INDIANAPOLIS — A brewery and restaurant in the heart of the Irvington neighborhood is closing its doors after only a year of business.
Scarlet Lane Brewing Company announced on social media that it will close after this weekend.
This excerpt from the post explains the closure: "The current market forces working against the industry every day are taking a toll on us financially and mentally and it is simply not sustainable, for us at least, for our health and business."
The location opened in the space that formerly housed Black Acre Brewing, which closed last year after more than a decade of business.
Scarlet Lane also closed brewpubs in the Kennedy-King and SoBro neighborhoods of Indianapolis earlier this winter. Its Beech Grove and McCordsville locations will remain open.
Kim Doyle manages The Med, a Mediterranean restaurant in the same building as Scarlet Lane's Irvington location. She said Scarlet Lane's closure should remind customers how difficult the restaurant industry has become.
"It's tough for everyone right now," Doyle said. "I try to venture out and do my part and eat at local restaurants."
Calleigh Smith of the Indiana Licensed Beverage Association echoed those sentiments.
"There's increasing costs," Smith said. "We have seen food prices increase more than 30 percent since 2020 and COVID, and some restaurants have never recovered. It's a hard industry to be a part of. I think we've all seen that. I'm not using COVID as an excuse, but I think that exacerbated a lot of it."
Scarlet Lane mentioned on its social media post that it is working with their landlord to find a successor to its Irvington space.
