It has not been an easy time in the local craft beer industry, as we have reported so often of late, and for Calavida Cantina things seemed to go from bad to worse with a recent robbery that grabbed the local headlines.

Well, we are happy to report that the brewery is not only recovering from that incident, but is preparing to take the next big step forward in its evolution.

“We’re ramping up,” said co-owner and head brewer/distiller Martin Ulloa. “We just bought some equipment from our friends over at Bosque, prior to us hearing the (bankruptcy) news. We’re fully supportive of them. They’ve been friends and we wish them the best.

“We did acquire some of their equipment from the old Lava Rock up on Unser. It’s in really good shape. It looks pretty brand new. We’re excited to have our hands on it. It’s a 10-barrel brew system (with) quite a bit of fermenters, quite a bit of brite tanks. It will allow us to go to the next step.”

After living off guest taps and a small amount of beer produced at their original location inside the Indoor Soccer Arena near Paseo del Norte and Jefferson, the brewery formerly known as Vision City should be able to stock the taps with beer produced entirely on site.

For those that need a refresher on just where we are writing about, Calavida Cantina took over the former Boxing Bear location at Alameda and Corrales. Their initial focus was on the kitchen and the food menu, which reflects their name with a mix of Spanish and New Mexico dishes.

“Yeah, we’ve got a lot of good feedback on the food,” Ulloa said. “What’s interesting about this location is it’s a lot different than the needs of our original location. That was a sports complex, and that one does fine in its own right. At this location, people want mass approachable food. When we did some soul searching on what kind of experience we wanted people to have, we thought about Spanish and New Mexico-style food. It’s even in our name, Calavida Cantina, which is a play on words for Day of the Dead. We thought tacos, quesadillas, burritos, and we haven’t looked back.”

Besides getting the brewing system fully hooked up and firing on all cylinders, Ulloa said the other challenge is letting people know they are back in the spot that is somewhat hidden from those two main roads nearby.

“I think we’ve definitely become solidified in the area,” he said. “(But) I think we face some of the similar challenges that Boxing Bear had for folks trying to find them. The area is further back into the shopping center, so I think we’re running into some of those problems.”

Internally, things have been moving along on schedule for the most part.

“The brewing component I think we’re right on time for that,” Ulloa said. “We wanted to focus on the overall customer experience. You’d be surprised how long it takes to build teams, build quality and procedures. It’s right, currently, for us to upgrade on our brewing and distilling operations and it will be a really good change of pace for us here shortly.”

Calavida Cantina will not be jumping into the packaging-and-distribution market. Ulloa cited the small size of their system when it would come to something like that, plus that market is seemingly in constant upheaval these days. That does not mean that some sort of cans may not appear, though almost all would be sold on site.

“We are interested in canning some other products,” Ulloa said. “I think there’s an opportunity for us in the canned cocktail space. I think there’s some opportunity for maybe some grab-and-go cans. We currently have a crowler machine. I am aware of folks that do enjoy that standard four-pack or six-pack, it’s great for camping or for hiking. We’ll maybe explore some of that, but certainly not for distribution as of yet.”

The staff has been taking stock of which guest taps seem to sell the best at the bar, which in turn provides insight as to which beers should be among the first to roll out.

“I’ve got some pretty rocking recipes that I want to try out, get feedback from the community,” Ulloa said. “A West Coast IPA is something we haven’t done in-house before, we’ll be able to do that now. More lagers. I’m a big fan of dark, amber-style beers, so ambers, bitters, a darkened mild possibly, we’ll see.”

The next bit of big news to come out of Calavida Cantina is that two more off-site locations are in the works. Before anyone panics that they are going taproom-mad like Bosque did, both will be relatively small-scale operations that will effectively inhabit an existing business similar to how Calavida Cantina started out.

“The two taprooms will be similar to our original indoor (soccer) model,” Ulloa said. “The focus is going to be on products for beverage, definitely cocktails, that seems to do really well at indoor. Beer is king at indoor. Everyone has a pint when they come off the pitch. Our ideas for the new taprooms are the bar component. One of the reason you would go to these locations, that’s the easter egg, you go for X and there’s also really cool beer and cocktails, or you go for beer and cocktails and there’s this really cool thing there.”

All we know is that one location will be on the westside and the other near the University of New Mexico’s South Campus, home to The Pit and other sports facilities.

“It’s really worked well for us at the indoor soccer arena,” Ulloa said of that bar-only model. “That place has been a bedrock for us. We didn’t want to do kitchens at those locations because I didn’t think the concept would work.”

When both locations are ready for occupancy and fully licensed, we will be sure to provide another update.

Until then, head on over to either Calavida Cantina location to grab a drink, or take on the food menu on the westside. When the full beer menu begins to roll out, we will make sure to let everyone know (after we make our way through the lineup, for pure scientific research, of course).

There is also the big Dia de los Muertos celebration coming up November 1-2. Keep an eye on social media for all the pertinent details as the music and special events are announced.

A big thanks to Martin for meeting up bright and early last week so we could get this done before he got back to work.

Keep supporting local!

— Stoutmeister