Whittier’s first craft brewery hasn’t even opened, but with the proposal for a second one by a Maywood food service company, there’s now talk that others could flock to Uptown Whittier, attracting more visitors to the area.
Ricardo Diaz, a local chef who heads Colonia Group Inc., the operator of three Mexican restaurants in Whittier, hopes to soon open his Poet Gardens, combining a brewery and several restaurants on the first floor of the 96-year-old, six-story Nixon Plaza.
And now La Bodega Brewing Co., owned by Tapia Brothers Co., wants to open a second craft brewery in town along with a restaurant in a 1949 art deco 4,953-square-foot building once an optometrist’s office at 6711 Comstock Ave. According to its website, it would be the company’s first foray into the business.
While the proposal still must be approved by the Planning Commission, city officials, business leaders and even Diaz said they love the idea of more breweries coming to Whittier.
“I think it’s a great idea,” Frank Medina, president of the Whittier Uptown Association, said.
“It’s a great direction to make our Uptown more eclectic by bringing in a mixture of breweries,” Medina said. “We can attract people from Orange County, Los Angeles County and Riverside County.”
The area also has a number of buildings with big barn doors that could work for breweries, he said.
“By having breweries in Uptown, we’ll have a more livelier vibe if we can get more people from the outside,” Medina said.
Company officials declined to be interviewed for this story, according to Erik Tapia, vice president of sales for Tapia Brothers, because the plan is still under development.
Plans on file with the city indicate Tapia Brothers has hired chief Roland Rubalcava, who in 2018 was hired at Costa Mesa-based Playa Mexicoin as its executive chef. Rubalcava also served as a sous chef at Taco Maria of Costa Mesa.
The restaurant will combine “American culinary taste and infuse with Mexican-influenced flavors,” according to the plans.
Tapia Brothers was founded in 1985, when three brothers filled their pickup truck with merchandise from the Los Angeles Produce Market, selling the produce door-to-door, according to the company’s website. It has since grown to serving more than 4,500 customers in eight Western states through four distribution centers, totaling more than 400,000 square feet.
The website doesn’t list a brewery but INC Fact, an online business discovery engine, said Tapia Brothers has annual revenues of between $100 million to $500 million, employs between 100 to 500 people and has trademarked La Bodega Brewing Co. on May 19, 2017.
Tapia Brothers’ plans filed with the city say it expects to produce 1,489 barrels of beer and wine in the first year and 2,129 in the second. Company officials project $1.6 million of sales in the first year and $2.4 million in the second.
The number of craft breweries is growing in California from more than 200 in 2011 to nearly 900 in 2018, according to information supplied by the Brewers Association, a trade group that serves small and independent American brewers.
On a larger scale, 11% of the industry’s total revenue comes from craft breweries in California. That equates to more than $7.3 billion a year.
Bringing more breweries to Uptown would fit in with its existing food-driven model, said Conal McNamara, director of community development for the city.
“Uptown is largely being fueled by food and foody-type uses,” McNamara said. “We think they’re a great fit.”
Councilman Josue Alvarado, whose district includes both breweries, said he’s excited about the prospects of two new breweries.
“I would be more than thrilled to see Whittier have more of a selection,” Alvarado said. “If it’s breweries, I’m all for it. Nowadays, these breweries are well managed.”
Diaz, who hopes to open Poet Gardens 13002 Philadelphia St. in late summer or early fall this year, said he’s not worried about the competition because the more breweries — just like more restaurants — the better for all.
“It’s like a rising tide raises all boats,” he said.