EVERETT — The Fish Tale Brew Pub across from Xfinity Arena in downtown closed last month after failing to make enough money on a consistent basis.
Business at the pub went up and down based on what was happening at the arena, said Randy Wans, controller for the Olympia-based brewery.
“During hockey season, when the team was in town, we would do great,” Wans said. “When the team was out of town or it was off-season, we didn’t.”
Wans also said that it seemed there were more events at the arena when they opened three years ago. The building at 2019 Hewitt Ave., Everett, also lacked parking. And there was uncertainty about how the demolition and replacement of the Broadway bridge would affect business.
“Our lease was up and we made the decision that this wasn’t the location that we thought,” Wans said. “So we decided to close.”
The pub employed only one full- and 13 part-time employees when it shut down on Sept. 20. The company offered a job in Olympia to the full-time worker, but that person declined, Wans said.
The Fish Tale Brew Pub still might look for another location in south Snohomish County or north King County. He said they loved the people in Everett, but it was just a “pure and simple economics.”
He said that they could have stayed open if they had generated just a little larger of a lunch crowd or developed more of a nighttime crowd when the arena was dark.
“As much as we hated it, the board of directors said you can’t keep losing money every month,” Wans said.
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