Bosque Brewing will be converted to Restoration Pizza at the Railyard
May 3—Bosque Brewing's brief run at the Railyard will come to an end sometime in May. But it plans to replace a brew pub with the pizza side of its business.
Restoration Pizza could open as soon as July in the same space Bosque Brewing has occupied since October 2020, across from the Violet Crown, said Jotham Michnovicz, chief development officer and co-owner of Bosque Brewing and Restoration Pizza.
Bosque Brewing at the Railyard opened in the depth of the coronavirus pandemic and never gained full traction because of hiring challenges. Its kitchen operated only a few months in 2021, Michnovicz said.
"We started noticing similar menus and options around us [at the Railyard and on Guadalupe Street]," he said. "There really is not a lot of pizza around here."
Bosque Brewing started Restoration Pizza in 2019 with a location on the northern end of Albuquerque. Officials anticipate outlets in other New Mexico cities and eventually other states. Bosque Brewing has five "public houses" in Albuquerque, Bernalillo, Las Cruces and Santa Fe. A second Albuquerque location is expected to open in a couple weeks.
"We ran [Santa Fe] as a beer bar, but that's not our model," Michnovicz said. But Michnovicz plans to relocate the "beer bar" to Santa Fe's south side and open a location near Dion's and Jersey Mike's by the end of the year, he said.
Restoration Pizza opened just before the pandemic but became the company's star attraction, with the takeout and delivery component that does lend itself as well to brew pubs. Michnovicz said Restoration is among the top two performers among the company's six properties.
The Restoration name links directly to Bosque Brewing's commitment to hiring physically and mentally disabled people. Michnovicz said 35 percent of Restoration employees in Albuquerque are disabled and the company plans a similar number in Santa Fe.
"We are restoring communities that are underserved or marginalized," he said. "We create a lot of visual recipe cards. The idea is a person can just walk in and make a pizza."
Michnovicz believes a pizza establishment will be more family friendly and fit in better at the Railyard with moviegoers or Farmers Market attendees looking for something else to do.
Like the Albuquerque Restoration Pizza, the Santa Fe entry will serve cocktails, wine and Bosque Brewing beer.
Once construction starts, Restoration Pizza should be ready to open two months later.
"We have to expand the kitchen a little," he said. "It's mostly reconfiguring the kitchen, pretty minimal changes [in the dining area]."
