BeerBorg

One of the pioneers of the now thriving Nashville craft beer scene, Bosco's, closed it's doors for the last time on Sunday. The brewpub had been open 18 years, and was the second oldest craft beer brewer in Nashville, behind Blackstone's 20 years. When both of those establishments opened, all that was available in the Nashville market was the thin, yellow, fizzy stuff. Bosco's (and Blackstone) broke that trend, offering rotating taps of a wide range of beer styles well before that was in vogue here or in many other places. Seeing them unexpectedly close up shop was a bit jarring. They cited rising leases and construction around their location as factors, but ironically, the boom of the craft beer scene that they had a large hand in starting here was a big factor. With the brewery boom and the rise of craft beer bars, they were no longer the only place in town to get great craft beer and their bottom line suffered.

Unfortunately this wasn't announced ahead of time. I would have loved to get one last pull of Flaming Stone, Isle of Skye, or Bombay IPA. They had just tapped their O-fest last week, so I had thought of going out this week to get a taste of it. Such a bummer... Fifty people out of a job (and probably as many from their July closing of the Cool Springs location as well). They will continue to focus on their Memphis and Little Rock locations, as well as their Ghost River production brewery in Memphis.

That is sad. As you stated, it's a bit ironic to think that the craft beer industry that they helped raise awareness for now doesn't have room for them.

And as holds true for the circle of life, ANOTHER new brewery is in the works here in Santa Cruz. Check out the video if you have a few minutes, the building and equipment look really nice. And yes, that is how everybody in Santa Cruz looks!

I hope this isn't the start of something bad. In our quest to try the latest and greatest, newest beers, we sometimes forget the old favorites. Maybe if they would have mentioned the business suffering, their long time customers would have visited them more often.

I'm hearing via the Nashville Craft Afficianado FB group and Twitter that the owner had really lost focus on the brewpubs in favor of the production brewery, so that was likely another big factor. Also hearing that we on the FB group and those on the email list knew about it before the employees, who were dressed for work and arrived at the brewpub to find a piece of paper telling the news on the door. I had friends visting and working there Sunday night, and there was no outright indication, though in hindsight the week long $2 sale on pints that seemed innocent at the time was obviously a clearance of remaining stock.

I understand these things happen, and the market factors at play, but a pretty shoddy way to treat your employees, IMHO. #boycottGhostRiver

A FB friend of mine who is affiliated with Vanderbilt U. posted this. That's really too bad.