Sadly, Cleveland’s Portside Distillery closes, co-owner cites location, location and location

The CBB crew spent its holiday party at Portside two years ago. We had such a good time, we posted some really, really bad Tweets. Enjoy.

Yikes. Who’s operating that camera?

Unfortunately, those good times are over. The Cleveland-based brewhouse and distillery closed last week. It had only been officially opened since January of 2015, and according to CBB web wizard Sean Wright, Portside’s Ironclad Double Pale Ale is one of the best in the category. So why the closure? Well, Portside was definitely located in an odd spot in downtown Cleveland. It was on the corner of West 9th Street and Front Avenue, sort of between the east bank of the newly renovated Cleveland Flats and the city’s Warehouse District. It was near the port and Browns stadium parking. Basically… From Cleveland.com:

“There’s not enough traffic going by,” [Co-Owner Matt] Zappernick said. “If you didn’t plan on going to Portside when you left home you weren’t going to find us.”

What Zappernick needs to find now aren’t customers to belly up at the bar but a willing broker who can negotiate the sale of the equipment en masse rather than piecemeal. That might not be possible, he acknowledges. The distilling license is site specific.

“It’s not like we can sell it,” he said.

Even with great beer, a unique distilling license and fantastic service (CBB members frequented the beer and spirits maker often), bad location and Cleveland’s overflowing, ultra-competitive beer scene swallowed Portside up. Back to Cleveland.com:

“This may have worked 10 years ago when there were six brewpubs, but with brewpubs going up like McDonald’s you have to know who you were going to be. … Competition is a wonderful thing for Cleveland,” he said, citing colleague Sam McNulty ‘s belief that “rising tides lift all boats” when it comes to the craft-beer industry.

“We were trying to do too many things,” Zappernick said.

Well, let’s hope they try to do some of those things again sometime very soon. Good luck out there, Portside crew.