I recently had the (long overdue on my part) opportunity to catch up with Matt Simonds, owner of Broken Trail Spirits & Brew. I asked him to take me through a timeline of what has happened since the dark day New Mexico first shut down in March. Matt said it is all, unfortunately, very vivid…
Category: Breweries Under Quarantine
All breweries eligible to reopen patios Friday and indoor seating Monday
Good news came down from Santa Fe on Thursday afternoon as Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham is allowing all breweries to reopen their patios to 50-percent occupancy Friday and then indoor seating Monday. Two weeks ago, the governor permitted breweries with 50-percent or greater food sales to reopen, but that left many breweries big and small…
High and Dry makes best use of its time to install bigger brewing system
Much of the work going on at breweries these days is happening behind the scenes. Some of it is geared to preparing to reopen to onsite customers, for those still limited to takeout only. In other cases, such as at High and Dry Brewing, it is a wholesale upgrade to a bigger brewhouse and new…
Beer Creek brews up a little New Mexico history
Last week, I was summoned out to Beer Creek Brewing Company because the guys said they had some news for me. They had done something historic, owner and founder had Rich Headley told me. I was intrigued, so I took the bait. After a few minutes down Highway 14, I pulled into the empty parking…
A quick guide to every brewery now open for dine-in customers
As we noted with last week’s surprise OK to open patios at certain breweries, the majority of those places would also be allowed to open indoor seating starting today (Monday) at 50-percent capacity. Well, as a public service, we wanted to make as easy as possible for everyone to know where you can sit down…
A masked brew-tour and a quick chat with Tumbleroot Brewery & Distillery
We are now 11 weeks into the pandemic restaurant/brewery shutdown, and most restaurants and breweries are still poised to open their doors as early as next week after this week’s quite spontaneous patio soft-opening announcement. With true indoor opening dates as well as dine-in rules still up in the air, I thought it would be…
Most breweries do not get to reopen for patio service under latest state rules change
There was optimism this week that Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham would announce a Phase 2 of reopening that would enable breweries and restaurants to start to have dine-in customers again. Well, restaurants get to have customers on their patios (should they have patios, of course), but most breweries will not be allowed. New Mexico Brewers…
Breweries express varying levels of disappointment and frustration with latest change to state regulations
At the start of the week, we sent out a single question to all the brewery owners asking how they were preparing their taprooms for a possible reopening this weekend. The idea was to hold back publishing any of those answers until Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham made the expected partial reopening official. Instead, the Wednesday…
Santa Fe Brewing donates back to hourly staff and looks to brighter days ahead
Since the quarantine began, local breweries have handled the change in multiple ways. Among the announcements of closures and re-openings, new hours, sanitary procedures, specials and discounted prices, and an increase in package and to-go offerings, something else began to stand out. A genuine concern for the newly disrupted livelihood of the breweries’ front-liners —…
Red Door Brewing ready to make some big changes including closing Roswell taproom
The statewide shutdown due to the coronavirus pandemic has forced a lot of breweries to reconsider how they are set up. Red Door is one of those, as operations manager Ali Cattin told me from 6 feet away at the Candelaria taproom before they opened last Friday. “Matt’s been furiously applying for all sorts of…
