Surly Brewing Co to Reopen Beer Hall and Beer Garden

It's been a minute.  There are so many places that have had to go dark and shut down due to the pandemic.  Some restaurants and bars remained closed even though they were allowed to open with limited capacity.  Saying that "it just didn't make sense to open yet".

Surly has remained closed since November when the last shut down happened before Thanksgiving.  Now, the plan is to reopen the beer hall and beer garden by June 1.

"Thanks to the remarkable progress being made on the vaccination front in Minnesota, the Surly Beer Hall and Beer Garden will tentatively reopen on June 1st," reads a post on the brewery's Facebook page. "This date may change as public health guidelines evolve. More updates as they become available."

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When Surly closed indefinitely last November, it put about 150 people out of work.  They have a beer hall that has about 350 seats, and then the extra space on the second floor that is a pizzeria.  All together, they have a capacity for about 1800 people.  Back in September, their sales were down about 82% owner Omar Ansari told the Star Tribune.

This space is built for a lot of people, for socializing and getting together with friends," Omar told the Star Tribune in September. "That's not the way the world is working right now. There's a pandemic going on, and there's just no way for places like ours to make it in a COVID world."

Minnesota has quite a few breweries, and some right here in St. Cloud.  It's part of the fun sitting at the brewery and trying some new beers that you may not have tried before.  Or, enjoying some of your favorites.  It's not the same to have to take it home or not to have people there outside, inside, all enjoying the beer and having a good time.  This last year has been hard on everyone, and it's nice to see some sort of normalcy begin again.  Let's hope the reopening continues.