by Kirby Laney, posted 25 June 2018
Since 1995, Hale’s Ales has had a restaurant at the brewery, serving up delicious food alongside their amazing ales, all inside the family-friendly pub. Mike Hale, Hale’s Ales Founder, prides himself on their offering of, “a local, neighborhood place that has good beer, good food and good atmosphere.”
At the beginning of 2018, the food changed at Hale’s, but it all remains in-step with their mission. Mike Hale hopes people will keep coming in, and maybe come back more often, to enjoy what the pub has to offer – a wide selection of craft ales, served up in a comfortable setting with food – magnificent Mexican food – prepared by El Camion.
On June 21st, Hale’s Brewery launch its latest new brew – Luchador Lager – deliberately intended as a tasty treat that will pair nicely with the new pub menu, as served by the folks from El Camion.
A Complimentary Change
“We weren’t making it as a restaurant,” Mike Hale acknowledged, “we couldn’t cover the labor.” The Hale’s restaurant closed in December of 2017, just after Christmas. The wails that rose over the loss of the menu of Northwest cuisine cannot cover the fact that the restaurant had been losing money. Hale went as far as to criticize the critics who’ve bemoaned the closure and yet they also told him that they weren’t eating in the restaurant.
“They say you need to do what it takes to survive,” Hale explained. He and the other owners of Hale’s Ales have taken those steps, by partnering with El Camion, and they’ve developed a plan to keep Hale’s Brewery running, and brewing great ales, into the future.
“It’s a great success,” Hale said of the partnership. El Camion became known first for its food trucks, serving up quality Mexican dishes. However, El Camion also has a restaurant – with a licensed, regularly inspected kitchen – in Ballard. With the Ballard site being permitted for development, the El Camion owner sought an established kitchen where they could continue to cook.
Hale’s Ales remain in the Pub, too. “We are serving beer and wine,” Hale explained, “they are doing the kitchen.” The Pub bartenders serve the alcohol, sharing information and advice about Hale’s Ales, while customers can order their food at the kitchen counter, made fresh by El Camion staff.
“The are renting the kitchen,” Hale acknowledged, on a five-year lease. Originally, El Camion was approached about parking a truck out front, but when they asked to come inside and take over the kitchen, a great collaboration was born.
In addition to serving Pub patrons, El Camion also does catering for Hale’s events, in the venues they’ve created around the brewery: the Double Decker Room (upstairs from the Pub,) and the Palladium (in the old keg warehouse.)
According to Hale, when he opened the Brewery in Fremont, they originally just had a tasting room, selling pretzels and chili with the beer. In many ways, this is simply a return to doing what they do best – serving crafted, quality beer made on-site – with the folks from El Camion doing what they do best, too.
The Main Thing
One of Hale’s best-known phrases is, “the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing,” and at Hale’s Ales that is the beer. When Mike Hale started selling his ales, in 1983, in Colville, Washington, locally-made, craft beer was only just beginning.
Today, “at area bars,” Hale observed, “you are lucky if they carry one or two seasonal beers on tap.” In Hale’s Ales’ Pub, they have ten or fifteen, depending on the time of year, and what the brewers have been up to. The addition of the Mexican-style Luchador Lager to the line-up of English-style ales shows some of the range Hale’s Pub has available for sampling.
“When I started, I was the fifteenth new brewery to open since Prohibition ended [in 1933,]” Hale explained. Now there are about 5000 breweries. The beer market is, “a little bit about good beers,” Hale said, but it is also about promotion. “A lot of people are into their beers,” he observed, but for some, it is about the trend rather than the taste. “Just because a beer is popular, it doesn’t mean it is the best,” he advised.
A competitive market out there for beer has made reaching consumers more difficult, and made doing business harder. “There are a lot of beers out there,” Hale stated, “and so many of them good. At the bars, [consumers] have so many to choose from.”
At Hale’s Pub, the Leary Way Limited series is very popular, but getting it on the shelf at stores has been difficult. The Saison Sour, a kettle sour, blends three different beers, and is, according to Hale, “Super fancy!” The El Dazzle only has a limited supply left before it is gone. For himself, Hale is a big fan of Super Goose, but he also admitted that he likes more traditional brews like the IPA. As for the other Hale’s Ales, “I have talented brewers,” he said, that come up with the wide variety of Hale’s labels, “but don’t tell them I said that.”
The Other Things
“The current politics of the city is not friendly to business,” Hale acknowledged, “they seem to feel Business has all the money. They know nothing about business.” It’s made it difficult to do business here, and even more difficult to maintain and staff a restaurant… that might not be the main thing.
Hale described he and the other owners of Hale’s Ales as ‘reluctant restaurateurs.’ In true Hale’s Ales style, they’d created a quality restaurant, serving good food, but it wasn’t enough. “You make a good product,” Hale said, “you think people will beat a path to your door,” but it was no longer that easy. In an anti-business climate, it became even more difficult.
After 35 years, Hale acknowledged that he doesn’t spend much of his own time brewing or serving beer. “I do what is necessary,” he said, of running Hale’s Ales. He’s not sure what he expected to be doing after so many years in the business. “At first, I did it all,” he recalled, and, “little by little I handed off the jobs.” Now, he picks up whatever chores don’t get tended to by his talented staff. “I kind of do what nobody else is doing,” he said.
“A fun project is still a fun project,” Hale stated, and seeing to the crafting of a quality product is still fun. “A lot of people enjoy what we are doing,” he explained, and, “every once in a while, people will say, ‘I really love your beer,’ and that makes it all worthwhile.”
Hale hopes everyone will come by, to visit the Pub, and to sample the food while enjoying the Ales. “Come in for the same reason as always – it’s a nice place!”, he said, “Why not come here? It’s a beautiful place!”
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