Funky Picnic
A Near Southside gastropub that was the inception of a friend group that gathered in a garage to engage in great conversation over cold brews just announced it will be closing soon. The Funky Picnic Brewery and Café located at 401 Bryan Avenue Suite 117, made the announcement that its last day of operation will be on April 27 via social media this week.
“Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for taking this funky journey with us, and we hope to see you between now and April 27th,” the social media post read.
This quaint microbrewery opened its doors in June of 2019, offering its clientele high-quality foods, live events, and most importantly freshly brewed craft beer. Unfortunately, just as this spot began to pick up steam, the global shut-down that affected so many up-and-coming businesses hit Funky Picnic pretty hard. Despite this setback the founders pushed on until a glance at the finances in November of last year revealed a fiscal alarm.
According to the brewery’s social media post, sales dropped 20% in October of 2023, which was a hard pill to swallow given Funky Picnic’s resolve to push forward through lean times.
Funky Picnic
“Fort Worth responded to our call, and we quickly saw doubled sales and an outpouring of love and support,” the post continued. “It showed that our little brewpub had made an impact on our community and gave us hope. After ten days, our sales dropped to even lower than before, but it was enough to push us into December's event season and with a plan and some hope for the new year.”
But that hope has run out for the founders of this brewpub. Over the past year, especially the past six months, Funky Picnic has been hit with rising operating and material costs. To add to this uptick in costs, consumer spending has gone down placing this local spot between a financial rock and a hard place. According to Funky Picnic, sales at the brewery are now lower than they were in both 2023 and 2022.
“We have put everything we have (money, emotions, time) into keeping these doors open, but it no longer makes viable sense,” the social media post stated. “We wish that our story would have ended differently, but the last five years have thrown us unprecedented challenges that we could have never expected. The entire restaurant and brewery industries are feeling the brunt of this, and we have already seen many closures and will continue to see more.”
Given the end is nigh for Funky Picnic, its business hours may vary until its last day of operation on April 27. Until then, the Near Southside will continue to keep the funk.
