‘One last drink’: How Fresno celebrated a beloved bar’s closure

FRESNO, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) – Lifelong customers at a Fresno bar gathered for a final farewell as the business closed its doors for the last time on Sunday.

Regulars at Sequoia Brewing Company considered the building a “third place” and were devastated when the bar announced on social media that Sunday night would be the business’ last night. All three locations have now closed their doors for good.

At the Tower District location in Fresno, patrons like the father and son duo Thomas and Quentin say they may as well have a couple of beers first – before the doors close.

“I’ve been coming here since it was Butterfield’s,” Thomas said. “I spent a lot of years at Butterfield’s before it became what it is now. Where it’s going next, we don’t know.”

Quentin says he remembers spending his 21st and his 30th birthdays at Sequoia Brewing Company. Quentin says it is the “heartbeat of the Tower District.”

According to Quentin and Thomas, losing Sequoia Brewing Company is sad – but the family has been in Fresno for over four generations and they have seen the community persevere time and time again.

“Things are going to change,” Quentin said. “But change inspires something more to come.”

Patrons like Felix say the community will persevere and it owes a lot to Sequoia Brewing Company. She says it is more than a bat or restaurant, it’s the embodiment of a “pub.”

“It is a public house, that’s where pub comes from,” Felix said. “Everybody is welcome. Everybody is here, everybody in the community.”

Felix says breweries in Fresno also owe Sequoia Brewing Company. She says when the bar was founded in 1989 it set an example and set the standard for the breweries that came after.

“It’s the ultimate third place,” Felix said. “It was the first third place.”

Patrons Debi and John went as far as to say the Tower District’s Sequoia Brewing Company was a “church with beer.” The couple remembered having their rehearsal dinner there with family and friends as well as performing music there.

Debi says she cried when she first heard Sequoia Brewing Company would be closing for good. She and John say it was a place for monthly, weekly and daily get-togethers for people who came and went and suddenly became “family.”

“This has been a day-to-day evolution of people and stories, heartbreak, camaraderie, good times and celebration,” John said. “There are three to four plaques over the bar commemorating people who were regulars who passed early, too early.”

Every patron agreed that they were lucky to have had a chance to make memories and share the space at the Tower District’s Sequoia Brewing Company.

Staff at the Tower District location say they felt lucky as well to have been able to help create a space where everyone felt a sense of community and belonging.