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Lament for a Brewpub - February 2003On Thursday, January 16, Michael Hancock, the brewing partner of Denison's Brewing Company in Toronto, and many of his staff worked through the night removing from the premises as much of the portable assets of the brewpub as they could carry. On the morning of Friday, January 17, ironically the 83rd anniversary of the start of Prohibition in the United States, the property management company in charge of the building that housed Denison's locked the doors and ended the life of one of Toronto's two laudable brewpubs.That this is a lamentable situation goes without saying. Toronto, one of the largest cities in North America, had but three brewpubs prior to the closing of Denison's, and one of those, Al Frsico's on John Street, is not exactly a hotbed of exciting brewing activity. (In my last Great Canadian Beer Guide, I gave their Continental Lager one-and-a-half stars out of four and their Wheat a single star. At the time, I was told that there are never more than two house beers on tap at any time, despite there being a host of outside beers available.) With the end of Denison's, we are left with only the Granite Brewery on Mt. Pleasant at Eglinton, thankfully one of the finest brewers of British-style ale on this side of the Atlantic. In a lengthy, post-closure conversation, Michael Hancock admitted to me that the end had been coming for a long time. Even at the peak of the brewpub's popularity, prior to a general slowdown in 2001-2002, occupancy costs had hovered just south of 20%, certainly an untenable position for any restaurant operation. A great part of this problem related to extremely high rental costs, Hancock said, which the landlords were unwilling to renegotiate despite numerous attempts over the course of over a year.On the final week of operations, the landlord gave Denison's five days to come up with over CN$100,000. Since this was impossible, the locks were closed tight on Friday morning. While rental costs were undoubtedly a major factor in Denison's failure, some blame must be shouldered by an Ontario government that makes it virtually impossible to operate a successful brewpub in this province. Of the three most populace provinces in Canada, only Ontario prohibits brewpubs from retailing their beer in any way other than for consumption on the premises, banning external sales in all its forms, from growlers to bottles for sale in the government liquor stores to keg distribution to other bars. Since Hancock readily admits that his brewing equipment could have produced up to 50% more beer, obviously these additional sales would have gone some way towards relieving the brewpub's financial burden. (I should add here that to compare brewpubs to regular bars and restaurants, which likewise are not permitted to retail alcohol beyond their walls, is to compare apples to oranges, since a brewpub must devote significant floor space and labour costs to the production of its beer. A closer parallel would be to forbid restaurants from catering events held outside of their walls.) Over the past couple of decades, the Ontario government has poured significant cash into the promotion and development of the province's wineries, with considerable success. (As an aside, it deserving notice that, curiously, these commercial wineries are permitted to operate restaurants that sell wine by the glass on their premises.) During that same period, however, the government has done stunningly little to help our brewpubs. Never mind that a successful brewpub scene can be an economic and touristic boon à la Portland, Seattle and Denver, our government chooses instead to ignore this sector of small business and watch brewpub after valiant brewpub fail for lack of legislative understanding. Denison's has closed, and with it has gone our sole opportunity to enjoy Canada's finest Bavarian-style wheat beer and some of the best lagers in the land. There is nothing that can be done to alter that. But steps may be taken to ensure that this same fate does not befall the Granite, the Clocktower in Ottawa, Pepperwood in Burlington, The Merchant Ale House in St. Catharines, the Olde Stone in Peterborough and other Ontario brewpubs. Beer aficionados should contact their local MPs and members of the provincial cabinet to demand changes to existing legislation that would allow brewpubs to sell their beer off-premises. A few recommended contacts are listed below. Hon. Ernie Eves, Hon. Premier of Ontario and Minister of Intergovernmental
Affairs Hon. Jim Flaherty, Minister of Enterprise, Opportunity and Innovation Hon. David Turnbull, Associate Minister of Enterprise, Opportunity and
Innovation Hon. Tim Hudak, Minister of Consumer & Business Services Hon. Janet Ecker, Minister of Finance Hon. David Tsubouchi, Chair of Management Board of Cabinet and Minister of
Culture Dalton Mcguinty, Leader of the Official Opposition Howard Hampton, Leader of the Ontario New Democratic Party Feature Articles
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