After ten years of business, Elk Horn Brewery announced it would permanently close its location in a now-deleted Facebook post. A specific date of the post could not be confirmed, but it looked back on memories of hosting Thanksgiving dinners and feeding first responders during wildfire seasons in Oregon.
According to LoopNet, Elk Horn’s previous location at 686 E. Broadway was listed for sale on May 5. The asking price currently stands at $2,600,000.
State records show that the business itself is still registered as “active” as of October 2024, but the business’ Instagram and Facebook profile state that the building location is permanently closed.
“After many years of serving the community, we must say goodbye as the building has been sold and will be demolished to make way for a new development,” the deleted Facebook post said.
Owners Stephen and Colleen Sheehan previously operated the Delacata food truck on Olive Street specializing in southern cuisine. Delacata closed in 2014 to make way for the new brewery on East Broadway.
James Croxton, the editor-in-chief of Double Sided Media, said that during his coverage of Black Lives Matter protests in Eugene in 2020, many of his contacts who had previously worked at Elk Horn had been “miserable.”
“In the years that I was covering the protests and everything, I heard from so many former employees of Elk Horn, about how miserable they were working there because most of them were queer in some way and it wasn’t a very queer-inclusive space,” Croxton said.
Tristan Cooley, owner of Gratitude Brewing, acknowledged that many breweries and other restaurants have seen a decline in revenue since the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Hearing about breweries closing down, there’s very little mystery about it from a business perspective,” Cooley said. “Unfortunately for us, we opened just right before the pandemic hit. Several more times after that, opening and closing and opening and closing, so it just kind of wrings you out financially.”
Cooley also said that the rising cost of materials can put stress on restaurants and breweries as inflation drives food prices up. He said that a large impact comes from raw materials costing more than they used to and that shipping is more expensive.
“We can’t really raise the price of the beer because we’re already seeing less revenue, and we don’t want to do anything to turn our customers off,” Cooley said. “We’ve had to keep the prices we’re charging the same as we’ve always had, and yet the raw materials are going up.”
Many restaurants and hospitality businesses may expect closures within the next few years due to rising food prices and decreases in revenue. According to the National Restaurant Association, nearly 110,000 restaurants closed their doors in 2020 during the pandemic.
Restaurant closure can also be credited to poor management practices, a failure to adapt to changing trends and too much competition.