After our last post on Lava Rock Brewing generated a whole ton of conversation on Facebook, we knew it would only be proper to continue to follow up on the surprise decision to shut down the Westside location and move the brewery to Moriarty.

Head brewer Dan Cavin was able to meet up at his neighborhood spot, Quarter Celtic, last week to provide more information on the reasoning behind the move.

“We had been talking about leaving that location for a couple years, actually,” he said. “We just hadn’t pulled the trigger, because as breweries go, we have a non-on-site owner, he has a lot of other stuff going on.”

The catalyst to that initial plan to leave the space on Unser was due to a sharp increase in their rent. Lava Rock’s owner does not own the building itself, though he tried to buy it, and Cavin said that the last time their lease was renewed, the cost went up 50 percent.

“I looked back at the original numbers when that place opened in February 2018,” Cavin said. “That place was rocking until Neighbors (Westside Bar and Grill) opened up. Once Neighbors opened, their sales went from averaging $90,000 a month, it dropped down to where they were averaging $45,000 to $60,000 a month.”

That loss of revenue, plus the increased rent and other rising costs from inflation, made the Westside location unsustainable.

“I think that being on that island, there were no other pulls for people to come visit us,” Cavin said. “You had to seek out that location. And, as you know, people very rarely cross the river. Before I worked there, I hadn’t crossed the river in 10 years.”

That also led to issues with staffing, which our readers pointed out was the biggest problem they had with Lava Rock. Cavin said it was hard to find employees who were willing to cross the river to come to work, which left the brewery with a smaller pool of applicants, many of whom proved to be unqualified as servers.

“It’s more about consistency, on my part, the kitchen, and the front of house,” Cavin said was the main lesson learned. “That’s the biggest thing we ran into, we had such horrific kitchen issues and front of house issues. Then we finally kind of found a groove, but it was too little, too late at that point. With every increasing cost of operation, it became unfeasible.”

The Westside location has shut down, and the process of moving to Moriarty has already begun.

“The timetable I believe is to be out of the Westside location, as in equipment gone and we’ll try to gut as much as we can, I think they’re hoping to be done by the first of the year,” Cavin said.

Lava Rock’s owner does own the building they are moving into in Moriarty at 2015 U.S. Route 66.

“We have that taproom that was almost ready to open its doors, (there are) just a few things that we have to take care of in Moriarty,” Cavin said.

That will include moving the brewing equipment into one of the empty storefronts. That room specifically has not yet undergone the necessary renovation to turn it into a functioning brewery, but Cavin does have the smaller pilot system to keep the taproom stocked with Lava Rock beers in the interim.

“(Construction) has not started,” he said. “That timeline is unsure. I knew we can do 1-barrel stuff, because we have the 1-barrel pilot system. We can create stuff out of that, no problem. It will be months and months before we can brew on the 10-barrel.”

With Buttercrust Pizza next door, the taproom will require just one or two employees at any given time.

“Yeah, they’re excited, they want to get it going,” Cavin said of ownership. “It should be a good revenue source.”

Along with building out the brewing space, the other major project on deck is to find a taproom in Albuquerque, preferably in the Northeast Heights.

“We still have myself, the GM, and our chef still on payroll,” Cavin said. “So yes, that’s the hope, get that moving as soon as possible. We just have to find a location.”

And, as for that Westside building, Cavin said he has not heard of anyone looking to move into the space, though it is still early in the process.

“Not that I know of, especially since we’re moving all the (brewing) equipment,” he said. “I imagine that would have been chum in the water if we were to just walk away and leave that behind.”

We would like to thank Dan for being willing to sit down and talk about all of this. It can often be hard for anyone to speak openly about a place closing, so do appreciate his candor. We will keep an eye on Lava Rock’s status in Moriarty, as well as the search for a new taproom, as things move forward.

Until then, it will be back to the Look Back/Look Ahead Series this week with Kaktus and Boxing Bear, after which Derek and I are headed to the Decibel Magazine Metal and Beer Festival in Denver.

Hails!

— Stoutmeister