Hey Everyone, This week's been great, but we're almost out of food & beer. Friday night (tomorrow!) will be our last night in business. Hope to see you.
*****
We just received the following email from Elizabeth Morse of the Old Town Ale House and thought it might be of interest to our readers:
Dear Beer Geeks,HBG wishes to pass along a "best of luck" to Matt and Elizabeth, and to wish them success in whatever comes next.
It is with heavy hearts that we write to let you know that we're closing for business this coming Sunday. We thank you for your support and loads of good times over the past year. From now through Sunday, we will be selling all remaining beer at rock-bottom prices ($2 per any bottle). Stop in and say good-bye.
Thanks Again,
Matt & Elizabeth Morse
makes kmwinter sad.
ReplyDeleteI only have been to the old town ale house once, and since i live down in Bloomington i havent had the chance to be back. The place was cool loved the mac and cheese and always a good bottle selection and some cool stuff on tap. Saturday i am making the drive back up to stop in for some beer.
ReplyDeleteWell, that sucks...
ReplyDeletedamn... hate to hear that. best of luck to them - matt introduced himself the 1st time I visited and he seemed like my kinda people. we had some mixed service and food experiences - dont get me wrong, sometimes it was amazing... but anyway, the stellar beer selection always brought me back.
ReplyDeletevibes to them
The bottles stand as empty
ReplyDeleteas they were filled before
Time there was and plenty
but from that cup no more
Wow. Craft beer is awesome but not a great business model. Bummer.
ReplyDeleteBridget has no clue what she is talking about.
ReplyDeleteCraft beer does not equal a restaurant going out of business.
I always enjoyed their craft beer selection. The location where Old Town Ale House is at just doesn't seem to work for a restaurant. This was the fourth restaurant in the last three years at that location. It's also hard to compete with the Nickel Plate that is right across the street.
ReplyDeleteI think there are many factors - definitely not just their focus on craft beer (for example - if it was your thing, they had some amazingly low prices on macro bottles... I believe like $1/ea). And I say all this w/ respect to how hard it is to run a restaurant...
ReplyDeleteFor me, their craft beer pricing was prohibitive on any day but the Tues/Wed pint specials. Their food was rather expensive (at times quite worth it - with a moment of greatness - but we also had some very inconsistent product... i.e. totally different experiences with beer cheese soup nearly each time we ordered it).
As I expect anywhere, we had widely varying service depending on who we got (ah, raquel - we will never forget you)
It is easy to point at craft beer, because both the OTAH and Hop Shop have gone under this year. I think location has more to do with both cases though.
ReplyDeleteThe Hop Shop was in strange area. I'm sure they got some business from the office park just South of them, but it was inconvenient for just about everybody else. The OTAH location kept me away because I live in Avon, and it's a huge trek to get there, not to mention worrying about getting home if I had one too many.
It is sad to see craft-focused businesses folding, but it must be hard to stay afloat when there's a smaller market to pull from. The last I heard, craft beer sales were 5% nationwide, but only 1% in Indiana.