Why is Sequoia Brewing closing Fresno-area restaurants? Eviction notice filed at one spot

[Pelican Press 0]

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

Why is Sequoia Brewing closing Fresno-area restaurants? Eviction notice filed at one spot

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

, a longtime classic hangout and craft beer microbrewery in Fresno’s Tower District, is closing — along with its two other Valley locations.

The location at Champlain Drive and Perrin Avenue in north Fresno, and on Main Street in Visalia will also close, several managers confirmed.

The two Fresno locations will close at 9 p.m. Sunday.

But Sequoia Brewing’s former owners are vowing to find new owners to reopen the business that was instrumental in building the early craft beer scene in Fresno in the 1990s.

“It’s not over til it’s over,” said Michele Kendall, who, along with husband Scott, sold the business in 2020 to current owners Jeremy Smith and Allison Richtel-Smith.

The Smiths were not immediately available for comment as to why the locations were closing.

But the businesses were behind on rent at two locations.

An eviction notice was filed for the Champlain Drive location in Fresno County Superior Court in August. The business owed $59,227 in unpaid rent, court documents show. Sequoia Brewing had a $16,470 monthly rent bill, plus $9,360 for maintaining common areas of the shopping center.

The City of Fresno is the landlord for the Tower Sequoia Brewing building since it purchased the Tower Theatre block in 2022 as part of an effort to preserve the theater as a “public historic asset.”

Sequoia Brewing is $12,797.76 behind on its rent, city spokesperson Sontaya Rose said Thursday.

The Kendalls moved out of town after selling Sequoia Brewing, but were often in touch with employees and available for questions.

When asked why she thought the locations were closing, Michele Kendall said they were “not run properly.”

“For Scott and I, we lived there,” she said. “We were there day and night. … That just wasn’t the case with the Smiths.”

She said she is already talking to potential new owners to take over and reopen all three locations.

“We’re diligently working on this,” she said. “I just don’t want people to think this is the end.”

The Tower location brewed beer for all three sites, in addition to serving food and hosting live music. Together, they had about 80 employees.

“Its just sickening; it just is heartbreaking,” she said.

News of the looming closure was a shock to workers and customers alike. An employee at the north Fresno location said they learned Wednesday they’d be losing their jobs.

One manager who had worked at the Tower location for nearly a decade said she heard the news through a text message at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday. She said it was a bitter situation, and hard on the community that the employees and former owners had built.

A

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

cryptically on the Tower District location’s

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

page that after 27 years his time at the brewery was coming to an end.

“The amount of caring love, outrageous times, and legendary times could not be comprehended. Because it is immeasurable. Thank you all for letting me ride the best wave ever for all these decades,” his post said.

The outpouring of grief and well wishes was immediate.

Said one commenter: “So this is heartbreaking that a staple of the Tower is closing? And not just this location. All the best to you and the rest of the staff!”

Sequoia Brewing and its history

Sequoia Brewing has played a fundamental role in the Tower District and Fresno’s craft beer scene for decades.

It used to be Butterfield’s, a restaurant and microbrewery that the Kendalls bought when it was about 10 years old in 1999.

The founder of Butterfields once also operated Butterfield Brewing Co., a $4 million downtown brewery and beer garden at Inyo and L streets that opened in 1999 but didn’t survive.

But the Kendalls succeeded with Butterfield’s on Olive Avenue, eventually renaming it Sequoia Brewing Co.

This was years before breweries such as Tioga-Sequoia Brewing Co. opened and the formation of downtown’s Brewery District.

Sequoia Brewing opened the Champlain location in 2005 and later a location on Visalia’s Main Street.

Fresno Bee reporter Robert Rodriguez contributed to this story.

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

#Sequoia #Brewing #closing #Fresnoarea #restaurants #Eviction #notice #filed #spot

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up