Robin Shepard
One Barrel will use closed time this winter to renovate.
The Madison taproom of One Barrel Brewing has closed, probably until next spring, due to the downturn in business caused by the coronavirus.
In the meantime, though, brewery owner Peter Gentry is planning to renovate the brewery’s taproom, making changes that he hopes will allow his business to come back stronger once the virus eases.
For the past few months, Gentry has been entertaining proposals to buy the Madison arm of his brewery. (There is a second location in Door County.) Although there were serious offers, Gentry has moved in another direction, working out an agreement with his building’s owner to share some of the renovation costs.
“These changes are what we need to continue the business, and to be profitable once we open back up,” Gentry says.
The building has a long history in the neighborhood; it was built in the early 1900s. Gentry hopes to balance its original character with a refreshed interior.
Over the next several months Gentry intends to remodel the bar area, add booth seating, new lighting and large front windows that will open to the sidewalk and provide views of Schenk’s Corners. More notable will be the installation of a 300-square-foot kitchen for preparing light food options conducive to takeout and delivery. Gentry estimates the makeover will cost around $120,000.
Provided the virus is brought under control and construction proceeds as he hopes, Gentry would like to re-open sometime in May.
Gentry established the Atwood Avenue location of One Barrel Brewery in 2012; it was among the earliest, and smallest, local versions of a microbrewery taproom focusing on in-house brewing and over-the-bar sales. At the time, there was no package distribution. It was a brewing system so small that Gentry originally assembled it in his east-side apartment living room.
By 2015 One Barrel Brewery had grown beyond its name, bottling product through House of Brews (now closed), then turning to Octopi Brewing in Waunakee for bottles, cans and distribution beyond the Madison market. In 2019 Gentry opened a larger taproom and brewery in Egg Harbor.
Before the pandemic, Gentry had been planning to expand to a larger location in Madison. While he says he is not giving up on that idea, his immediate focus is on making the necessary changes to his current Schenk’s Corners location and getting it back open.
The coronavirus has taken a toll on small craft brewers. Since last March, One Barrel’s taproom has mostly been shuttered. It reduced hours and offered to-go sales, and in September it installed patio seating through Madison’s Streetery Program. But Gentry estimates his current combined company losses due to COVID at nearly $1 million. “I’ve been losing money since we closed in mid-March and will continue so until we can open safely,” says Gentry.
One Barrel’s last open day was Sunday, Nov. 8.
