Santiam Brewing co-owner Jim Smiley, left, delivers a food and drink order to the home of Dan Valles on Friday, April 10. (Amanda Loman/Salem Reporter)
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The antique photo showed three dapper gents pouring a cask of beer down the drain while stern police officers stand guard. The caption read, in part: “It wouldn’t be the start of the 20s without the government shutting down bars again, would it?”
The March 16 Facebook post from Santiam Brewing Company of Salem was funny. But the source of the humor is grim.
Jim Smiley and Ian Croxall, co-owners of Santiam Brewing, describe the week in March when COVID-19 came to Oregon and the state ordered restaurants to cut service as one of the worst they’ve endured since they opened in 2012.
They closed their bar at 2544 19th St. S.E. and furloughed 10 of their 17 employees on the evening of March 16.
“It was very sad that we had to lay off our staff. It’s probably one of the hardest things that Jim and I have ever had to do since we’ve been in business,” Croxall said. They were heartbroken. But they were also prepared, as they had been planning for the worst for weeks.
“We saw what was happening in the rest of the world, and we knew it was coming. And we knew when it came, it was going to come fast,” Croxall said.
The team knows how to change on the fly. It’s happened before.
Smiley and Croxall were part of a team of nine that opened Santiam Brewing. All nine are still part of the partnership, but Smiley and Croxall are managing partners and the only ones that work in the brewery.
Smiley and Croxall met about 18 years ago while working at the same insurance company. Croxall investigated insurance fraud cases, and Smiley was the adjuster. They were both home brew enthusiasts too.
For the last 15 years, until COVID-19 came, Smiley, Croxall, and others met once a week for what they called “choir practice,” in which they’d connect, drink craft beer and talk. In those meetings, Santiam Brewing was born.
When the brewery opened in 2012, the team envisioned a wholesale model. They’d make beer and deliver it to local restaurants and brewpubs.
At the last minute, they decided to add a tasting room to their production facility on 19th Street, in the center of an industrial park. They put in three seats and five taps. They thought a few people might stop by, fill up a growler, and take it home.
“We only had space for about five people,” Croxall said. “Fifty showed up.”
That led to a series of expansions. The first happened in 2014, when the team added more seats for beer enthusiasts. But it wasn’t enough, and people kept coming.
In 2016, the team expanded yet again. They pulled down a wall separating them from a vacant space next door, and they added 500 square feet to the taproom. A connection with a nearby catering company provided customers with food. But they wanted even more, and a food menu debuted in 2018.
Over time, the Santiam team saw its business change in ways they never anticipated.
“We’ve gotten pretty good over the years of not shoving away an idea because it’s outside of what we’re already doing. It’s what we had to do from the beginning,” Smiley said.
But Smiley said three factors persist in Santiam Brewing’s business model: food, beer, and community.
“We’ve really had to rethink each of those aspects and how they fit into our new reality,” Smiley said.
Beer came first.
Santiam Brewing is a 10-barrel brewery and cidery. They’re best known for their dark Pirate Stout. But they also produce ambers, porters, IPAs, and special releases.
Before the restaurant ban, kegged beer represented 95 percent of sales. Of that, 40 percent was sold in pints at the pub, and 60 percent was sold to other bars and restaurants. After the ban, many of those opportunities disappeared.
Santiam Brewing started canning more beer. Now, 3/4 of total beer volume sold is in cans.
“Cans make this a lot more of a sanitary, contact-free experience with a customer while you’re dealing with either curbside-to-go or delivery,” Smiley said.
Food came next. Santiam Brewing launched a curbside pickup program on March 15, anticipating a COVID-19 shutdown. But the team thought delivery options would help them reach more people.
“Before this all went down, we had two vans that have our name on them, and we’ve been using them to deliver kegs to restaurants. But when this happened, all the restaurants were closed that we normally service,” Smiley said. “So it was kind of easy for us to transition that way. We have the vans all ready, we have staff that can drive them, so this seemed like a pretty natural pivot point.”
Last Saturday, the Santiam Brewing team delivered 40 food orders. That business continues to grow, and demand is so high that three furloughed staffers returned to work last week.
Community is the last aspect, and the team acknowledged difficulties.
“That’s probably the hardest thing to overcome in all this. We’ve got the beer, and we’ve got ready options to get it out to people. We’ve got the food, and we have ready options for getting it out to people. Mostly those were just tweaks to things we already do,” Smiley said. “But how do you engage with the community at a time when they really need it? That is probably the biggest challenge for us in terms of ways to pivot. You have to be really imaginative.”
Online trivia nights help. Santiam Brewing uses a custom app to run each trivia night. People sign up in teams, and all teams participate in one virtual chat room when questions are announced. Then, they pop into breakout sessions to answer the questions. Everyone comes back together to share answers.
“Normally, you’d be used to meeting your mates down at the pub, and you’d be huddled around a table. You can still do that, but it will be virtual,” Croxall said.
The inaugural event April 1 had a few technical issues, but everyone had a good time. At 2 p.m. on Wednesday, a few hours before the second session would begin, 23 teams had signed up to participate.
All told, the Santiam team pushed through three major innovations in less than a month. And they’re not done yet.
They’re in talks about a hand sanitizer product. They might start delivering kits so consumers can transform refrigerators into kegs for at-home beer drinking. They might experiment with online concerts or fundraising events. They might sell family-style meals to cook at home.
“We’re thinking about all of these ideas. At this point, it’s mainly a bandwidth issue, because we’re still trying to run a business too,” Smiley said.
They look for ideas that will resonate with their community. And they know some of the changes they implement now will help them survive what might be a long recovery process.
“Even if the restaurant ban is lifted three months from now, I’m not entirely sure that people are going to rush out to bars,” Croxall said. “A lot of people are likely to think, ‘Maybe I’ll just sit back for a few weeks and see what happens. Are people going to get sick again? Is this truly over?'”
The team also acknowledges that this is a tough time for many Salem families. People are out of work, and even when the ban is gone, they may not have money to spend on a fun night out.
“That’s something we’ve tried to be very sensitive about,” Smiley said.
They know the business is under pressure. But they intend to keep searching for solutions.
“We feel challenged, and we’re trying to rise to that challenge,” Croxall said. “It’s tough, and it’s tough for a lot of people. Some businesses closed up shop. Don’t have a van, can’t do this, can’t do that. But we’re not like that. It’s not part of our makeup. We’re challenged by this, and we’re working on it.”
Smiley said, “I don’t think we’d have a brewery now if we didn’t think like that.”
Santiam Brewing accepts online orders through the company website and Facebook page. The team delivers throughout Salem, or customers can pick up curbside at 2544 19th St. in southeast Salem. Trivia nights happen every Wednesday, and there’s no fee to join the fun. Sign up on the Santiam Brewing Facebook page.
Jim Smiley, co-owner of Santiam Brewing, flips through upcoming delivery orders on Friday, April 10. The brewery currently has two vans delivering food and drink orders directly to customers homes. (Amanda Loman/Salem Reporter)
Cat Frum, Santiam Brewing bartender, puts together an order for delivery on Friday, April 10. Frum has had to expand her job duties to include assembling and coordinating the delivery of orders direct to customers’ homes in recent weeks. (Amanda Loman/Salem Reporter)
Santiam Brewing delivers a food and drink order directly to the home of Dan Valles on Friday, April 10. Santiam Brewing currently has two vans delivering orders to customers around Salem. (Amanda Loman/Salem Reporter)
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