Expectations or brewpub (already open, not in planning stage)

[woodysbrew]

Wow have things been crazy! We are moving into month three of our opening. I figured I would share my experience thus far for others to digest and ask for some advice from those who have been through it. First, we are the only brewpub in a town of 100,000. We have received very high accolades for our beer quality, food quality, and service. We did start up on the 1st of January which was a double edged sword. We did about 30% more in revenue than we had expected in the first month (awesome right?!), February slowed down to what our projections were (about 30% less of January). We had expected to slow down but not that much. We are starting off March even slower (it looks like) and all in all it is freaking me out a bit. I have tried to do a lot of marketing locally to get more business. We are literally the talk o' the town but still can't seem to stay busy enough. I may just be jumping the gun, but each week since February 1st has been slower and slower. Our yelp reviews are awesome (and lots of them), our tripadvisor is really good, our google and facebook reviews are amazing as well but can't seem to get things to pick up....Am I expecting too much? Do we need to just hang in there until we are really established? We get a bunch of people who don't even drink beer coming in because our food and service is so good.

By the way, we are currently only selling within the pub and not distributing. Do you think distributing would increase pub sales; I would naturally think not but I haven't been correct yet!

[Brewcaipa]

I'm not even open yet and you are freaking me out man! Take a deep breath, step back and evaluate.

You are on Facebook, Instagram, and offer discounts during your slow times, like happy hour all afternoon. Beer games like beer pong tournaments? Food pairings with select brews? Yoga and beer? Open mic night? These are the things I have loaded when the slow times happen. Go out and get some accounts to get your product out there, you are still at 50-75% profit margin on sixtels and halfs right?

And above all remember, you are new, people want their hands held. So go out there and hold trier hand and introduce them to quality beer.

[BeerBred]

Sounds familiar. Opening month, they run you over. Everyone comes to try. Feb is generally the worst month I think in the restaurant biz. Be glad you got the food, service and beer down pat. Imagine how much it would suck if that didn't go well. How's the weather been? That can have a big effect on biz. Plan something for St. Patty's and try to have something big like that once a month. Good job!

[woodysbrew]

I'm not even open yet and you are freaking me out man! Take a deep breath, step back and evaluate.

You are on Facebook, Instagram, and offer discounts during your slow times, like happy hour all afternoon. Beer games like beer pong tournaments? Food pairings with select brews? Yoga and beer? Open mic night? These are the things I have loaded when the slow times happen. Go out and get some accounts to get your product out there, you are still at 50-75% profit margin on sixtels and halfs right?

And above all remember, you are new, people want their hands held. So go out there and hold trier hand and introduce them to quality beer.

Yes, we have happy hour. No beer pong (never) the crowd that would bring would push away all the customers who have money. We have food specials every single day and new beer releases once a week. No, we are currently using another brewery to brew our beer (maybe that leaves some of the excitement at the door???)

Thanks for attempting to calm me down, still not there. ;-)

[woodysbrew]

Sounds familiar. Opening month, they run you over. Everyone comes to try. Feb is generally the worst month I think in the restaurant biz. Be glad you got the food, service and beer down pat. Imagine how much it would suck if that didn't go well. How's the weather been? That can have a big effect on biz. Plan something for St. Patty's and try to have something big like that once a month. Good job!

Seriously, they piledrove us the first month and then we started dropping quick. The weather is in the 60's and 70's and sunny as hell. We have a St. Patty's event coming up so hopefully that helps :-)

[BeerBred]

You are a brewpub that doesn't brew its own beer on premise? What is the point of that? That's like booking a live band that shows up and plays its CD on your stereo. I'm sure there's a good reason... Anyhoo, given the weather over most all of the country lately, I narrow your location down to California or Florida?

[woodysbrew]

You are a brewpub that doesn't brew its own beer on premise? What is the point of that? That's like booking a live band that shows up and plays its CD on your stereo. I'm sure there's a good reason... Anyhoo, given the weather over most all of the country lately, I narrow your location down to California or Florida?

Lol. We do brew on a 1 bbl system on premise for our rotating special "buzz tap" but our large batches are brewed in another brewery until our brewery is built on-site in July. California is correct. We are dying for some rain, the weather has no negative impact on us (unless people are just enjoying themselves outside??? Anyhow, things are a bit strange and we are still trying to figure it all out and really need to pick things back up.

[Floor Malted]

Wow have things been crazy! We are moving into month three of our opening. I figured I would share my experience thus far for others to digest and ask for some advice from those who have been through it. First, we are the only brewpub in a town of 100,000. We have received very high accolades for our beer quality, food quality, and service. We did start up on the 1st of January which was a double edged sword. We did about 30% more in revenue than we had expected in the first month (awesome right?!), February slowed down to what our projections were (about 30% less of January). We had expected to slow down but not that much. We are starting off March even slower (it looks like) and all in all it is freaking me out a bit. I have tried to do a lot of marketing locally to get more business. We are literally the talk o' the town but still can't seem to stay busy enough. I may just be jumping the gun, but each week since February 1st has been slower and slower. Our yelp reviews are awesome (and lots of them), our tripadvisor is really good, our google and facebook reviews are amazing as well but can't seem to get things to pick up....Am I expecting too much? Do we need to just hang in there until we are really established? We get a bunch of people who don't even drink beer coming in because our food and service is so good.

By the way, we are currently only selling within the pub and not distributing. Do you think distributing would increase pub sales; I would naturally think not but I haven't been correct yet!

It looks like you are in Redding, Ca. A quick google search yields a lot of bars and restaurants. My question to you is, are all of these establishments currently facing the same slow down? If not, why? How much time are you spending in your competitors establishments?

You say "We get a bunch of people who don't even drink beer coming in because our food and service is so good." Are these people then drinking a beer? How do your beers stack up to what is available in town? What does your %sales mix look like? Have you done tasting panels with your beers and others? This should include bottle beer available at the store, not just from other local breweries and bars. You may be getting compliments for your beers but who is giving you those compliments? If someone thinks your beer is great and that leinenkugel (or whatever your west coast equivalent is) is also great, then there is not much drive for them to keep putting you at the top of their list because their expectations are low and can find good beer anywhere. And, if your beer is on that level, the people who like great beer will not show up or come back.

What about your atmosphere? Is it loud or distracting or can people focus on conversation and the product you are putting out?

Keep us updated and good luck!

[Floor Malted]

Wow have things been crazy! We are moving into month three of our opening. I figured I would share my experience thus far for others to digest and ask for some advice from those who have been through it. First, we are the only brewpub in a town of 100,000. We have received very high accolades for our beer quality, food quality, and service. We did start up on the 1st of January which was a double edged sword. We did about 30% more in revenue than we had expected in the first month (awesome right?!), February slowed down to what our projections were (about 30% less of January). We had expected to slow down but not that much. We are starting off March even slower (it looks like) and all in all it is freaking me out a bit. I have tried to do a lot of marketing locally to get more business. We are literally the talk o' the town but still can't seem to stay busy enough. I may just be jumping the gun, but each week since February 1st has been slower and slower. Our yelp reviews are awesome (and lots of them), our tripadvisor is really good, our google and facebook reviews are amazing as well but can't seem to get things to pick up....Am I expecting too much? Do we need to just hang in there until we are really established? We get a bunch of people who don't even drink beer coming in because our food and service is so good.

By the way, we are currently only selling within the pub and not distributing. Do you think distributing would increase pub sales; I would naturally think not but I haven't been correct yet!

How are things going?

[woodysbrew]

How are things going?

It has been okay. Extremely unpredictable. I guess being so new it is extremely hard to gauge peoples' behaviors. We aren't going out of business so that is a positive! JK We are far from going out of business. I think we just got stuck in the honeymoon stage and thought that was how it should always be, but it hasn't been; it is a hard pill to swallow.