We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Samantha Glenn. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Samantha below.

Hi Samantha, thanks for joining us today. Let’s start with a story that highlights an important way in which your brand diverges from the industry standard.

We opened Funky Picnic Brewery & Café in order to try to make craft beer more accessible to the general population. We saw the majority of businesses in our industry who were only targeting the customer that was already drinking craft beer, and instead wanted Funky Picnic to be the place where someone new could discover and fall in love with craft beer. Being a restaurant that makes our own beer, we have a lot of customers that will come in for the food, and while they are there, decide to taste or try a new beer that might sound intriguing. During the reduced-capacity days of 2020 we had to make the business decision to add liquor to our menus, but we highlighted boilermakers (beer and a shot) and beer cocktails (beer, liquor, and mixers) in addition to traditional cocktails (liquor and mixer). We were able to bring in new clientele by offering a wider selection of beverages, and with regards to the beer cocktails, we had regulars exclaim that they “didn’t know you could do so much with beer!”

Funky Picnic takes that sentiment into our beer and food pairings, offering pairing suggestions on our menu and using beer as a culinary ingredient in several food items. Several owners and staff have Cicerone certifications (beer equivalent to a Sommelier) and we really focus on beer being a culinary compliment to your meal instead of it being solely on alcohol. Our monthly beer dinners highlight this pairing with five courses and beers brewed specifically to pair with the food menu. We hope that we continue to see more breweries expanding their customer reach and focusing on the culinary delights that craft beer brings in addition to the alcohol buzz!

Samantha, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I first spent 12 years working as an engineer in the medical device industry before deciding to quit and open my own brewery. That journey actually started on a trip to San Francisco with college friends who also loved to drink craft beer. Naturally we found a brewery or two to visit, and I was impressed with the brewpubs that were more accessible to the general customer than the big production warehouses that were popular in Texas at the time. After a few beers, it sounded like a great idea to open one of our own in Fort Worth! We soon realized, however, that state laws prohibiting growth of brewpubs and therefore restricting them from being a viable business model might be why they were so hard to find in our home state. Putting this idea on the back-burner, I instead started homebrewing with a few other friends and just enjoying and getting to know my local beer scene.

Fast-forward a few years when these restrictive laws had finally been changed, and I had my 10- year anniversary at my engineering job. I quickly realized that as much as I had accomplished in those 10 years, I could not see myself being satisfied in the engineering industry for another 20-25 years before retirement. So, I began to seriously look at opening a brewpub again, and to try to figure out which of my fellow homebrewers might want to take the journey with me. My business partner, Collin, was working on his own journey towards brewery ownership and had obtained an MBA, and we soon teamed up to form the foundation of what would become Funky Picnic Brewery & Café.
We opened Funky Picnic in June 2019 with a clear intention of putting equal focus on the beer and food. Rather than have an outside food truck to serve food to customers, we hired an experienced Chef and built out a kitchen and team to focus on the food menu. Even though we had homebrewing experience, we recognized that this does not equal to running a commercial brewery. Instead, we hired a Head Brewer who had several years of brewing experience in our local beer scene. Our Cchef and Head Brewer worked together to create both food and beer menus that complimented each other and even producing beers that could be used in several food items in the kitchen. Our focus on equal beer and food quality, and creating experiences that highlight those pairings, is something that still sets us apart from other breweries.

Obviously, our business journey hit many road bumps as we navigated the pandemic shutdowns and restrictions of 2020 (and beyond). One of the decisions we had to make as a business was what kind of customer we wanted to attract to our business. With calls for social justice and equality in summer of 2020, we made a choice to let our support be heard, even if it meant losing customers. Since we were limited to 50% capacity, we wanted to make sure that those seats were filled with customers who shared our views on equality and social justice, while many other businesses in the industry stayed quiet. We continue to try to drive our business decisions on making our space more inclusive and welcoming to everyone, and to educate ourselves in ways that we can continue to grow, learn, and be allies to marginalized groups in our community.

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

Since I was a manager in my previous career, I took on the task of being General Manager of the brewery and restaurant. In both industries, I have found a few things that will maintain respect and morale in your team:
1. YOU WORK FOR THEM, THEY DON’T WORK FOR YOU. A manager is there to make their job easier. Have clear job descriptions and expectations, and then asking them often how you can make their job easier. This may include equipment upgrades, operational changes, or even scheduling updates. Maintaining a good feedback loop with your employees lets their voices be heard and ensures that you are always evolving together.
2. BE HONEST. I try to be as transparent with my team as possible, and that means that they are on the journey with me and don’t feel surprised or blindsided by information. When possible, create group discussions in order to gather feedback for your decisions. Be open to changing your mind about decisions, and that you may not always be right or know the answers.
3. OFFER GROWTH. If you want to retain your talent, offer growth options and plans for your employees. Have regular conversations about this plan, as it may change. This growth does not always have to be career growth and can include emotional growth or improvements in skills. Provide feedback and check-ins that highlight where each employee excels and where they can continue to focus their growth so that they can become an even more valuable team member.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

Funky Picnic is a passion project, and it was funded through that passion. We had to believe in ourselves and our product, have a strong business plan, and get told “no” a LOT in order to get where we are. We were initially funded through owner capital, investor capital (friends & family), and an SBA loan. All of this funding, and our rental property details, had to come together at the same time or we wouldn’t have been able to make any of the pieces fit. We pursued the rental contract, investor agreements, and SBA loan simultaneously and luckily all three came together so that we could move forward. After being told that our SBA loan would not be funded by many banks, we finally worked with an SBA loan broker who helped us better communicate our business plan and SBA application in “bank terms” in order to get funded. While this added to our overall budget, it allowed us to get connected to the RIGHT bank for our business and to finally get the capital to continue with our project. A combination of owner capital funds and strong support from friends and family who believed in our business meant that we were able to meet the contribution requirements for the loan and we did not have to look for outside investors or crowd-sourced funding.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.funkypicnicbrewery.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/funkypicnicbrewery
• Facebook: facebook.com/funkypicnic
• Twitter: twitter.com/funkypicnic
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/funky-picnic-brewery-and-caf%C3%A9-fort-worth

Image Credits
Tina Torres Photography