Lake Anne Brew House Adopts Can-Do Approach To Coronavirus

RESTON, VA — When Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam issued his stay-home order in March, mandating nonessential businesses to stay closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, he also directed restaurants to close their dining-in facilities and switch to carryout or delivery only.

For Reston's Lake Anne Brew House, Northam's order presented a challenge.

"We had to pivot everything that we do," said Melissa Romano, who owns the Brew House with her husband, Jason. "We are not a production packaging brewery at all. As a matter of fact, we've only ever filled growlers on demand. It's not necessarily our preference to do that over the years."

The Brew House exists in an odd space within Virginia ABC laws, which prohibit alcohol-only bars from operating within the state. Since the business is not a restaurant, it can't sell carryout drinks to accompany meals, as some eateries are doing under Northam's coronavirus restrictions.

Since the Brew House's business model is to produce small batches of beer for its walk-in clientele and it had to close its taproom due to Northam's restrictions, it was in a fix.

"We like to serve beer at the bar in a glass and straight out of the tap lines," Romano said. "That's not only how we're set up as a business, that's how our production is set up. Our equipment is built to be a taproom-only brewery."

The Brew House makes its beer, which is transferred into tanks that come out of a tap line. There is no capability to fill large quantities of beer in either bottles or cans.

"We do own a tiny, little, one-can-a-time 16-ounce crowler machine, which we have used in the past on occasion to can beer when we felt like it," she said. "But, it's incredibly labor-intensive, because obviously you're filling one can of beer at a time."

It is this labor-intensive mechanism that the Romanos have chosen to pivot their business model around during the pandemic. Since March 16, they've been using it to produce cans of beer, one at a time.

"For the better part of these last two months, we have canned every ounce of beer that has been produced by the Brew House," Romano said. "We do keep beer on tap to fill growlers; but when the state mandated that nobody could return a growler and have it refilled, we pushed way back on growlers and really focused probably about 90-95 percent on filling cans."

Brew House employees are working every day, around the clock, filling cans of beer one at time. They've set up an online store and making cans available for carryout.

"We have a great, hyperlocal following," Romano said. "We have amazing customers, and they are supporting us very well."

Despite this support, she admitted there was only so much to-go beer people were going to be able to buy. Other small businesses are in the same boat.

"Our labor costs are up 400 percent, and our sales are down 50 percent. You do the math," she said with a laugh. "It's not the best place to be. But it's fine. For now, we're able to keep ourselves in front of our customers."

The Romanos operate a second business out of the Brew House, Nordic Knot pretzels, which is also helping to keep the lights burning through the current crisis.

"We've also pivoted our pretzel sales," Romano said. "We're doing four-packs of pretzels to go. So, four-packs of beer, four-packs of pretzels. I think people are just adapting to the new, hopefully temporary, normal. It kind of is what it is at this point."

Lake Anne Brew House is at 11424 Washington Plaza W in Reston. Its hours are 4-7 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays, and noon-5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays.

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This is one in a series of articles Patch is writing about small businesses in the area. Small business owners can also add their the name of their business to our list of open businesses in Herndon and Reston.