EXPLANATION OF KITCHEN CLOSURE IN 2026



Happy New Year to all of our extended 5 Rights Family!  2025 was another year of amazing blessing and we are so grateful for all of your love and support for this crazy fun dream of ours.  Not only did we celebrate 10 incredible years of building community together but most importantly we were able to expand our efforts to help out so many people and causes, all because of the great relationships that continue to develop.

We are excited to embrace what 2026 will bring and with that we also need to share some important changes with you.  After several months of careful thought, painstaking research, self-examination and countless operational adjustments

we have made the difficult decision to close our 5 Rights kitchen. 

Our last food service will be Sunday, January 4th.   This was not an easy decision to make.  We know that so many of you have come to really enjoy the delicious food and family-friendly atmosphere and have made dining at 5 Rights a regular part of your week.  We also have an amazing kitchen staff that works very hard to make sure that all of our guests are well-taken care of and you have frequently reminded us how much you appreciate them.

The sad reality is that we cannot continue to operate our kitchen at a profit in our current business climate here in Washington State and unfortunately we are not alone.  Over 2000 restaurants closed in Washington during the first 6 months in 2025* with that number expected to more than double in year-end tallies.  We have made countless changes to our menu, pricing, staffing and process to address the increasing costs and decreasing margins but we have been unable to turn the tide. The continual rise in food cost (mostly due to increasing fuel costs in our state), labor costs, insurance and utility expenses, and skyrocketing tax increases are just too much to keep up with if we are to keep the kitchen operating.  And with labor costs going up another 3% starting January 1st we realize that we needed to make a change to ensure our business remains healthy. 

While it is heartbreaking to have to cease our kitchen operations the good news is that the brewery side of the business is stronger than ever, thanks to the incredible unwavering support of all of you.  We are blessed to have grown another 10+% in production and sales in 2025 and we are truly grateful to all of you for that.  That is a big deal in the brewery business these days as overall sales have been declining in the industry as a whole and more breweries are closing than opening. 

What does this all mean moving forward?

The most important thing to remember is that 5 Rights Brewing is not going anywhere.  We will continue to work tirelessly to brew the exceptional beer you have come to expect and enjoy while continuing to provide a welcoming community gathering place that will make you feel at home.  Although we will not be operating our own kitchen we will be featuring guest food vendors/trucks onsite Tuesday-Sunday.  We are thankful to have a fantastic group of food vendors that will be providing delicious food for our guests. We will be publishing full-month schedules on our website of who will be onsite as well as posting weekly calendars and daily reminders on our social media accounts so you can see who will be onsite.  Although we would love for you to patronize the other small business vendors we are bringing in you are also free to bring whatever outside food that you like to our taproom. 

We truly love our community and our goal has always been to create a place to live life together, built around our shared passion for quality craft beer, food and amazing people.  5 Rights has always been about our people more than our product.  And that will not change.  We would love nothing more than for future generations to call 5 Rights their go to place as well.  In order to make that happen we need to be good stewards of what we have been blessed with and that sometimes requires making tough decisions to change course.  We know that this will be difficult news for many but we hope you will understand the heart and reason behind our decision. 

As always, if you have any questions or concerns please reach out and we will make time to talk to you in person.  Thank you for your continued love and support and we look forward to an amazing 2026 and beyond with all of you.

*Stats from the Washington Hospitality Association 

FOOD VENDOR SCHEDULE - JANUARY