Post

Annnnnnd then there’s this.

Tactics vary within the Twin Cities, and will certainly vary beyond it. But longtime craft-beverage industry organizer @derzquist.net summed up the consensus view of everyone I spoke with from MSP's scene this week: “Start thinking about what your plan is right now."

vinepair.comThe Culture War Has Come to Craft Brewing. Time to Pick a Side.The threats started pouring into Switchyard Brewing Company last Friday in earnest. People whipped into a frenzy by local and national right-wing agitators on social media bombarded the Bloomington, I...

As I noted, this is virtually identical to the advice I relayed from folks whose breweries were threatened or outright attacked for holding drag shows just a few years ago. It's the same illness, with the same prescription: prepare now, not when the thugs are at the barroom door.

Craft breweries and bars are small businesses, and this is traditionally a shitty month for them even without masked thugs rampaging through the Twin Cities. @wesburdine.bsky.social of @blackhartstp.com was candid about the struggle of trying to keep a business afloat while living its values:

Like all the people I spoke with for this column, the anxiety of lost sales (a virtual reality across the board, as workers and customers alike limit non-essential movement throughout town to avoid ICE et al) has not stopped Burdine and Black Hart from stepping up for their community:

Black Hart of Saint Paul@blackhartstp.com

You walk into this bar and show your ICE mugshot, you don't pay a dime.

The Gringhost 👻

@elgringofeo.bsky.social