USA, NE: Upstream Brewing Company closing its doors, owner plans to move and expand operations

The west Omaha Upstream Brewing Company is closing its doors this summer, the Omaha World-Herald reported on March 30.

Owner Brian Magee said the location, which opened in 2002 on the corner of 171st Street and West Center Road, had been underperforming. It will likely be closed by the end of June, or shortly thereafter.

“When we built that restaurant,” he said, “there were hardly any other restaurants out there. It was amazing how many happened after that.”

At the time, Magee said he picked that location because the demographics of the area fit the typical Upstream customer. He also thought its west location would mean that it would attract a new customer base instead of cannibalizing patrons from the Old Market Upstream, which opened in 1996.

He reiterated some of that during an interview on March 30, saying that the west Omaha location’s revenue never met projections.

Magee said he has a prospective tenant to take over the location; though he said he could not say who it is, he did indicate that it is not another restaurant.

He said there are no plans for the Old Market location to close, and that financially, it’s doing well.

The restaurant plans to move all of its beer brewing downtown, Magee said, and he eventually plans to expand the Old Market brewing operation, making room for barrel-aged beers and adding more fermentation tanks. Plans also call for kitchen and restroom improvements downtown.

Magee said the decreased brewing capacity from the closing of the west location creates the possibility that downtown customers may see some guest brewers — local and national — on tap.

Employees from the west location are being offered positions in the Old Market, and Magee said some chefs and their special-event catering staff will move downtown. Head brewer Dallas Archer, who has been with Upstream for nine years, plans to stay with the company, too.

30 March, 2017