If the public has already declared that you are a family-friendly place, even if you are a brewery, your choices are simple — defy it, or go along with it.

Rumor Brewing has gone along with it, and now they are starting a project to provide a dedicated area for all those rambunctious youngsters to gather, while many a grown-up can drink in peace.

We learned about that and more for our Look Back/Look Ahead Series after a trek out to Cedar Crest last week.

Rumor has fired up a Kickstarter Campaign to build a playground area for children.

“It’s a project that we’ve wanted to do for a long time, but it was kind of an afterthought for a brewery/restaurant,” owner Patrick Johnson said. “We had so many people coming from Albuquerque and also locals who just want to get out, relax, and obviously you’re not going to leave the kids at home.”

The reaction has been mostly positive, though as with all things when it pertains to kids at breweries, there has been a little criticism mixed in there.

“We had a little bit of pushback from our initial media blitz, with people saying it’s bad to mix children with alcohol,” Johnson said. “Families bring their kids here anyway, and the kids are just running around, causing chaos. They don’t want to just go to a bar, that’s boring for them. Parents are just sticking them in the corner with an iPad.

“So we wanted to create a space that’s really engaging for kids and anybody (else). If they want to go play games or just sit outside, we have the space for it. I’ve been talking to Zoning, and Zoning is on board with it. That’s the whole thought.”

Johnson also said he believes it will help those customers who would rather drink and eat in peace, as they can find space further away from the play area.

“We just want to have a place where they can be,” he said. “I think it will be better for people who don’t want to be around kids. They’ll be drawn over there (at the playground), you can chill over here and read your book.”

The idea behind the Kickstarter was to accelerate the process.

“The reason for the fundraiser was to dedicate money to get it done soon,” Johnson said. “The point I would like to make is if the fundraiser is not successful, we’re still planning on doing it, it will just take longer.”

Johnson showed the area where he wants to redevelop, which is just east of the current main patio, that runs up to the side of the building that houses the brewery. The fence in between will be removed and the hillside will be leveled out.

“I think it will be fabulous,” he said. “There will be a yard for bag toss and everything. There will be a kiddie corner with some appropriate things for kids to interact with. I really want to figure out how to implement some kind of frisbee golf element, which sounds kind of random, especially because I’m not a frisbee golfer. We have Paako (Ridge) Golf Course up here, which is a world-known golf course, and I was like, ‘We’ve got the space, what if we could have a frisbee golf course up here, too?’ That could be kind of fun.”

Rumor certainly has the large geographic footprint to make it happen off Highway 14, right by the post office and several other local businesses.

Overall, 2024 was not a banner year, but it was one that saw some changes at Rumor, both subtle and more apparent.

“It’s hard for me to say (how we fared), because we implemented a lot of changes with our menu,” Johnson said. “We’re changing our point-of-sale system to be more restaurant appropriate. We’re just professionalizing everything. And, people want that. They want to be able to go and have a reliable meal with the family.”

Other changes included hiring a full-time kitchen manager, adding more pub fare to the menu like chicken wings and cheeseburgers, and making sure the TVs inside the taproom could show NFL and college football games for the sports crowd.

“Last year was good,” Johnson said. “Business turned around a little bit. Most importantly, people seemed happy. We’re getting less negative feedback about the kitchen. We haven’t had negative feedback about the beer in a long time.”

While I was there I tried a couple new-to-me beers, the Chair #1 Red Lager and La Madera Mild, which Johnson said have become quite popular as customers seek lower ABV beers that still have a good amount of flavor.

“We’ve got more diversity on the beer side, which is fun,” Johnson said. “We’ve got our fruited Berliner (Bug Juice) coming out in the next couple of weeks, which is fun. We’re still a little stymied on the beer side because our brewery, we’re not able to expand it. Business has gone down the last couple years, so you can’t expand when business has gone down.”

Getting the brewery out of the smaller third of the back building and into the larger two-thirds of that space is another major project going forward.

“We spent the last year really trying to improve the restaurant side of things, to make it more of a packaged deal,” Johnson said. “This Kickstarter, if successful, will help us finish the garden area and make that feel more cohesive, more complete. Going forward, the goal will really be expanding the brewery side.”

Beyond that, Johnson said he expects to continue to work on the current patio area throughout 2025.

“Our trees are finally becoming trees, with actual shade in the summer,” he said. “I really love that. That’s one defining feature that we have that many places in Albuquerque don’t have space for is a garden. Maybe implementing a water feature, obviously planting more flowers, that sort of thing.

“I have a pretty epic plan to build an indoor trellis (for the taproom), a hanging trellis, making it feel like you’re outside when you’re inside.”

Rumor was able to put together a consistent live music calendar in 2024, and now they are looking to go a little beyond just one band/musician per week.

“Hopefully we’ll be able to expand it this year,” Johnson said. “We committed to every Sunday, between Daylight Savings days. As soon as Daylight Savings kicks in, we start, because then there’s ample sun. We kind of started testing the waters with doing larger monthly events and I think we’re going to commit to that this year. Typically holidays, and if there’s not a holiday that month we’ll just commit to a day. That’s where we hire larger groups to come in and do bigger shows.”

Live music or not, Rumor is definitely worth the drive to the East Mountains. It does not even take that long to get there (weather/construction permitting, of course). I went from Eubank and Montgomery to the brewery in 20 minutes, so it was even faster than some driving treks to the Westside or from the far Heights to downtown. The next time you have a hankering for some beers and food in a mountain setting, just aim a little to the east and then go north.

A big thanks to Patrick for the interview and lunch.

Keep supporting local!

— Stoutmeister