Food and drink: N.K.S. to distribute New Belgium beer brands; Orillas tapas closes in downtown

129
Advertisement

Orillas Bar and Restaurant has closed  its restaurant on the upper end of Market Street in downtown  Wilmington. The following message was issued on the restaurant’s Facebook page.

“We wanted to say thank you to all of you for your kind words. And wanted to clear up some questions that we have been receiving. Due to the economic climate of downtown Wilmington we sadly closed as of July 1st. We will continue catering, so if you need a catered lunch, wedding or special event. Parties from 2-500, it would be our pleasure. Please contact us here or at orillasspecialevents@gmail.com.”

The website for the restaurant was shut down. The restaurant started out in the Loma (lower Market Street) area of downtown, but moved to  the 9th and Market area. Orillas specialized in tapas and generated a lot of buzz for a while.

The owner also operated two restaurants for a time in downtown, but later closed that restaurant and kept the 900 block location. The news is a disappointment to those who wanted to see Wilmington get more fine dining spots in downtown. One hopeful sign came this  with the opening of La Fia, a bakery-restaurant in Loma that is a project of well-known regional chef Bryan Sikora.

N.K.S. to handle New Belgium brews

Advertisement

Colorado-based New Belgium Brewing has signed a distribution  agreement with N.K.S. Distributors, New Castle and Milford.

N.K.S distributes InBev Anheuser-Busch and Samuel Adams brands.

New Belgium will start selling beer in the state August 19, 2013 and will roll 22-ounce. Packages  of   core brands  – Fat Tire, Ranger IPA, Rampant Imperial IPA and Trippel – along with two Lips of Faith offerings and Shift 12-pack cans. Draft and 12-oz. package will follow in mid October.

“This will mark our 33rd state of distribution, once Florida opens up later this month, and it’s exciting for us to be inching our way into more and more areas in the Northeast,” said New Belgium Brewing’s  Brian Krueger. “We definitely look forward to having a New Belgium beer with our friends in The First State.”

New Belgium also  added Alaska and Louisiana earlier this year. For more information, visit www.newbelgium.com.

New Belgium Brewing, makers of Fat Tire Amber Ale and a host of Belgian-inspired beers, is recognized as one of Outside Magazine’s Best Places to Work and one of the Wall Street Journal’s Best Small Businesses. The brewery is 100 percent  employee owned. Beer Marketers Insights lists New Belgium as the nation’s third-largest craft brewer. Dogfish Head, based in Mileton, is in the top 15.

Dogfish Head is expanding its sales territory as it winds up a brewery  expansion.  Demand forced Dogfish Head to halt distribution in a few states until the expansion took place.

 

Advertisement
Advertisement