After 37 years, Carver Brewing Co., which started life as a bakery, has dropped breakfast.
“It’s hard to say it’s permanent. Everything is evolving so fast these days, but breakfast was really slow,” said co-owner Jim Carver.
Since the restaurant reopened June 10, after the forced closure for COVID-19 restrictions, the breakfast crowd has been thin, hurt by the lack of commerce around town.
“We were a gathering place in the morning for people getting the day started, business meetings. That type of thing. Realtors would meet here to get the day started. The City Council used to meet here in the mornings. All that’s gone now. There are no business meetings,” he said.
Carver Brewing served its first breakfast on June 4, 1983, when it was still located in Winter Park. Jim and Bill Carver moved the brewpub to Durango in 1986.
“By my count, we served breakfast for 13,500 days.
On Saturday, Carver said breakfast amounted to only 12% of sales.
For now, there are no plans to bring back breakfast, Carver said. However, he added with the situation changing so fast in the COVID-19 economy, it is “hard to say anything is permanent.”
“We use to think six months ahead. When we closed we were thinking three days ahead. Now, we’re looking a few weeks ahead,” he said.
It’s possible in a few months, as more people are out and about, a brunch could be added, Carver said.
Currently, Carver Brewing is seeing about 70% of normal sales and is at about 70% of normal staffing, Carver said.
parmijo@durangoherald.com