sent the long tables out to be retrofitted into smaller ones.
“Obviously, things will change,” said Mark Garthwaite, executive director of the Wisconsin Brewers Guild.
Change has already happened at most breweries, starting with contactless payments instead of cash. Garthwaite said to expect less table service. Customers would order at one spot; pick up at another.
The Brewers Association, which represents craft and independent
breweries, published a checklist for reopening, from social distancing for customers and staff to best practices for sanitizing and managing frequent touch points like glasses and restrooms.
For instance, when Good City Brewing opens, there might be stanchions between each seat at the bar, said David Dupee, one of the brewery’s owners.
Here’s what other Milwaukee’s taprooms are seeing in their future.
Indeed Brewing
Tom Whisenand, co-owner of Indeed Brewing, which has breweries in Minneapolis and at 530 S. Second St. in Milwaukee, knows the fury of the coronavirus firsthand.
Although he’s fully recovered, he doesn’t wish the illness on anyone, particularly not customers. His team is still forming what’s going to work at the Milwaukee taproom, which opened in September.
One idea is to take reservations for a table in the taproom.
“Whatever it takes,” Whisenand said. “It’s not going to be business as usual.”
In the meantime, Indeed shifted to to-go orders for cans and growlers but with a twist. The Milwaukee brewery includes a can of beer from another local brewery in its to-go order.
3 Sheeps
They’re still filling in the plan for what the taproom will look like at 3 Sheeps, 1837 North Ave., Sheboygan. Know this: You won’t be able to belly up to the bar.
“I could see us going to smaller tables, we most likely won’t have any seating at the bar, events and bands will have to be reviewed, etc.,” co-owner Grant Pauly said in an email.
“I wish we had a better idea, but with the world still shifting every week, it’s tough to say. With other states opening before us, we’re trying to pay attention to what they are doing, and we’ll be able to see the results of those policies before we have to implement ourselves,” Pauly said.
Gathering Place
At Riverwest brewery Gathering Place, 811 E. Vienna Ave., owner Joe Yeado is still searching for what his taproom will look like when it can reopen.
“I don’t think we’re going back to the normal we used to know,” Yeado said. One possibility is to phase in the number of people who come in over time.
“We’ll see how that works as people feel more comfortable.”
Gathering Place relies on events to keep it at the forefront of its 38 metro brewery competitors. Lager & Friends, a lager beer festival that was scheduled for March, was postponed because of the pandemic. The annual food truck rally held each July at Gathering Place is endangered.
While all of that is “unnerving,” Yeado is working on what he can to reopen. He knows his staff can keep the bar, the glassware and the tables and chairs cleaned and sanitized, but he has to figure out what to do with the pool table.
Brewery tours, a second place where breweries tell their stories, are probably a thing of the past, at least for the foreseeable future.
Tours take customers into tight brewhouse spaces, even tighter in small breweries like Gathering Place, which has capacity for 99 people.
“Really, there just isn’t enough space for a group of 10 all standing six feet apart,” Yeado said.
Although employees can wear gloves and sanitize everything, Yeado wants his staff to be as safe as his customers. So he worries for them as well.
“Our bar is not six feet wide,” Yeado said. “And the bartender is going to be standing in front of people.”
Eagle Park
Construction is back on at the new Eagle Park in Muskego. One of the features of the new taproom was the mezzanine where couches and other seating would be open to patrons. The brewery also expected to host live concerts (the Borgardt brothers are members of the band Eagle Trace).
That could change. Currently, the brewery is open for curbside canned beer releases, which are offered at both Eagle Park locations.
Brewery owners say curbside sales are probably here to stay. Breweries made the quick pivot to touch-less buying, and they plan to stick with it even when the first customers walk through the taproom door.
“Regardless, though, we can’t wait to even let a few people into our taproom, and we’ll be happy to put any necessary changes into place to give us a chance to see our friends and fans again,” Pauly said.