When Corporate Restaurants Pack Up and Close Doors

The Experience When Corporate Restaurants Pack Up and Close Doors

10 Barrel Shutdown

By: Christina Wynn, 2/24/23 Location: Denver, CO

When I first moved to Denver I was unsure of what jobs I would be applying for. This was right after my copywriting internship at Sweetwater. Though I enjoyed my time there, I wanted to switch things up and learn about something new. I applied for jobs within marketing and communications for some time with no end result. As time moved on, I realized I needed a job quickly. In this time frame, I visited a few restaurants recommended by some friends I already had in Denver. The first place I tried was a brewery less than a mile from my house. I enjoyed my time there, the food and the beer. Plus, the neighborhood I lived in was known for their breweries!

I ended up applying to 10 Barrel Brewing Company and landed the job. I was immediately welcomed by all the staff, there was a great community within those walls, and I believe that’s what kept people there. We took the time to get to know each other before and after work and became more than coworkers, we became friends.

I wasn’t exactly aware of 10 Barrel's national reach, as my job was more focused on the daily work inside the pub. I wasn’t even aware that they were owned by Anheuser-Busch until later. The brand was founded in 2006 in Bend, Oregon, and eventually opened four other breweries with help from Anheuser-Busch. In my 9 months working for 10 Barrel, I had only met higher-ups from the corporate office a few times. I didn’t mind this, as I felt our pub was our own home, owned and ran by us who worked there daily.

I had only worked there a few months until business started to slow down. Even though we were the only brewery in the neighborhood with a full food menu, our sunny roof deck and large tables were not always full. As employees, we were still making money and having fun. It’s not often when someone is excited to come to work in the restaurant industry, but I was always looking forward to working with my friends. After all, I had recently moved the Denver without knowing many people, and work became my community. So slow days were less painful with friends around.

On November 17th, 2022, we had an all-staff meeting an hour before opening. I was the opening server that day so I intended on staying after the meeting to work while those who were not scheduled would go out and enjoy their day together. Quickly, plans changed as the meeting went on. Unusually, there were a few corporate employees at this meeting. We assumed they were here to introduce themselves to the new pub staff and say hello. When the corporate member spoke to us, her voice shook, it was a little odd, but we thought maybe she was nervous about speaking to us. Well, she was, and we quickly found out why.

She announced that, effective immediately, the Denver 10 Barrel Brewing pub was closing. There were a few reasons listed or assumed, but we won’t get into those here. Overall, the pub’s rent was too expensive, and never recovered from Covid.

The room fell silent as we were trying to process what was happening.

Tears started to fall, and murmuring was arising.

This was the saddest day of my 9 months at 10 Barrell.

The corporate office decided to close our doors, without notice, on a cold and snowy November morning. The Denver pub employees mourned together that day with toasts, tears, and hugs. I felt lost, not knowing my next step. It took time to see this sad event as an opportunity.

We were told about a severance pay that would be based on a few factors, which ended up being oddly accounted for. Some people who were employees for years would get less severance than me, an employee for less than a year. Even worse, when we finally got these checks in the mail, they were about half of what the company told us they would be on November 17th. I assume this was due to taxes and not their own choice, but nonetheless it left us underprepared when we got about half of what we were told.

We felt shorted. 10 Barrel as a corporation helped us in some ways, offering positions at other pubs they were sisters with or owned, all the positions were low paying and mostly bussing jobs. That I know of, no one had taken up their offers. We all knew what we were capable of and denied taking steps backwards.

In the beginning of my 10 Barrel journey, I thought 10 Barrel was a locally owned brewery; it had always felt like one. By the end of our time there, I realized just how little corporations care about their employees by their actions such as closing us without notice. If this had been a locally owned business, I’m sure the situations would have been handled differently.