Since opening in 2014, Highland Park has evolved from the scrappy upstart attached to its neighborhood bar into a destination production brewery and taproom in Chinatown. With a metaphorical trophy case full of accolades and awards—including four gold medals at the 2024 Great American Beer Festival—Highland Park has earned its national reputation.
However, while Highland Park is bigger in size and prestige, founder Bob Kunz says the spirit of the brewery isn’t far from its roots.
“It feels like we’re still just as scrappy,” he says. “Quality has always been the focus. We’ve always had a mind for frugality when making operational choices, but we’ve prioritized making the best beer possible, not thinking too much about cost-of-goods.”
Still, you can’t grow a business without adapting to changing conditions in the marketplace. Kunz and his team built Highland Park on a direct-to-consumer model, first at the Hermosillo—the neighborhood bar that was home to the OG brewhouse—then in Chinatown, where can deliveries began during the pandemic lockdowns.
Along the way, however, wholesale demand has grown alongside the brewery’s reputation, and meeting that demand means accepting thinner margins on the product.
“We were adding 5 or 10 percent production annually [to meet wholesale demand], but not seeing the same increase to revenue.” The challenge, Kunz says, wasn’t squeezing more brewhouse turns into a busy schedule—instead, it was squeezing more finished beer out of those same turns.