I though Cafe Society would be immune to TDS, looks like I was overly optimistic.
Rogue didn’t pay their bills, taxes, fees, employees, creditors, etc and pissed their business down the drain. Living Large. And like many other business’, they went broke.
There have been two bankruptcies or near-bankruptcies from popular local breweries here in Albuquerque. One was put into near-bankruptcy (bought before it went that far) by the owners using it as a piggy bank to have fun. The other massively over-expanded and kept on taking on debt on debt until they couldn’t handle it anymore. The first seems to be in better shape with the new owners. The other filed Chapter 11 and haven’t actually closed anything, which surprised me, I was expecting them to close at least two locations, but I haven’t been to any of their locations since then. So no idea how they’re doing.
Moderating
Everyone drop the politics and Trump stuff from this Cafe thread.
Why refer to my thread? I didn’t start it, Spectre did, yet you point to my thread?.
I’d challenge you on that…
legal reasoning: How would you (and what entity) would legally oblige a company to sell (and keep selling) their wares to some other company if they are not paying in full or at all? That figure would probably be a form of expropiation (vs. freedom to conduct business).
practical reasoning: Al128 Pub&Bar goes bust and makes a huge $100k order to Diageo to get their premium alcohol for 70% off, b/c hey, thats a good price.
I think you confuse the fact that often there might be agreements to keep supplying the bankrupt party, for commercial reasons, e.g. Coca-Cola Comp. agreeing to still deliver coughmedicin to McD if they go belly-up, knowing that they will somewhat rebound and it might be beneficial to both.
But a random company going bankrupt creating an obligation for MY company to conduct business with that bankrupt company AND giving them huge discounts (and expose my comp. to a hugerer risk of not receiving payment at all) - sorry I don’t see that.
Warning for @Dallas_Jones for arguing moderation in thread.
Also the word you are looking for is “post” not “thread”.
Also you did “start it” as you said,
First mention of Trump in this thread was your post:
You brought up this post, someone flagged you for trying to hijack the thread and I let you off with a general modnote and now you compound it.
You are also banned from this thread. Thanks for all the extra work.
If you post in this thread again, you will be suspended.
Moderating
Looks like they bet big on a large portfolio and national distribution and it didn’t pay off. Not that is was a bad idea; staying regional in the PNW with fierce competition isn’t a sure thing either.
The beverage industry (alcoholic and non-alcoholic) seems like a very difficult business. There are so many choices they can’t all get stocked. Grocery stores and mini-marts can’t fit all the sodas and teas along with energy drinks, sparkling waters, etc. My local liquor store has coolers stocked with drinks I’m not even interested in (and the same – but opposite for other customers). It’s must be near impossible to make a good product, eek out shelf space, and maintain quality during shipping all while turning a profit.
I wonder if the expansion into hard alcohol was their eventual downfall? Bringing out an expansive (and expensive) line from the NW that included gins, vodkas and especially whiskies was a mistake they couldn’t recover from. When people go out to buy these things they are looking for established names backed by years of reputation and frankly brand new Dead Guy Whiskey, at a premium price, just doesn’t cut it.
If any of their products had developed a cult following or gone viral they’d have been hard pressed to scale production to meet the exploding demand. I suspect that was the expectation / hope.
When it didn’t happen they were just one more nobody with a big debt to service. Everybody would love to be Tito’s of vodka fame.
Is the Pig 'N Pancake closed down? The Riverwalk Breakfast? Maybe try the Blue Scorcher Bakery & Cafe? I’m pretty sure you’re allowed to crash the Clatsop campus and eat at the Bandit Cafe. If none of those suit your fancy, maybe the Astoria Coffee House & Bistro?
I’m not sure how many breakfast options you’d expect for a town of 10K people, but that seems like a decent start.
Agree. And I was shocked to see someone building a microbrewery near me, from the ground up, in a village of 2400 residents. (FB link.) Looking at the construction photos, it’s apparent he’s putting a lot of money into it. Kudos to him, but I have to wonder if he’ll ever turn a profit.
Tiptoeing around the politics, Canadian boycotts of US alcoholic beverages has made things harder for the entire industry. An expanding brewer in the Northwest would have counted on Canadian business in such an expansion.
I’m gonna miss Rogue’s Hazelnut Brown and Shakespeare Stout–here’s hoping some enterprising employee copied down some recipes. I’ll also miss stopping off in Newport for a big basket o’fried, beer battered this ‘n thats. That being said, consensus amongst the local subreddits is that they were execrably managed and it was simply a matter of time. Oh well. Enshittification of everything continues apace.
I’m nowhere near the PNW, but a few years ago, a hole-in-the-wall restaurant opened in my fair multi-city, and proved to be way more popular than anyone ever predicted. I never ate there, although I know people who did, and they all said it was great. It was quite small, seating maybe 40 or 50 at the most, and a year or so ago, the owners said that they were in over their heads and were closing the restaurant as it was because they just couldn’t handle it.
They did say that they would continue to do catering, rent out the kitchen to other people who needed it for single uses, and open the facility for private parties. AFAIK, they’re still doing this.
I loved most of their pink bottle collaborations with Voodoo Donuts, Shakespeare Stout, Double Dead Guy, and of course their barleywine, XS Old Crustacean.
Surprises like this usually mean money trouble behind the scenes. Big production runs, high costs, and a tough market can push even long running breweries over the edge. It’s a loss for people who enjoyed their lineup, but it also shows how unstable the craft scene has become.
True - I’ve seen this a few times with businesses that folded. Management strenuously assures everyone that everything is fine and continues to say everything is fine, right up to the point where it’s suddenly obvious to everyone that it was not fine.
I suppose even if they know the ship is going down, they don’t want the additional disruption of people jumping off early.
Here’s a follow-up story on Rogue’s closing. They’ve filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy with $16.7 million in liabilities. There’s also a $10 million dram shop suit where someone apparently was served too many drinks at one of their brewpubs and went out and killed a 74-year-old woman in 2022.