Dancing Kilt first opened in Chester in 2020. (Mike Platania photo)
Another local brewery is going out of business.
Dancing Kilt Brewery at 12912 Old Stage Road in Chester will cease operations this weekend.
The brainchild of longtime homebrewer Thomas Pakurar Jr., Dancing Kilt debuted amid the pandemic in 2020 and added a wine spinoff a year later. It’s located in a strip center near the Old Hundred Road-Interstate 95 interchange, and Pakurar said in its four years in business, Dancing Kilt drew a strong crowd of regulars.
“We were building community. We didn’t have TVs so people came in and started talking to one another,” Pakurar said. “My staff was supposed to call everybody by name so that when they came in, it made them comfortable. People got to know each other.”
Thomas Pakurar Jr.
Pakurar said 2024 started strong for Dancing Kilt, with its best-ever first quarter of sales. In the second quarter, things were going well enough for him to expand operations to include a kitchen to serve a menu that included German staples like schnitzel and Bavarian pretzels.
But things have since taken a turn and Pakurar said he thinks broader economic headwinds led to a change in consumer habits.
“Customers don’t have money to spend because inflation’s eaten into their pockets and they have to pick and choose where they go,” Pakurar said. “Going out and having fun takes second place.”
He also noted increased expenses on Dancing Kilt’s operations, like a 50 percent rent increase and 300 percent price increase on raw materials.
While Dancing Kilt kept a few IPAs on its taps, the brewery focused on more European-style brews like its Banshee Irish Red Ale and Headless Horseman Oktoberfest. Its most popular beer, Pakurar said, is its Cauldron Chocolate Peanut Butter Stout.
“It was a novelty. Right when I took it off tap to put something else in its place, the customers dragged me in the parking lot and flogged me until I promised to put it back on tap permanently,” he said, laughing. “I’d love the opportunity to sell the recipe to a bigger brewery that could take it nationally.”
Dancing Kilt’s last day will be Oct. 19. Pakurar said they’re holding an Irish Wake-style send-off party for the brewery through the weekend with $5 pours as they try to sell the remaining kegs in its fridge.
“We were having fun, but then people quit coming out,” Pakurar said of Dancing Kilt’s run.
Dancing Kilt will be the fourth Richmond-area brewery to close this year. Steam Bell Beer Works ended a nearly 10-year-run in Chesterfield in late summer, Holy Mackerel Small Batch Beers closed at Jordan Point to make way for a new restaurant, and Goochland’s Lickinghole Creek Craft Brewery closed indefinitely at the start of the year.
The beer business has become very competitive at a time when sales are dropping nationally. Too many suppliers for too few dollars acerbated by health warnings about the effects of carbohydrates on the waistline and alcohol on the brain. Likewise, THC gummies are becoming abundant and cheap. He can blame it on inflation but there have been so many forces working against his success. Hopefully, he finds another avenue for his entrepreneur spirit..
location matters, it’s hard to suceed with these sorts of businesses outside of the city
I wish bars and restaurants would carry craft beer more and they dont and that hurts our local breweries the most. I wish him well. I know on the hull st corridor in chesterfield there is no shortage of beer.
I recall that in the past year that restrictions were eased in some regard with allowing breweries to regionally distribute products more easily, but it still remains a byzantine process.