Fair State Brewing emerges from bankruptcy with buzz — and pizza

As his locally sourced margherita pizza arrived to his table to share with two friends, Thomas Bacheller candidly dished up a slice of reality about his favorite brewery.

“I’ve been pretty worried about it,” said Bacheller, aka Fair State Brewing Cooperative member No. 311 (so read his jacket from the brewery).

“But every time I’ve come here lately it’s been respectably crowded, and everybody seems to be enjoying it.”

Minnesota’s first co-op brewery and first with a unionized staff, Fair State Brewing Cooperative fell into a troubled state last year, 10 years after it opened in northeast Minneapolis and quickly became one of the Twin Cities’ most reputable beermakers.

The brewery filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in February 2024, hindered with debt from the pandemic. After exiting bankruptcy in September, Fair State then announced plans to sell its St. Paul production facility, where most of its canning and large-batch brewing is done.

Sounds grim, right?

Turns out, though, Fair State is still in fairly good shape. Its original taproom on a vibrant stretch of Central Avenue feels especially vibrant these days — thanks, in part, to a new partnership with one of the Twin Cities’ most reputable new pizzamakers.

Farina Rossa, a pop-up pizzeria started by former Travail Collective executive chef JohnMichael Lynch, has permanently set up shop in the Fair State taproom. Its pizzas and accompanying salads and sides are made next door in the former site of Aki’s Breadhaus.

Like Aki’s — which expanded to a bigger nearby location on NE. Marshall Street — Farina Rossa treats its flour and dough as sacred, using a local miller and naturally leavened dough. Its careful practices aren’t unlike how Fair State makes its beer.

“If we were going to add food to the menu,” Fair State CEO Evan Sallee said, “it had to be by someone with as much passion and as high a standard for it as we have for our beer.”

Talking at the taproom last week just as it filled up around dinnertime, Sallee sounded confident about Fair State’s future even as he acknowledged the ongoing challenges faced by every brewery in America at the moment.

Oversaturation in breweries mixed with declining alcohol sales overall have forced several beermakers to shut down, including — just last month — another northeast Minneapolis favorite, Dangerous Man Brewing.

Fair State’s ownership among 3,000-plus co-op members, run by a nine-member board, did not change with the bankruptcy filing or the pending sale of its production site. A contract is being worked up with the facility’s tentative new owners to allow Fair State to still brew and can its flagship beers there, including the award-winning Pils (German-style pilsner), Mirror Universe (hazy IPA) and Roselle (hibiscus kettle sour) as well as its Chill State THC seltzers and Hop Water sparkling waters.

Amid all these recent challenges, Sallee and his team have circled their attention back to where they started: the taproom.

“This is where our members all had their first taste of our beer, where we all met and really became a community,” Sallee said. “It’s always been our foundation.”

Fair State still brews up rotating beers and small-batch brews for its weekly New Beer Thursday gatherings in the vats at the taproom.

Some of its rotating options there of late have included the Pils Infusion (a pilsner infused with Azacca terpenes) and the Watermelon Roselle (a fruitier variation of the popular sour). Fair State has also been brewing a steady series of nonalcoholic beers and collaboration beers with other breweries, including the Mister Falcon double hazy IPA made with St. Paul brewer Barrel Theory and the Union Lager with New Ulm’s historic Schell’s (whose staff is also now unionized).

The events calendar at the Fair State taproom has similarly become a very mixed batch. Options now range from the Showstopper Vintage pop-up (happening Saturday afternoon) and Magic: the Gathering Commander card game nights (Monday) to tarot card and arts/craft nights (check back on the calendar).

“We’ve been looking for ways to make the taproom even better,” Sallee said, “without losing what’s special about it as just a great place to meet people over great beer — and now over great pizza, too.”

Lynch thinks his pizzas are even better now that Farina Rossa is able to operate in a permanent space instead of the old pop-up format, allowing his team to “refine our techniques and dial in our unique flavor profile,” he said.

“Our stable home at Fair State has allowed us to truly unleash our creativity, experimenting with a variety of pizza styles, including our Detroit and crispy tavern style crusts,” the chef said.

Much like Fair State’s beer menu, Farina Rossa’s offerings at the taproom include some core items along with rotating, often seasonal flavors. Mainstay pizzas include the Italian Stallion (loaded with Bolognese sauce and ricotta), Bring Za Heat (with jalapeños and hot honey) and one of many vegetarian options, the Frenchy (think: French onion soup on an artisan crust!).

Pouring beer behind the bar last week — as he’s done since Fair State’s opening in 2014 — server Charlie Tonks said he’s happy to also now be taking pizza orders.

“Just like with the beer, it’s nice to be able to sell people something I really believe is a great product,” Tonks said.

Where: 2506 Central Av. NE., Mpls.

Hours: 4-10 p.m. Mon.-Thu., noon-10 p.m. Fri.-Sat., noon-9 p.m. Sun. (pizza kitchen open until 8 or 9 p.m. daily).

Online: fairstate.coop and farinarossamn.com.