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A decade ago, Kelly Pickard and Jamie Burket moved to Jacksonville and opened a craft beer bottle shop and tasting room in Five Points.
They opened Alewife in October 2014, months after Riverside Liquors and Village Wine Shop—a Five Points institution for nearly half a century—left the historic shopping strip and moved a mile away to their current home on King Street.
The couple had a passion for craft beer and a vision to share this passion with other craft beer lovers and to introduce it to other people who wanted to have their first experience with American craft beer – literally – through tastings and “beer school” courses in the small shop.
However, after 10 years, they are preparing to retire from Alewife.
In a Facebook post on Monday, Pickard and Burket announced they would close this fall. They wrote, “Our 10-year lease is about to expire and we have made the difficult decision not to sign a new lease after that deadline. This decision has agonized over the past few months and it truly pains us to make it.”
They wrote that the craft beer business has changed dramatically over the past decade and that this has also happened at Five Points.
“We have evolved as much as we could over time while staying true to ourselves – expanding our menus and shifting the focus of our events,” the post continues.
The pandemic had also created a financial “hole” that proved to be a key factor in their difficult decision to close: “And while we worked really hard to get out of it, the ongoing changes in consumer behavior post-pandemic have made it even more difficult to get out of that hole,” they wrote.
“We have the opportunity to leave on our terms, with time to say goodbye and celebrate everything Alewife has been to us,” they wrote. “So we’re taking it.”
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Let’s look at five points: Following the closure of Sun-Ray, the following is planned for the Five Points Theater
The announcement comes less than a week after Mixed Fillings Pie Shop – just four stores away – closed its doors and just over a month after Sun-Ray Cinema closed because its lease was not renewed.
“There is also no doubt that 5 Points is a neighborhood in the midst of change,” Alewife’s owners wrote in the social media post. “And that’s OK. Neighborhoods evolve and change. We love 5 Points – this decision doesn’t change that. But ultimately, we know we don’t have the energy or resources needed to make this place successful enough to support the current market price.”
Through the end of October, Alewife plans to continue its lineup of eclectic events, from adult coloring night (Sept. 4) to an alcohol-themed trivia night (Sept. 3) to this week’s Pumpkin Beer Party (August 22), featuring several varieties of pumpkin beer, pumpkin spice cider and more.
No firm closing date has been set yet, they wrote in the post.
“It will be a bittersweet ride to the end and we sincerely thank you for joining us on this journey.”
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