Russian River Announces Reopening Plans

Sonoma County Gives Green Light to Reopen Restaurants and Brewpubs!

Late last night, the Sonoma County Public Health Director, Dr. Sundari Mase, revised her order allowing restaurants to reopen for in-house dining effective June 6th!  The team and I are busy spending this weekend installing plexiglass barriers, rearranging/removing furniture at both pubs, and rehiring, on-boarding and training about 50 employees in preparation for opening Monday June 8^th! With 6 feet distance between tables and no bar seating or standing room allowed, capacity has been greatly reduced at both locations, particularly Downtown. Therefore, we continue to strongly encourage ordering food and beer to go, especially if you are not yet comfortable dining out in public. In addition, we are taking advantage of the Dept. of Alcohol Beverage Control’s temporary allowance for breweries and restaurants to expand their outdoor dining areas. Masks are still required prior to entering any facility but may, of course, be removed once seated.

The Beer Garden in Windsor will remain CLOSED temporarily until we are given the green light to allow beer service without the meal requirement. This requirement may be lifted as soon as next week if the number of new cases and hospitalizations remains flat. Once we do reopen the Beer Garden, we will be required to follow all state and local safety protocols for preventing the spread of the novel coronavirus and COVID-19. This includes: social distancing of 6 feet from others who are not in the same party, limiting group sizes, wearing masks when 6 feet distance is not possible, and no shared games. Our outdoor patio furniture will already be set up with 6 feet or more space and not movable. Dogs and children are always welcome, but must remain with their owners and parents at all times!

We can’t wait to welcome guests back for in-house dining again starting this Monday! It is important for you to know that the health and safety of our employees and customers is still our #1 top priority. We have implemented all mandatory and recommended safety protocols, trained our staff on proper cleaning and sanitation practices, and are requiring health screenings for all employees, including me and Vinnie, at the beginning of each working shift. If you visit our pubs, you will see that we are obsessed with washing our hands, wiping down surfaces very frequently, and using hand sanitizer like crazy.

New temporary hours (subject to change):

• Santa Rosa Brewpub: OPEN starting June 8th for in-house dining: M-Th 11AM-9PM, F/S/S 11AM-10PM
• Windsor Brewpub: OPEN starting June 8th for in-house dining: M-Th 3PM-8PM, F/S/S 11AM-9PM

Thank you to everyone who has ordered beer online these past few months! This is something we thought we would never do, but it has turned out to be a great addition. So, yes, we do plan to continue offering beer online once a week for shipping within the state of California at least for now. Additional states where direct to consumer beer sales are legal (there are only about 8!) may be added later in the year once we get through the hot summer months and partner with a third-party compliance company.

There will be more important updates coming soon, but I will leave it here for now! Vinnie, our team and I hope that you and your families are staying healthy, safe and sane out there. We look forward to seeing more of you hopefully very soon!