Beer News
It's taps for Bottle Shop beer bar on Dallas' Greenville Avenue
After nearly six years, a beer bar on Greenville Avenue, the Bottle Shop, will be closing at the end of January. Co-owner Stephanie Roethlisberger says that part of the reason for closing is that the store is not as busy, and as Greenville Avenue has evolved, with more restaurants and businesses opening, the shop no longer fits.
"We're happy about the growth of Greenville Avenue," she says. "But when we opened, there wasn’t anybody around us. And there was not as much competition."
Parking was also a factor. The Bottle Shop functioned as a growler station and bar, and was among the first businesses to embody that model. Parking is an important component for that kind of business, and that's a perk that has become less available as Greenville Avenue has blossomed.
But the shop's passage also seems to be a result of the changing craft beer scene. When it opened in 2011, it was at the advent of Dallas' craft beer revolution, when it was still somewhat difficult to find interesting beer on tap. These days, most restaurants and bars include craft beer as part of their opening package.
Roethlisberger, who now works for competitor the Craft Beer Cellar in Lakewood, says that the store will hold a big closing event blowout with special tappings of what she describes as the very best and most rare beer in Dallas, letting go of all the beers the store has been collecting over the last five years.
"A lot of beers, we'd bring in a case to sell and a case to hold back," she says. "The idea was that we would bring in specialty and rare beers and stock it, so we have one of the largest cellars in Dallas."
One might think that selling such rare beers might have helped keep the shop in business, but that's not how things go in the craft beer world.
Whatever the case, it means that there's likely going to be some crazy beer action during the store's "throwback weekend" event, which takes place January 20-22, when it'll either tap or sell everything it has have. If you've ever been around beer people agitating to acquire a rare bottle that no one else has, you know they're super fun. One commenter says it aptly: "Seems to be a high potential for chaos."