A Love Letter to Breweries, Cafe’s, and Pubs That Are No More

As of the time of publication, Motorworks Brewing has negotiated a new arrangement with their creditors and they are remaining open. We wish them luck and we hope they get through this challenging time!

Last month, Motorworks Brewing and 3 Keys Brewing in Bradenton both announced they are closing. Two great spots, with incredible people, beer and service, that expanded Celtic music’s footprint in this region, announcing their closure in the same week.

We’ve been sitting with that reality for a few weeks. What keeps coming back to us isn’t the stages or the gigs themselves. We’re talking about the people who drove across town, or across the county, on a Saturday night because there was Irish music playing somewhere. The absolute crazies who stayed for three whole sets and then came back the next month with three more people in tow. Celtic music has a way of finding its crowd; the crowd has a way of finding each other. That’s the whole story, really. Everything else is just logistics.

Thank You to Motorworks and 3 Keys

Over the past decade, a good number of craft breweries in Southwest and Central Florida looked at Celtic music and decided it belonged in their room. That’s a choice they made – wise: maybe, misguided: possibly.

Motorworks was a prodigious biergarten with a great staff and a crowd that came in curious and left with Clover’s Revenge merchandise. Both Motorworks and The 3 Keys Brewing gave us some of our favorite nights — multi-band bills where we shared the stage with our friends: bands like Blue Skye, Black Velvet Band, The Muckers, Celtic Conundrum, Reel Treble, the Steel City Rovers, Seven Nations, the Prodigal Sons, and West of Galway. We shared those same stages with Whiskey Dregs and MacTier, two great, creative acts that are no longer playing, but who brought some amazing energy to this scene while they were here.

Other Places That Are Gone Now

Café in the Park was one of the finest live music venues in the Sarasota area for five or six years, with a community feel built around the music itself. In fact, we played their very first live show!

Pub 32 in Sarasota closed a few years ago, and we still feel it. The best job we’ve seen done in this region combining a real Irish pub atmosphere with serious live music. When Pub 32 was open, it was our home base, and it set a standard we still measure other rooms against.

The Naughty Monk Brewery had some classic Kilt Nights where we played with The Byrne Brothers and other local bands. The beer there was delicious and Lakewood Ranch needed it. Let’s hope Big Top sticks around.

From The Ashes

The Shebeen is reopening. After closing on Siesta Key, it’s opening in Gulf Gate, which happens to be where we played our first St. Patrick’s Day gig in 2015. The name has meaning – in Irish, a shebeen is an unlicensed, illegally operated bar or drinking establishment. The Shebeen is entirely legal, and yet that rowdy context is not lost on us. We cannot wait to see what our friend Eileen is building there.

Delany’s is coming to Lakewood Ranch, one of the fastest-growing communities in the state and a market that has been waiting for a venue with genuine character. Opening night, we’ll have the car loaded.

The Thing That Doesn’t Change

Venues open and close. Breweries come and go. But the people who want this music, who learn the words to songs their great-grandparents knew and shout them back at you from their tables, those people don’t go anywhere. They find the next spot and fill it with the same energy.

We’ve been doing this for eleven years because of the joy it brings to us and to the fans. The fans, you – dear reader,  are the reason. We can’t wait see you at the next one.

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