Photo: Brian Sorensen
A local brewery and restaurant that opened in 2013 has permanently closed.
Apple Blossom Brewery co-owner Evan McDonald announced the closure in a video posted to the brewery’s Facebook page on Tuesday.
“We tried to do what we could with the reality that we are living in, but we couldn’t make work,” he said.
McDonald encouraged viewers of the video to continue to support other local businesses during this time, and warned that other closures like this could be coming.
“I want to encourage y’all to buy local when you can,” he said. “Please continue to spend your money on local businesses, because this is not going to be the last one of these messages that y’all hear.”
Apple Blossom was the brainchild of Smoke & Barrel Tavern founders Evan McDonald, Sammie Stephenson, Joe Utsch and Al Schaffer, along with brewery partners Ching Mong and Daniel Smith. The partners opened the brewery and restaurant in January 2013 at 1550 E. Zion Road in north Fayetteville.
Fayetteville Flyer beer columnist Brian Sorensen, who also authored Arkansas Beer: An Intoxicating History, reflected on the legacy of Apple Blossom on Twitter.
“When it opened in July 2013 it was one of only a few in Northwest Arkansas. The others being Hog Haus (2004), West Mountain (2011), Tanglewood Branch (2012), Saddlebock (2012), and Fossil Cove (2012),” Sorenson wrote. “Apple Blossom located right on the NWA Greenway and helped make Arkansas Beer synonymous with healthy living. Even if a hambone found its way into the Ozark Smokehouse Porter!”
