Customers get ready to order Wednesday afternoon inside Side By Each Brewing Co. on Minot Avenue in Auburn. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

AUBURN — Just shy of six years in business, Side By Each Brewing Co. of Auburn announced this week that it will be closing at the end of the month.

“With a mixture of sadness and gratitude, we have to announce that Side By Each’s last day open to the public will be December 31st,” a post on the company’s Facebook page begins. It’s a post that racked up more than 300 comments in 15 hours as of Wednesday morning.

Ben Low and Matt Johannes opened Side By Each at 1110 Minot Ave. in 2019, in a old tractor dealership. Both formerly worked at Baxter Brewing Co., Low as the director of brewing operations. Johannes left the company about three years ago.

“We’ve got a really great loyal customer base of regulars,” Low said Wednesday morning. “We just don’t have enough people coming through the door every day.”

For a business that traditionally has high overhead costs, it was simply not sustainable, Low added. “We’ve been hamstrung by a lack of cash almost from the beginning. We opened exactly one year before COVID.”

General Manager Casey Peacock, left, and owner Ben Low stand Wednesday afternoon inside Side By Each Brewing Co. on Minot Avenue in Auburn. The brewing company announced its closure this week after nearly 6 years in business. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

The timing of the COVID-19 pandemic pushed a fledgling Side By Each away from profitability. Low said they were able to get the first round of Paycheck Protection Program funding from the federal government, but that’s it. “After that we didn’t qualify for anything because we couldn’t show that we had had a loss of business.”

That meant no Restaurant Revitalization Fund money or any of the other COVID-19 relief programs that helped many small businesses stay in business.

Then came staffing issues.

“Yes, staffing became much more difficult as many experienced people left,” Low explained. The hospitality industry also experienced a wage correction during and after the pandemic, which meant higher labor costs for less business.

Low said consumer habits changed as well and remain a challenge.

“People are going out less, ordering to eat at home a lot more,” he added. “For a business model that was built from Day One on getting people in the door and in the bar hanging out — that’s made things, you know, very difficult.”

The owner and brewer says they didn’t have any packaging for their beers, coffee and teas as the pandemic hit. It was all on-premises consumption. He says they didn’t pivot fast enough.

A look at the brewing side of things at Side By Each Brewing Co. on Minot Avenue in Auburn. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

Side By Each has made headway within the community, attracting customers with its fair wage policy, events and live music, jazz brunch on the weekend and more. All employees are paid full wages and benefits so they don’t depend on tips. The company has a no-tipping policy, and Side By Each is one of the few restaurants and bars in the state to have one.

“This is the toughest part of this whole thing. I’m having to essentially lay off 28 people, which is a crushing weight of responsibility,” Low said.

If there is any silver lining, any employee who isn’t able to find work will at least qualify for more unemployment as all their earnings are on the books, not just the subminimum wages most restaurants and bars pay.

Just a few weeks ago, General Manager Casey Peacock was named best in hospitality in Uplift LA’s Finest Under 40 awards, while head coffee roaster Travis Spear was just recognized by Coffee Review for his Burundi Kayanza Cima Yeast Natural coffee, charting No. 22 out of the best 30 coffees of 2024.

Head roaster and director of coffee Travis Spear pulls out beans Feb. 7 to check the smell and look as they churn inside the roaster at Side By Each Brewing Co. in Auburn. Spear was just recognized nationally for roasting one of the top 30 coffees in 2024. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal file

Low is looking for a potential buyer of the business and says he has some prospects. As for what he will do?

“I truly don’t know,” he remarked, adding “anything with a paycheck would be lovely.”

Side By Each owners plan to continue with regular hours and all scheduled events for this month right up until closing. Updates, changes and additions will be posted online and on the company’s Facebook page.