.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........

Add Red Door to the list of craft breweries pouring into Downtown Albuquerque.

The year-old Duke City brewery has signed a lease to open a new taproom at the Simms Building, thus lending another name to the area’s growing local beer landscape.

Boese Brothers Brewery opened last month just down the street from the Simms Building, and Duel Brewing recently announced plans for a mega-sized taproom near 6th and Central. Meanwhile, Sidetrack Brewing continues prepping for its debut about five blocks away.

Matt Biggs, Red Door’s managing member, said he sees the continuing concentration as a good thing, creating a destination where beer fans can congregate and easily get to and from various establishments on foot.

ADVERTISEMENTSkip

................................................................

“I’d love to go to a place where I could walk to a couple different breweries in a night, personally,” he said. “I’m hoping it will become a thing.”

The Downtown core already boasts Back Alley Draft House and a Chama River taproom, both near 2nd and Central. (Marble’s Downtown headquarters are a bit farther flung, sitting a few blocks north of Lomas.)

Red Door’s flagship site on Candelaria NE is located at the edge of the city’s officially designated “Brewery District,” an industrial expanse that also includes La Cumbre, Canteen and Nexus. But Biggs said most of the locations within the district are too spread out to easily walk between.

The massing in Downtown could provide that opportunity and also bring a new audience to the area that might not be interested in the bar/club scene that has dominated the corridor.

“I think it’s better to have multiple taprooms in a similar area, especially in a place like Gold Street,” Biggs said. “I’m calling it ‘Adult Central Avenue,’ so a place where people in their late 20s to 40s or whatever can go grab a beer or two without having to be on Central on the weekend.”

George Boese, who started Boese Brothers with brother Sam, said Friday that he welcomes just about any commercial action in the area, even if it involves businesses similar to his own — though he is quick to note that Boese Brothers is a full-fledged Downtown brewery operation rather than a taproom off-shoot of a brewery.

“I personally don’t care if every brewery in town opens a taproom down here; it’s good for Downtown and I think it’s a good sign,” he said. “There are more people moving down here. If we can kind of shake the stigma that it’s dangerous down here or it’s hard to park down here — which is not founded in truth in my eyes — it’s going to be good for everybody.”

Biggs said he didn’t specifically set out to open a Downtown taproom, but it worked out for both Red Door and the Simms Building’s ownership, Peterson Properties, which has actively worked to revitalize the historic building.

He said Red Door just applied for the license needed to open the new taproom and still wants to work with nearby Amy Biehl High School to make sure there are no major objections. If everything proceeds as planned, he said Red Door’s taproom could open in early 2016.