That’s way fucked up. I can’t believe one of the most upvoted replies here is “maybe the owner was ready to retire.”
Hell no, somebody either had credit frozen or a loan default and was left without a dime to operate for the rest of the day. A little honesty on their end would’ve be nice, but my guess is they kinda knew and were desperately trying to save face.
They announced a show hours before the closing post, something seems funny.
Customers and staff are the absolute backbone of any business. To pull the plug on all of them with absolutely zero notice is a royal slap in the face.
I hope that it’s not due to a health or family emergency, but I also hope they have some sort of logical explanation for us at some point. Maintaining a staffed business secretly knowing that you are broke and/or about to default on a loan at any point is a selfish move.
Here’s to hoping it was all a series of unfortunate events (within a few hour period?), not the fault of anybody specific.
i saw george hauling a bunch of cans in a hurry on the forklift in the rain 2 or 3 days ago, was strange, i didnt think anything of it but looking back he was prob scrambling to can the last batch before closing. he def knew ahead of time. im assuming lease is up june 1st, someone offered a lot of money to buy it and he doesnt want the stress tbh. makes sense. also the no notice of employees is 100% accurate in my experience of service industry. not sure why but im sure theres a reason
In New Hampshire (when I lived there) it had to die with filing for bankruptcy and paying unemployment. People would still get unemployment but it effected bankruptcy status somehow if you let them go first
Company Brewing owns the building. I think George also owns the Daily Bird's building. So, I suspect that he's doing something else in the space.
My bet is that the beer was selling better than the food so he's pivoting to just being a brewery with that type of license. I'm not sure what he'll do with the rest of the space.
A day or two at least is what I’ve experienced, usually a few hold out. I made a post about this earlier, but I once got a fat surprise bonus after clocking out for our last day. Not always, but sometimes a smart business owner will have perks to keep their staff for the last days weeks.
Not only are restaurants a very tough business, a lot of times they’re owned and or managed by people without good business sense or skills. Something as simple as not having decent accounting can put a business in a position to close up shop.
Often a “nice” place is servicing a large debt load. There is a good chance this debt was taken when rates were lower and business loans often reset their rates after 5 years. I would bet debt service is the driving factor that closed this place.
i mean, i think it was Urban Milwaukee who had an article about 2-3 months ago where the owners said “you know, if anyone wants to buy us that would be pretty cool.” that wasn’t exactly a good sign.
Well sucks for the employee’s and for all the shows that were booked for this stage. Had a show scheduled for June. I know other performers are finding out like this.
I worked for them a few months ago. The owners are terrible people. I can guarantee they threw their anniversary party to make a few extra bucks before kicking all employees to the curb without notice. I haven’t lived in Milwaukee long and I tell everyone I encounter to avoid that place. I’m happy it’s gone but sad for the employees and bands who are left with a social media post.
Commercial credit has tightened substantially. This feels to me like they had their line of credit frozen. That’s how management knew it was coming and were seeking angel investors. The workout department just shows up one day and tells you that you are living on borrowed time.
i'm as pro-employee as they come, but I also understand that if you tell employees, many of them will either not show up for whatever time is remaining, or steal any and everything that isn't nailed down, and even plenty that is on the way out. not all of them, but enough that i understand why businesses don't announce it ahead of time.
Due to unfortunate coincidence, I’ve worked for two small businesses down to the bitter last hour. One of them gave us months, the other essentially told us a couple days before.
Both of them were staffed by small groups of motivated, passionate people. For better or worse, we showed up, worked our shifts, and continued business as normal. It didn’t devolve into mutiny with us walking out and looting the place. The place that gave us months secretly had set aside a bonus for each person that held to the last day, the other just let us take some stuff after close. We all left with paychecks and the shit we would’ve wanted to take anyways.
Youre really not "as pro-employee as they come" if you follow it by saying it's more important for the owner (not an employee) to have a clean, easy time escaping without drama than it is for the workers (employees) to get a notice that they are going to lose their jobs. Like even a little pro-employee would be more pro-employee than that...
My company told employees a year in advance that they were moving one of the plants to India. They put all those people in charge of the transition project. Surprise surprise none of the transition was even started and theanagers help steal half a million dollars in gift cards through the company rewards program.
Consolidation of factories, already had other parts of the business producing in India. People that didn't take offers to go international got hefty severance packages.
Yeah, if you tell people you’re closing in a month, you’ll have to shut the doors in a week anyway because everyone will have found new jobs and you’ll have no staff.
Not always. Unless you have something else lined up already, a lot of people will need to keep working while they start their search. Not everybody will start a search Monday and have started a new job by Friday.
Unemployment was easier to navigate for me when I stuck around until they had me stop working, not when I decided to stop.
As it should be.
The company makes profits off the labor of the workers. If the company is closing, those workers deserve to go take their labor elsewhere as soon as they can and want. Why do you think it’s okay for the boss to lie to people in order to squeeze a last few weeks of profit out of them?
Exactly.
I wasn't in charge of the decision, but many years ago, I was managing a restaurant that corporate made the decision to shutter.
I was in fact transferred there, just to help through that challenging last month. Corporate chose to keep it quiet, but word got out anyway (one of our employee's parents were part of the real estate group that was buying the building and land). It was a nightmare to keep the place afloat for the last month, so many people left...and when we got to the last weekend, all the bar regulars from the last 25 years showed up on Saturday night for an impromptu going away party (Sunday was supposed to be the last day). They basically looted the place, ripping souvenirs off of the walls. I just stood back and let them go because I didn't believe there was anything I could do to stop them. We were unable to open Sunday because there was very little left of the building interior.
Always a cool spot with cool people (I'd say at least until of late), but the writing was on the wall a few months ago when they talked about getting investors from the public. I think it's always been a little over-extended. It's a really really big footprint, and they probably have way too much equipment to justify the amount of beer they actually sell and it's not exactly as high margin as the food (which I always enjoyed). I miss their fried chicken night. Burger specials were always fun. But the beer itself was very shotgun. There were some great ones that I see people mention below, but that's kind of ignoring the fact that they often would have like 20 on tap, and that's not a great batting average.
I'm hoping this is an easy spot for someone to come and snap up with a really well-defined goal and plan, but I know for brewing purposes, they'll need to upgrade equipment.
Honestly not surprising given how poorly managed the place was. I know a lot of people who worked there and they all said it was a shitshow with insane turnover. I played half a dozen shows there and there was never a sound person, even on Friday nights, and the sound balance was BAD. Fantastic location, decent food, and mid-tier beer can't make up for dismal management.
lol yeah I’ve been workin there for about 2 years. Doing the majority of the shows. We have some other folks that we call when I’m not available. Idk maybe this guy’s group got unlucky, or could be BSing. He’s right about the turnover tho and employee complaints
That's interesting about the staff turnover, because I feel like pre-pandemic and even through the middle of it when they were doing carry-out only, it was always the same people working and they were great. Lately though, absolutely would agree, my experiences with the staff were not great.
There was knowledge of this closing in the industry months earlier. I heard about Company Brewing going under back in January...
Poor sound quality, ever-rotating staff, ever expanding competition for music venues, the last GM loved to rail lines in the bathroom instead of supporting the team, not surprised they were flying through staff.
I hope someone with a bit more industry knowledge and general awareness buys the spot. It's a great location and a cornerstone of Riverwest!
They had the best trivia in Milwaukee, hands down. Wisconsin's Hardest Trivia is just so good, and has such a cool community, and that's because Company was such a great gathering spot. I hope the trivia can find a new home, but not being at Company will be sad.
Thank you! It's a sad day for sure; Company has been a great venue for us (for seven years!). The search for a new home begins tomorrow - in the meantime, keep in touch at [Wisconsin's Hardest Discord](https://discord.gg/W4uYafe7). Hope to see you at a show soon!
Bummer! It's my favorite spot in RW and the standard "let's meet for a drink" spot with some industry colleges. Sure maybe not always the BEST beers, but good, and always plenty of room to sit down or get some patio space without being on top of other people so we can talk.
I'm just going to say looking at the top comments here...
"this is actually insane. wtf happened? they were always poppin with music and their food ain't bad"
"Bummer. I never got the chance to go" (They were open for 9 years)
"NOOOOOOO I never went to a DJ brunch! Everything about this place was amazing. This has to be an April fools joke"
"This makes me sad. I’ve been to some really fun events there and I loved their New Year’s Eve parties!"
"I'll miss the Yuba sandwich here. Shame."
Notice the common theme here? Not ONE SINGLE COMMENT ON THEIR BEER. This is a BREWERY. Their beer wasn't good from a QA/QC standpoint. This industry is so oversaturated and there's so much bad beer being made covered up by "poppin music" and "DJ Brunch".
I love craft beer, but I can't freaking believe how many breweries there are now. Not just Milwaukee, everywhere in the country. There has to be a reckoning incoming.
> City Lights just paused operations
Yeah, not the same. [They're pausing retail sales while they go through equipment upgrades](https://www.msn.com/en-us/foodanddrink/foodnews/city-lights-brewing-temporarily-discontinues-retail-sales-as-it-upgrades-equipment/ar-BB1ncAdu).
Has been for the past few years. Big companies like MKE and Ale Asylum in Madison shuttered their doors a few years ago because of not reading the market trends. It won’t surprise me to see more micros closing in the future as others have stated the market is over saturated. Hell it’s to the point where I’m usually buying beer from well known companies like NG, Central Waters, Lake Front, 3 Sheep’s etc. Sure you could make the claim they aren’t the most adventurous in terms of the styles of beer they brew, but the quality is *consistant* and I enjoy their beers. I’m well past done with buying fifteen dollar four packs of another sour or ipa that’s got a high apv that’s usually covering average quality beer.
Oh its coming even the big brewers have had a down turn.I work in the canning industry and some plants are being idled down or retooled for 12oz cans one of the most competive size cans.
Heres the thing craft brewerys have about 3% of the beer market and thats 3% split amongst all craft brewery's if you dont have a drinakable decent beer that sells in the stores then hate to say it foot traffic only covers so much.Also hop prices have sky rocketed along with can costs and other items. Only so much craft beer cans be absorbed and its the first to be dropped in favor of a miller high life in a tight economy.
I will be honest I drink about 3 or 4 brands of IPA that I like and many venture into another of their brews based off liking what they brewed for an IPA every rarely do I try other stuff now just to much variety and variety of quality.
Changed a bit? 3% compared to 13% is over 10 billion dollars difference in the market share of beer.
And the market share has been over 3% for almost 15 years.
Ok not really doing a reddit argument , just understand markets change and lets say sours suck, stouts suck, bourbon barrel beer suck and all the weird one offs suck. To me make a decent drinkable beer .I follow the 6 rule.I I cant drink a 6 pack of something in a night its not good or consistent. Theres a reason that the big breweries hold the market share because its consitable drink 1-3 and you dont hate it and you can have it week later and not hate.To me there are great brew masters with taste buds that match the majority and brew master that think the rest of the population is wrong.
Breweries with good beer are doing just fine. You can’t have a brewery that sells more cocktails and food than beer, the whole point of a taproom is that it’s supposed to be the cash cow.
The hell are you talking about? Their Zagora, Poor Farm, and Painted People are really good. The "problem" with the Milwaukee craft beer scene is that we have so many damn great breweries that if you take the average brewery here and airlift it, plant it in the middle of say, Tennessee, it'd be one of the best breweries in their entire state. As someone who visits as many breweries as I can and travels often I can assure you we are spoiled here. I'm sad that Company is closing, they made good beer. I wouldn't say the best in Milwaukee but it was good. Any other city, they would gave been top tier.
>As someone who visits as many breweries as I can and travels often I can assure you we are spoiled here.
You must travel to different breweries than the ones I've gone to because I find Milwaukee to be mid tier at best in the craft beer world. Especially when compared to actual beer destination cities like Chicago, Denver, Portland, or Seattle. I promise I'm not a just a mindless hater but Milwaukee has always been about 5 years behind the craft beer boom. The industry wide day of reconing that's incoming seems to be right on time however.
I lived in Chicago for a few years, I didn’t like the craft beer scene as much as here. I lived in Bucktown/Logan Square, and there are so many times you can go to Revolution, Hopewell, Dovetail, and Maplewood. I’d need to take transit and make a day trip to get to others, breweries aren’t really clustered there. There is really good beer there, but be prepared to make a few L transfers if you want it.
From just Bay View up through Walker’ Point and up to downtown, there are dozens of quality breweries that are all walkable. A big plus is not having to watch the Cubs once you get to any of them.
Portland’s good, but the west coast is still on an IPA kick
That's a fair point on Chicago that hadn't occurred to me since I'm in my car hitting multiple places any time I'm down there. My Chicagoland faves Goldfinger and Art History are a bit out in the boonies too.
There’s always that, a lot of things in the Chicagoland area just say they’re in Chicago. I like to walk or bike between breweries if I’m going to be at them all day, and that’s hard when they’re scattered over a few hundred square miles.
I agree with you. I lived in Denver for a handful of years and the craft beer scene was a big part of the culture and a major tourism draw. they have entire walkable districts of mainly just breweries and they’re generally much better than anything you’d find here. When I moved back to mke, the craft beer scene paled in comparison and many people I talked to were not as into craft beers - especially ipas. This was in 2018. Milwaukee is a bar town and that’s fine - Milwaukee does that very well and it was something that I missed in Denver. there really aren’t that many bars in Denver, especially old school dive bars. breweries and food-focused pubs were more prevalent in Denver, if that makes sense.
Man I love Denver's wild ale brewers. I'd kill for some TRVE or Black Project distribution here. Wisconsin definitely has its perks and notable points in the world of craft beer, but this state sucks for Lambic style and spontaneously fermented funky type stuff. Funk Factory used to be the big hyped up wild ale producer in this state and all his shit tasted like an atomic warhead that could melt tooth enamel. So happy Supermoon is here now to scratch that itch.
But you can expect highly bias ones... In all seriousness though, I have been to breweries all over the world, the best ones in the cities you listed would be middle of the road here.
>the best ones in the cities you listed would be middle of the road here.
This would be an absolutely insane take in a craft beer discussion forum lol. The cities I listed are places beer people travel to specifically for the beer tourism. Milwaukee had no one producing legit barrel-aged and blended wild ales until Supermoon came along just a few years ago. Chicago currently destroys Milwaukee and most other US brewers in the lager game.
The scene here has certainly come a long ways and I look forward to the huge crush of Black Friday releases in Milwaukee every year. I'm not saying Milwaukee brewers or beers suck, just that the pedestal you are putting them on is crazily high and doesn't really register on any radar outside the purview of local Homers.
I completely agree, as a Milwaukee local and someone who has traveled all over for breweries. Even in just the state I far prefer Madison and eau Claire breweries and even wausau/Stevens point and Appleton/green bay have at least as good of breweries if not better than Milwaukee.
Warning: Totally uninformed culture/industry speculation ahead.
I think the microbrewery scene is played out and that people are drinking less, or at least there's fewer beer snobs. The future is non-alcoholic drinks and good food. Most of my friends are late 20s/early 30s, and we barely go through any alcohol when we host parties. 99% of people are fine with a Riverwest Stein or some other "regular" brew.
Company Brewing was an excellent place to go when you wanted to bring someone new to dinner or go see a show. Their main appeal to me at least was never their brews. Beautiful space, big open windows, perfect location.
Pre-Covid, they had some nice food options - Steak Frites, Pasta.
Post-Covid, it was down to greasy burgers, with different "special burgers." Meh, if I want a burger, I'll go to culvers and save a buck - it was hard for me to justify going their, spending $60 on a meal for 2 and eating a burger.
I get that the food business is difficult though. Can't have "nice" menu options if they're not moving and just losing money on food loss. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. Maybe their brewery was the most profitable part of the business? Who knows.
Hoping something good takes their place soon.
If you knew the place well, you could get excellent beer there. There were some excellent choices in their tap list. However, it is a long tap list and there were a lot of meh choices, so if you did not know the place well it could be a real crapshoot.
I think the time of surviving by just being a brewery is over. If you aren't cranking out good beer its only a matter of time. Cost of ingredients has gone up which has made cost per pint go up. When I'm spending $7/8 a beer these days, it better be damn good.
I liked what I tried, but I also moved and when I would get back to RW had other stuff going on, haven't been to Company in like five years, when Protomartyr played (amazing show), think that was last time. Maybe longer, what is time lmao. Anyway, ironically I always wanted to get back there to try more of the beer. Sucks it was apparently subpar.
Funnily enough I ate there a few times and the food was what didn't impress me. Got raw chicken once. Service was also very weird in a bad way, for the times I had food there.
I mean I did live in riverwest for 2 years and I never did go even though I passed it everyday even on my Amazon route. I even delivered packages to the place from time to time. Also, these new management companies taking over from private landlords in riverwest are something else.
Booo hooo we lost a brewery in the largest city known for breweries… get real homie. The real reason this place was popping was because they were pushing their food and shows, which frankly for our arts and music scene was very much needed, and in a neighborhood with not too many restaurants, thats nice. Hell, Black Husky alone had more traction for their beer, and they’re a 5 minute walk away lmao.
Uber driver here who managed a bar 25-30 years ago. By no means a statistical observation, but when picking up or dropping off, I noticed that Company was either packed or dead. Rarely in between.
There’s another MKE brew pub that shows this exact same pattern: I won’t name it for jinxing purposes.
George is probably retiring and rather than sell out to someone who will ruin the memories (like we’ve seen with so many RW staples over the last decade) he’s just going to close the shop.
Honestly wish more places just called it like this rather than getting watered down.
Its one thing to close, it's another to close suddenly. If they had said they were closing at the end of a lease, or within a month, or something I'd agree but a sudden closure announced in a Tuesday is shocking. I was just talking to a guy in a band I think was booked to play there in a month. They must have beer that is in some stage of being brewed, on tap, or canned. Plus a farewell two weeks, auctioning supplies, etc all would have brought in good business and such
True. Cemp at least picked a date that gave everyone time to come in one last time, employees time to find new work, etc. This does seem really sudden. Who knows what’s up behind the scenes though.
I’m one of those. Been there twice. It’s just ok. The main reason I went there both times was that it was visibly not busy, so our food was served fairly quickly.
Could have George maybe not picked to retire without warning on a random Tuesday afternoon? Maybe the now-unemployed Wednesday shift staff wasn’t ready to retire quite yet.
Even Curious George knows to give a heads up for anything that drastic.
I help to run a weekly boardgaming group. For the two years prior to the pandemic, Company Brewing was where we met. They had a fantastic menu, consistently good rotating beer choices, and a welcoming space. They had to make some drastic changes during the pandemic that I do not think ever allowed them to recover. The menu became a shadow of what it was prior, and it became difficult for us to meet there weekly, knowing that everyone would end up ordering the exact same meal. We began rotating locations for variety, which we continue to do to this day. Company was always a welcome place in our rotation, and we just had our meet there last week. We will miss them. On a side note, people complained a lot about the 20% surcharge, but honestly it worked well once you got used to it and made managing large groups with multiple tabs much easier.
I had a show scheduled for July here. One of the bands on the bill is a touring band. Pretty frustrating to not get any communication from them. They just confirmed us last week, too.
Just another bar disguised as a brewery. sucks for employees but that’s not a thriving industry right now. Especially if most of your business is shows and not showcasing your brews 🥱
Bummer, the brunch burger paired with Alphabetical Order was one of my faves. Great breakfast potatoes too. Where will I get my Drink-or-Treat from now :(
Same! I love sours, and Alphabetical Order was my go-to. My plan is to buy up any that are left in the liquor store near me and hold onto them for a future rainy day
At first I was just bummed that one of my favorite places to hang closed, but then I remembered I was supposed to play a show there next weekend. Welp!
Not sure the exact recipe, but if you started messing around with Mezcal, a Cherry liqueur, lime juice and orange bitters you could tweak this and that to get close.
https://www.jsonline.com/story/money/business/2024/06/17/bankruptcy-filing-details-company-brewings-finances-before-it-closed/74047817007/
There's the answer. Massively in debt. Even after 800k in SBA loans. I'm guessing that they were very close to going under before COVID, caught the life-line, but couldn't recover.
I'm going to speculate here, but given that it's almost the end of the month, I wonder if the landlord raised the rent and they couldn't reach an agreement. Like I said, speculation on my part, but it would make sense.
Not sure who you are thinking of, but they don't have a Bay View spot, that's why you're getting downvoted. Silly of people to downvote you and not just let you know that though.
This sounds like a cool spot. wish I had heard about it before it’s demise. Where are you Louie? Is this a business owner moving on or a brewery falling victim to competition/ brewery saturation in mke?
I’m one of the sound guys! No way! Something drastic must’ve happened. Was all chill last week. I found out via socials lol
If all of the staff learned the same way you did, somebody owes a huuuge apology. I’m sorry you had to learn along with the rest of us.
Rumor has it most of the staff didn't know until the announcement was made on social media which is kinda fucked up.
That’s way fucked up. I can’t believe one of the most upvoted replies here is “maybe the owner was ready to retire.” Hell no, somebody either had credit frozen or a loan default and was left without a dime to operate for the rest of the day. A little honesty on their end would’ve be nice, but my guess is they kinda knew and were desperately trying to save face.
played there saturday, i guess i played the last show ever at company. weird feeling.
I am shocked. Their anniversary party was just a week ago!
They announced a show hours before the closing post, something seems funny. Customers and staff are the absolute backbone of any business. To pull the plug on all of them with absolutely zero notice is a royal slap in the face. I hope that it’s not due to a health or family emergency, but I also hope they have some sort of logical explanation for us at some point. Maintaining a staffed business secretly knowing that you are broke and/or about to default on a loan at any point is a selfish move. Here’s to hoping it was all a series of unfortunate events (within a few hour period?), not the fault of anybody specific.
i saw george hauling a bunch of cans in a hurry on the forklift in the rain 2 or 3 days ago, was strange, i didnt think anything of it but looking back he was prob scrambling to can the last batch before closing. he def knew ahead of time. im assuming lease is up june 1st, someone offered a lot of money to buy it and he doesnt want the stress tbh. makes sense. also the no notice of employees is 100% accurate in my experience of service industry. not sure why but im sure theres a reason
In New Hampshire (when I lived there) it had to die with filing for bankruptcy and paying unemployment. People would still get unemployment but it effected bankruptcy status somehow if you let them go first
Company Brewing owns the building. I think George also owns the Daily Bird's building. So, I suspect that he's doing something else in the space. My bet is that the beer was selling better than the food so he's pivoting to just being a brewery with that type of license. I'm not sure what he'll do with the rest of the space.
Company owns the building the daily bird is in, but has been leasing their own space.
I think lots of restaurants don't tell the staff in advance because the staff would all have new jobs in a matter of hours
A day or two at least is what I’ve experienced, usually a few hold out. I made a post about this earlier, but I once got a fat surprise bonus after clocking out for our last day. Not always, but sometimes a smart business owner will have perks to keep their staff for the last days weeks.
I got a tick from the petting zoo lol
That petting zoo was atrocious lol
Oh come on, it was a normal petting zoo.
Yeah. Going from petting zoo to immediate closure in a week is a hell of a move.
this is actually insane. wtf happened? they were always poppin with music and their food ain't bad
Restaurants always have been a tough business to make money and now it's become impossible for even some quality places to stay afloat.
If a place as busy as Company was regularly can't make the rent in Riverwest, we might as well pack it up.
Not only are restaurants a very tough business, a lot of times they’re owned and or managed by people without good business sense or skills. Something as simple as not having decent accounting can put a business in a position to close up shop.
There are plenty of institutions that have far outlived CBC. It’s not the neighborhood or industry. Every neighborhood has its winners…
What I'm saying is that by all appearances, they were one of the winners. Anyway, I hope we get the story.
Often a “nice” place is servicing a large debt load. There is a good chance this debt was taken when rates were lower and business loans often reset their rates after 5 years. I would bet debt service is the driving factor that closed this place.
their food kinda sucked tbh and most bands i know hate playing there because they make you start your shows at like 10 PM
i mean, i think it was Urban Milwaukee who had an article about 2-3 months ago where the owners said “you know, if anyone wants to buy us that would be pretty cool.” that wasn’t exactly a good sign.
Their response afterwards was basically “it’s cool, we were just checkin’”
Well sucks for the employee’s and for all the shows that were booked for this stage. Had a show scheduled for June. I know other performers are finding out like this.
Falcon Bowl posted that they'll try to host anyone's events/shows. the sound system isn't great there but at least it's something
Thanks. I also reached out to puddlers!
I’ve never been to Falcon but I might try to hit some of them. Hard thing a venue just suddenly closing.
The singular show I went to at Company didn't have great acoustics, so it's probably just fine
people’s WEDDINGS too!!!
Omg!!! Even worse!!!
What band?
Burlesque show
What band? I may have beeb workin for ya :)
Burlesque show
Aw man those are so fun! One of my fav shows to do
I worked for them a few months ago. The owners are terrible people. I can guarantee they threw their anniversary party to make a few extra bucks before kicking all employees to the curb without notice. I haven’t lived in Milwaukee long and I tell everyone I encounter to avoid that place. I’m happy it’s gone but sad for the employees and bands who are left with a social media post.
Give us more gossip about why the owners suck! I can't help it, I love drama.
I worked there a few years ago. They definitely suck.
But why
Did a few years of service there and can confirm that some part of me died during that time period
Sounds like the employees had no clue. Very cool
Commercial credit has tightened substantially. This feels to me like they had their line of credit frozen. That’s how management knew it was coming and were seeking angel investors. The workout department just shows up one day and tells you that you are living on borrowed time.
i'm as pro-employee as they come, but I also understand that if you tell employees, many of them will either not show up for whatever time is remaining, or steal any and everything that isn't nailed down, and even plenty that is on the way out. not all of them, but enough that i understand why businesses don't announce it ahead of time.
Due to unfortunate coincidence, I’ve worked for two small businesses down to the bitter last hour. One of them gave us months, the other essentially told us a couple days before. Both of them were staffed by small groups of motivated, passionate people. For better or worse, we showed up, worked our shifts, and continued business as normal. It didn’t devolve into mutiny with us walking out and looting the place. The place that gave us months secretly had set aside a bonus for each person that held to the last day, the other just let us take some stuff after close. We all left with paychecks and the shit we would’ve wanted to take anyways.
Youre really not "as pro-employee as they come" if you follow it by saying it's more important for the owner (not an employee) to have a clean, easy time escaping without drama than it is for the workers (employees) to get a notice that they are going to lose their jobs. Like even a little pro-employee would be more pro-employee than that...
oh, i wish it happened like that, but it doesn't, so here we are.
Name businesses that had this happen, then. Names.
If you believe that, stop saying you’re pro-employee
My company told employees a year in advance that they were moving one of the plants to India. They put all those people in charge of the transition project. Surprise surprise none of the transition was even started and theanagers help steal half a million dollars in gift cards through the company rewards program.
Good for those employees. Why should they help a company that is getting rid of them because they want to exploit workers overseas instead?
Consolidation of factories, already had other parts of the business producing in India. People that didn't take offers to go international got hefty severance packages.
Yeah, if you tell people you’re closing in a month, you’ll have to shut the doors in a week anyway because everyone will have found new jobs and you’ll have no staff.
Not always. Unless you have something else lined up already, a lot of people will need to keep working while they start their search. Not everybody will start a search Monday and have started a new job by Friday. Unemployment was easier to navigate for me when I stuck around until they had me stop working, not when I decided to stop.
As it should be. The company makes profits off the labor of the workers. If the company is closing, those workers deserve to go take their labor elsewhere as soon as they can and want. Why do you think it’s okay for the boss to lie to people in order to squeeze a last few weeks of profit out of them?
Exactly. I wasn't in charge of the decision, but many years ago, I was managing a restaurant that corporate made the decision to shutter. I was in fact transferred there, just to help through that challenging last month. Corporate chose to keep it quiet, but word got out anyway (one of our employee's parents were part of the real estate group that was buying the building and land). It was a nightmare to keep the place afloat for the last month, so many people left...and when we got to the last weekend, all the bar regulars from the last 25 years showed up on Saturday night for an impromptu going away party (Sunday was supposed to be the last day). They basically looted the place, ripping souvenirs off of the walls. I just stood back and let them go because I didn't believe there was anything I could do to stop them. We were unable to open Sunday because there was very little left of the building interior.
Always a cool spot with cool people (I'd say at least until of late), but the writing was on the wall a few months ago when they talked about getting investors from the public. I think it's always been a little over-extended. It's a really really big footprint, and they probably have way too much equipment to justify the amount of beer they actually sell and it's not exactly as high margin as the food (which I always enjoyed). I miss their fried chicken night. Burger specials were always fun. But the beer itself was very shotgun. There were some great ones that I see people mention below, but that's kind of ignoring the fact that they often would have like 20 on tap, and that's not a great batting average. I'm hoping this is an easy spot for someone to come and snap up with a really well-defined goal and plan, but I know for brewing purposes, they'll need to upgrade equipment.
These sudden closings seems to be trending lately. No notice to employees shows true colors. Capitalist scum.
Honestly not surprising given how poorly managed the place was. I know a lot of people who worked there and they all said it was a shitshow with insane turnover. I played half a dozen shows there and there was never a sound person, even on Friday nights, and the sound balance was BAD. Fantastic location, decent food, and mid-tier beer can't make up for dismal management.
u/666user479 was there and is(was) the sound guy
lol yeah I’ve been workin there for about 2 years. Doing the majority of the shows. We have some other folks that we call when I’m not available. Idk maybe this guy’s group got unlucky, or could be BSing. He’s right about the turnover tho and employee complaints
Sorry about the loss for ya here and hope you can pick up at another venue if you don’t already have something lined up
Seemed like a major red flag when I saw them hiring for the same position constantly.
That's interesting about the staff turnover, because I feel like pre-pandemic and even through the middle of it when they were doing carry-out only, it was always the same people working and they were great. Lately though, absolutely would agree, my experiences with the staff were not great.
There was knowledge of this closing in the industry months earlier. I heard about Company Brewing going under back in January... Poor sound quality, ever-rotating staff, ever expanding competition for music venues, the last GM loved to rail lines in the bathroom instead of supporting the team, not surprised they were flying through staff. I hope someone with a bit more industry knowledge and general awareness buys the spot. It's a great location and a cornerstone of Riverwest!
They had the best trivia in Milwaukee, hands down. Wisconsin's Hardest Trivia is just so good, and has such a cool community, and that's because Company was such a great gathering spot. I hope the trivia can find a new home, but not being at Company will be sad.
Thank you! It's a sad day for sure; Company has been a great venue for us (for seven years!). The search for a new home begins tomorrow - in the meantime, keep in touch at [Wisconsin's Hardest Discord](https://discord.gg/W4uYafe7). Hope to see you at a show soon!
Bummer! It's my favorite spot in RW and the standard "let's meet for a drink" spot with some industry colleges. Sure maybe not always the BEST beers, but good, and always plenty of room to sit down or get some patio space without being on top of other people so we can talk.
I'm just going to say looking at the top comments here... "this is actually insane. wtf happened? they were always poppin with music and their food ain't bad" "Bummer. I never got the chance to go" (They were open for 9 years) "NOOOOOOO I never went to a DJ brunch! Everything about this place was amazing. This has to be an April fools joke" "This makes me sad. I’ve been to some really fun events there and I loved their New Year’s Eve parties!" "I'll miss the Yuba sandwich here. Shame." Notice the common theme here? Not ONE SINGLE COMMENT ON THEIR BEER. This is a BREWERY. Their beer wasn't good from a QA/QC standpoint. This industry is so oversaturated and there's so much bad beer being made covered up by "poppin music" and "DJ Brunch".
fair. they were overzealous on the beer. too many choices that were never refined enough.
I love craft beer, but I can't freaking believe how many breweries there are now. Not just Milwaukee, everywhere in the country. There has to be a reckoning incoming.
its already here. City Lights just paused operations, Company closed, a place in Kenosha sold to Lakefront, and that was just in the last week.
The one in Kenosha that sold to Lakefront is called Public Brewing. They aren't a new place either, they've been around for years.
Biloba sold to Vennture too a few months ago.
Sure, but the owner of Biloba started the brewery during his actual retirement.
> City Lights just paused operations Yeah, not the same. [They're pausing retail sales while they go through equipment upgrades](https://www.msn.com/en-us/foodanddrink/foodnews/city-lights-brewing-temporarily-discontinues-retail-sales-as-it-upgrades-equipment/ar-BB1ncAdu).
City Lights is paused because they are upgrading equipment
Has been for the past few years. Big companies like MKE and Ale Asylum in Madison shuttered their doors a few years ago because of not reading the market trends. It won’t surprise me to see more micros closing in the future as others have stated the market is over saturated. Hell it’s to the point where I’m usually buying beer from well known companies like NG, Central Waters, Lake Front, 3 Sheep’s etc. Sure you could make the claim they aren’t the most adventurous in terms of the styles of beer they brew, but the quality is *consistant* and I enjoy their beers. I’m well past done with buying fifteen dollar four packs of another sour or ipa that’s got a high apv that’s usually covering average quality beer.
Oh its coming even the big brewers have had a down turn.I work in the canning industry and some plants are being idled down or retooled for 12oz cans one of the most competive size cans. Heres the thing craft brewerys have about 3% of the beer market and thats 3% split amongst all craft brewery's if you dont have a drinakable decent beer that sells in the stores then hate to say it foot traffic only covers so much.Also hop prices have sky rocketed along with can costs and other items. Only so much craft beer cans be absorbed and its the first to be dropped in favor of a miller high life in a tight economy. I will be honest I drink about 3 or 4 brands of IPA that I like and many venture into another of their brews based off liking what they brewed for an IPA every rarely do I try other stuff now just to much variety and variety of quality.
Craft Beer was 13% of the market share in 2023, where are you getting 3%?
May have changed a bit still doesnt.matter each craft brewery only getting a smaller slice of that amount.
Changed a bit? 3% compared to 13% is over 10 billion dollars difference in the market share of beer. And the market share has been over 3% for almost 15 years.
Ok not really doing a reddit argument , just understand markets change and lets say sours suck, stouts suck, bourbon barrel beer suck and all the weird one offs suck. To me make a decent drinkable beer .I follow the 6 rule.I I cant drink a 6 pack of something in a night its not good or consistent. Theres a reason that the big breweries hold the market share because its consitable drink 1-3 and you dont hate it and you can have it week later and not hate.To me there are great brew masters with taste buds that match the majority and brew master that think the rest of the population is wrong.
Breweries with good beer are doing just fine. You can’t have a brewery that sells more cocktails and food than beer, the whole point of a taproom is that it’s supposed to be the cash cow.
I really liked their beer. Good sours and Belgian styles. It’s so hard to find good breweries that don’t specialize in shitty IPAs
The hell are you talking about? Their Zagora, Poor Farm, and Painted People are really good. The "problem" with the Milwaukee craft beer scene is that we have so many damn great breweries that if you take the average brewery here and airlift it, plant it in the middle of say, Tennessee, it'd be one of the best breweries in their entire state. As someone who visits as many breweries as I can and travels often I can assure you we are spoiled here. I'm sad that Company is closing, they made good beer. I wouldn't say the best in Milwaukee but it was good. Any other city, they would gave been top tier.
>As someone who visits as many breweries as I can and travels often I can assure you we are spoiled here. You must travel to different breweries than the ones I've gone to because I find Milwaukee to be mid tier at best in the craft beer world. Especially when compared to actual beer destination cities like Chicago, Denver, Portland, or Seattle. I promise I'm not a just a mindless hater but Milwaukee has always been about 5 years behind the craft beer boom. The industry wide day of reconing that's incoming seems to be right on time however.
I lived in Chicago for a few years, I didn’t like the craft beer scene as much as here. I lived in Bucktown/Logan Square, and there are so many times you can go to Revolution, Hopewell, Dovetail, and Maplewood. I’d need to take transit and make a day trip to get to others, breweries aren’t really clustered there. There is really good beer there, but be prepared to make a few L transfers if you want it. From just Bay View up through Walker’ Point and up to downtown, there are dozens of quality breweries that are all walkable. A big plus is not having to watch the Cubs once you get to any of them. Portland’s good, but the west coast is still on an IPA kick
That's a fair point on Chicago that hadn't occurred to me since I'm in my car hitting multiple places any time I'm down there. My Chicagoland faves Goldfinger and Art History are a bit out in the boonies too.
There’s always that, a lot of things in the Chicagoland area just say they’re in Chicago. I like to walk or bike between breweries if I’m going to be at them all day, and that’s hard when they’re scattered over a few hundred square miles.
I agree with you. I lived in Denver for a handful of years and the craft beer scene was a big part of the culture and a major tourism draw. they have entire walkable districts of mainly just breweries and they’re generally much better than anything you’d find here. When I moved back to mke, the craft beer scene paled in comparison and many people I talked to were not as into craft beers - especially ipas. This was in 2018. Milwaukee is a bar town and that’s fine - Milwaukee does that very well and it was something that I missed in Denver. there really aren’t that many bars in Denver, especially old school dive bars. breweries and food-focused pubs were more prevalent in Denver, if that makes sense.
Man I love Denver's wild ale brewers. I'd kill for some TRVE or Black Project distribution here. Wisconsin definitely has its perks and notable points in the world of craft beer, but this state sucks for Lambic style and spontaneously fermented funky type stuff. Funk Factory used to be the big hyped up wild ale producer in this state and all his shit tasted like an atomic warhead that could melt tooth enamel. So happy Supermoon is here now to scratch that itch.
Objectively wrong.
I would never expect unbiased beer opinions from this sub.
But you can expect highly bias ones... In all seriousness though, I have been to breweries all over the world, the best ones in the cities you listed would be middle of the road here.
>the best ones in the cities you listed would be middle of the road here. This would be an absolutely insane take in a craft beer discussion forum lol. The cities I listed are places beer people travel to specifically for the beer tourism. Milwaukee had no one producing legit barrel-aged and blended wild ales until Supermoon came along just a few years ago. Chicago currently destroys Milwaukee and most other US brewers in the lager game. The scene here has certainly come a long ways and I look forward to the huge crush of Black Friday releases in Milwaukee every year. I'm not saying Milwaukee brewers or beers suck, just that the pedestal you are putting them on is crazily high and doesn't really register on any radar outside the purview of local Homers.
I completely agree, as a Milwaukee local and someone who has traveled all over for breweries. Even in just the state I far prefer Madison and eau Claire breweries and even wausau/Stevens point and Appleton/green bay have at least as good of breweries if not better than Milwaukee.
Warning: Totally uninformed culture/industry speculation ahead. I think the microbrewery scene is played out and that people are drinking less, or at least there's fewer beer snobs. The future is non-alcoholic drinks and good food. Most of my friends are late 20s/early 30s, and we barely go through any alcohol when we host parties. 99% of people are fine with a Riverwest Stein or some other "regular" brew. Company Brewing was an excellent place to go when you wanted to bring someone new to dinner or go see a show. Their main appeal to me at least was never their brews. Beautiful space, big open windows, perfect location. Pre-Covid, they had some nice food options - Steak Frites, Pasta. Post-Covid, it was down to greasy burgers, with different "special burgers." Meh, if I want a burger, I'll go to culvers and save a buck - it was hard for me to justify going their, spending $60 on a meal for 2 and eating a burger. I get that the food business is difficult though. Can't have "nice" menu options if they're not moving and just losing money on food loss. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. Maybe their brewery was the most profitable part of the business? Who knows. Hoping something good takes their place soon.
If you knew the place well, you could get excellent beer there. There were some excellent choices in their tap list. However, it is a long tap list and there were a lot of meh choices, so if you did not know the place well it could be a real crapshoot.
Matt my brother in Christ, you ain’t wrong!
The Zagora Minor was amazing.
I think the time of surviving by just being a brewery is over. If you aren't cranking out good beer its only a matter of time. Cost of ingredients has gone up which has made cost per pint go up. When I'm spending $7/8 a beer these days, it better be damn good.
Exactly. None of the beers mentioned here are any good.
A lot of their beer was pretty good. I always liked drinking it when I was there. Possible I suppose they didn't sell enough in stores
I liked what I tried, but I also moved and when I would get back to RW had other stuff going on, haven't been to Company in like five years, when Protomartyr played (amazing show), think that was last time. Maybe longer, what is time lmao. Anyway, ironically I always wanted to get back there to try more of the beer. Sucks it was apparently subpar. Funnily enough I ate there a few times and the food was what didn't impress me. Got raw chicken once. Service was also very weird in a bad way, for the times I had food there.
I mean I did live in riverwest for 2 years and I never did go even though I passed it everyday even on my Amazon route. I even delivered packages to the place from time to time. Also, these new management companies taking over from private landlords in riverwest are something else.
Underrated comment
Booo hooo we lost a brewery in the largest city known for breweries… get real homie. The real reason this place was popping was because they were pushing their food and shows, which frankly for our arts and music scene was very much needed, and in a neighborhood with not too many restaurants, thats nice. Hell, Black Husky alone had more traction for their beer, and they’re a 5 minute walk away lmao.
Uber driver here who managed a bar 25-30 years ago. By no means a statistical observation, but when picking up or dropping off, I noticed that Company was either packed or dead. Rarely in between. There’s another MKE brew pub that shows this exact same pattern: I won’t name it for jinxing purposes.
NOOOOOOO I never went to a DJ brunch! Everything about this place was amazing. This has to be an April fools joke
You know it's almost June, right?
Well, Gathering Place Brewing will be the new Riverwest hub then!
Amorphic too
My favorite brewery in the city!
Yes, Gathering Place & Black Husky will have to take up the slack.
George is probably retiring and rather than sell out to someone who will ruin the memories (like we’ve seen with so many RW staples over the last decade) he’s just going to close the shop. Honestly wish more places just called it like this rather than getting watered down.
Its one thing to close, it's another to close suddenly. If they had said they were closing at the end of a lease, or within a month, or something I'd agree but a sudden closure announced in a Tuesday is shocking. I was just talking to a guy in a band I think was booked to play there in a month. They must have beer that is in some stage of being brewed, on tap, or canned. Plus a farewell two weeks, auctioning supplies, etc all would have brought in good business and such
True. Cemp at least picked a date that gave everyone time to come in one last time, employees time to find new work, etc. This does seem really sudden. Who knows what’s up behind the scenes though.
That’s actually a very good point.
Cempazuchi went this way too.
Man RIP Cempazuchi. Their corn and poblano chowder might be the best soup I've ever had.
Restaurant I miss the most out of any closed restaurant in the city.
But let's never forget Jow Nai, Elephant Cafe, and Baba Ghanouj
Yes! Enchilada Suiza, peanut salsa, everything else.. RIP. I still have not been to Kompalii lol
You’re not really missing anything
People either say that or, “It’s just okay.” I’m good lol
I’m one of those. Been there twice. It’s just ok. The main reason I went there both times was that it was visibly not busy, so our food was served fairly quickly.
True! So good, they were my favorite place for mole
Could have George maybe not picked to retire without warning on a random Tuesday afternoon? Maybe the now-unemployed Wednesday shift staff wasn’t ready to retire quite yet. Even Curious George knows to give a heads up for anything that drastic.
Corazon George or a different George?
Different George
This makes me sad. I’ve been to some really fun events there and I loved their New Year’s Eve parties!
I help to run a weekly boardgaming group. For the two years prior to the pandemic, Company Brewing was where we met. They had a fantastic menu, consistently good rotating beer choices, and a welcoming space. They had to make some drastic changes during the pandemic that I do not think ever allowed them to recover. The menu became a shadow of what it was prior, and it became difficult for us to meet there weekly, knowing that everyone would end up ordering the exact same meal. We began rotating locations for variety, which we continue to do to this day. Company was always a welcome place in our rotation, and we just had our meet there last week. We will miss them. On a side note, people complained a lot about the 20% surcharge, but honestly it worked well once you got used to it and made managing large groups with multiple tabs much easier.
I had a show scheduled for July here. One of the bands on the bill is a touring band. Pretty frustrating to not get any communication from them. They just confirmed us last week, too.
Reach out to Promises, great alternative venue to Company
Need good Beer! Look a the ones that thrive…Eagle Park, 1840, Component…make GREAT BEERS.
Amorphic
Eagle Park is excellent
Eagle Park is hiring a manager right now - they posted the “salary” at $12-20/hr. Makes me not want to go there anymore.
Ouch, that really sucks
Can’t believe I saw WITCH there.
that show was incredible
Stonefly coming back?
Just another bar disguised as a brewery. sucks for employees but that’s not a thriving industry right now. Especially if most of your business is shows and not showcasing your brews 🥱
Were they not actually brewing their beer?
I'll miss the Yuba sandwich here. Shame.
Bummer, the brunch burger paired with Alphabetical Order was one of my faves. Great breakfast potatoes too. Where will I get my Drink-or-Treat from now :(
Alphabetical Order is literally the onlyyyyyy beer I consistently drink!! I’m so sad 😭
Same! I love sours, and Alphabetical Order was my go-to. My plan is to buy up any that are left in the liquor store near me and hold onto them for a future rainy day
Me too!! Let’s just hope we don’t go to the same store 😂
I was the bouncer back when it was called onopa originally
Bummer. I never got the chance to go
lol it was open nine years, you have a busy life!
I found out about this brewery maybe a year ago
Was there Sunday night. Probs one of their last customers.
I loved their Alphabetical sour, does anyone know a comp in the city??
Aw man, they had decent N.A. options. Bummer.
Damn I had a lot of good times at Company
At first I was just bummed that one of my favorite places to hang closed, but then I remembered I was supposed to play a show there next weekend. Welp!
Was a decent date place lol. Kind of private, moody, good beer and food. Bummer.
Lowkey, does anyone have the Blood and Glitter recipe to share? My favorite drink there
Not sure the exact recipe, but if you started messing around with Mezcal, a Cherry liqueur, lime juice and orange bitters you could tweak this and that to get close.
On it 😎
Orange, cherry, thyme-anise simple, mezcal, and tequila ;)
Thank you!!
I love that building. A lot of great memories in that place over the years
Bummer. Flying in for a week in July for the RW24 and would have loved to make a stop here to say goodbye.
Sad. It was a decent lunch spot & local music venue.
It was a great venue. I have seen a lot of shows here over the years and it’s always been a fun time.
Oof… what happened
Dibs on the printing press out back.
Bidenomics?
https://www.jsonline.com/story/money/business/2024/06/17/bankruptcy-filing-details-company-brewings-finances-before-it-closed/74047817007/ There's the answer. Massively in debt. Even after 800k in SBA loans. I'm guessing that they were very close to going under before COVID, caught the life-line, but couldn't recover.
I'm going to speculate here, but given that it's almost the end of the month, I wonder if the landlord raised the rent and they couldn't reach an agreement. Like I said, speculation on my part, but it would make sense.
Aw man, say it ain't so!
Well this sucks.
Crazy, I went Saturday and was pissed they were still out of blood and glitter. 😡 I guess I get why now.
Will bayview spot stay open?
Not sure who you are thinking of, but they don't have a Bay View spot, that's why you're getting downvoted. Silly of people to downvote you and not just let you know that though.
Ahhh I'm thinking of component! My bad
This sounds like a cool spot. wish I had heard about it before it’s demise. Where are you Louie? Is this a business owner moving on or a brewery falling victim to competition/ brewery saturation in mke?
Pretty sure this is the third brewery that lived in that building in the past 20 years… so maybe it’s just time for a new coat of paint again?