Surly to reopen its Minneapolis beer hall and beer garden

After going dark in November, the destination beer hall and beer garden at Surly Brewing Co. are reopening in two months.

"Thanks to the remarkable progress being made on the vaccination front in Minnesota, the Surly Beer Hall and Beer Garden will tentatively reopen on June 1st," reads a post on the brewery's Facebook page. "This date may change as public health guidelines evolve. More updates as they become available."

Owner Omar Ansari announced in September that the 350-seat beer hall, along with a second-floor pizzeria, an event center and the brewery's vast beer garden, would close indefinitely on Nov. 2, putting roughly 150 people out of work.

The facility has a capacity of 1,800 people.

"This space is built for a lot of people, for socializing and getting together with friends," Omar told the Star Tribune in September. "That's not the way the world is working right now. There's a pandemic going on, and there's just no way for places like ours to make it in a COVID world."

At the time, Ansari reported that Surly's on-site food and beer sales were down 82% from the previous year. In the interim, the brewery's beer production has continued.

An effort last fall to unionize the brewery's hospitality employees failed.

Other Twin Cities restaurants also have announced that they are coming out of their pandemic-induced slumber.

On Friday, Tullibee, the first-floor restaurant at the Hewing Hotel, will be serving its first dinner in more than a year.

Chef Nyle Flynn is starting slowly, with dinner service on Friday and Saturday (5 to 11 p.m.) and breakfast and lunch service coming soon.

And at Petite Leon, chef Jorge Guzman will serve dinner in his dining room for the first time since the restaurant opened in November.

Dinner service will start April 9 and follow a Wednesday-through-Saturday schedule.

Takeout will continue to be available Wednesday through Sunday.

Rick Nelson • @RickNelsonStrib