Wild Fields Brewhouse’s journey to its ‘grand re-re-re opening’

Posted: 10:49 am, July 26, 2021 by Reporter Saab Sahi

From left to right: Jacque Fields, Ryan Fields. Photo by Saab Sahi.

The founders share how they’ve kept the business alive

Wild Fields Brewhouse at 6907 El Camino Real recently had its grand re-re-re-opening last month on June 17, but it took a long time for Ryan and Jacque Fields to make that happen.

The bar at Wild Fields Brewhouse. Photo by Saab Sahi.

Ryan and Jacque had both been working in the craft brewing industry for a long time when they met 10 years ago.

Jacque’s first job was in foodservice, but she discovered the world of craft brewing at 20 and fell in love with the rich history of the art of brewing. She was raised in Orange County and even ran the Orange County Brewer’s Guild for a time.

Ryan began homebrewing beverages in college, where he studied physics. He found himself later intoxicated with the world of craft brewing when he stumbled into the local beer community in San Diego during 2006. He started off as a bottler at The Lost Abbey and eventually ended up as the head brewer at the Pizza Port Brewing Company in Southern California.

Around seven years ago, the two started conceptualizing and planning the idea of creating their own brewhouse with much inspiration being taken from establishments like Pizza Port Brewing Company, which they were familiar with. However, they started getting serious about the idea after becoming pregnant with their first child and wanting to raise kids in a good community.

They were drawn to Atascadero by the passion of the people involved in the craft brewing industry locally and the appeal of raising kids there.

“It’s rare that you have a city that’s so gung-ho about craft beer,” said Jacque Fields.

Both of them visited Atascadero often, because Ryan, who grew up in San Luis Obispo County, has relatives that live in town.

Three years ago, the City of Atascadero recommended that the Fields both take a look at a building that might fit their needs.

The recommended building came with a long and interesting history. It was originally a bowling alley called Creekside Lanes until 2004 but was converted into city hall for 10 years after the San Simeon Earthquake damaged the iconic building by Sunken Gardens.

It’s now home to the Atascadero Chamber of Commerce and the brewhouse.

The brewhouse originally opened with 17 staff on Dec. 19, 2019, but quickly closed a few months after on March 16, 2020, as the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns took hold.

They tried to deliver food but gave it up after two weeks as there was too much unused inventory that came with that. During this first shutdown of operations, the Fields couple turned their attention to brewing beer.

The location was also run as a commissary for two months with curbside pickup to help provide food for people while supermarket stock was low. They also participated in a drive-thru movie night event in collaboration with Galaxy Theatres Atascadero, who sold popcorn while they sold beer.

The couple tries to involve itself in the local community, whether that’s through the brewhouse’s participation in the pub crawl, Jacque’s role as a board member of the chamber of commerce, or Ryan’s membership in the Rotary Club of Atascadero. The brewhouse also offers leftover materials from the brewing process as feed to local farmers.

A local farmer receiving feed from Ryan Fields. Photo by Saab Sahi.

“Community engagement is really what we want to focus on,” said Ryan Fields.

On June 4, 2020, the brewhouse had a re-opening yet only two members of the original team of 17 came back to work at the store. However, they closed on July 7 after the line cook showed symptoms of Covid-19 and chose not to reopen when it was announced that only outdoor dining would be allowed, as they only had four tables at the time.

During this next intermission between opening the business, the brewhouse decided to focus all their efforts towards distribution and started to can their beer.

On Oct. 3, the brewhouse had a re-re-opening and tried to do outside-only dining options. However, the set-up time and cleaning time every day proved to be too much for them to sustain operations that way and they shut down once again in November.

So, they once again tried to pivot and offered family meals catering style for either pick-up or delivery to anybody interested. The catering lasted until February 2021, when the brewhouse decided to stick to distribution until California was ready to reopen again last month.

The brewhouse offers a family-friendly atmosphere with entertainment for kids in the form of arcade games, a bowling lane and much more. There’s also a diverse offering of food available, such as their vegan banh mi carrot dog and their share plate named redneck charcuterie, which features a bacon-wrapped hot dog.