🔒What to expect in 2020: Breweries and restaurants will continue to grab headlines

The restaurant and brewery industries maintained high-profile momentum in 2019, as expansions and new openings outweighed closures. As long as Central Massachusetts' economic growth continues, food and drink businesses will follow.

Craft beer continues its upward trajectory.

It wasn’t long ago it was notable when a town or smaller city wouldn’t have any breweries. Now, it can feel more notable when they don’t – or even when they have fewer than they maybe should. In fact, at least according to one report, Worcester’s among those which could support more. In June, the online marketplace bid-on-equipment.com looked at state excise tax, population over 21, breweries per capita and licensing fees to come up with the best places to open a brewery. Worcester landed 26th nationally in large part because it actually has so few breweries yet here: Worcester had 1.1 breweries per 50,000 people, tied for the lowest of the list’s top 30 cities. Elsewhere in Central Massachusetts, Framingham, Marlborough and Natick are among those counting a few breweries each, but there still seems to be plenty of room to grow in places like Fitchburg, Leominster, Milford and Shrewsbury.

Restaurants fueling momentum in downtown Worcester.

New businesses in downtown recently have felt like almost all restaurants. Just take a look around Worcester Common: a planned Ruth's Chris steakhouse and restaurant from the Tavern in the Square’s ownership group, which join other new additions in just over one year: Fuel America, 110 Grill, Protein House, Revolution Pie + Pint, Craft Table & Bar and the Worcester Beer Garden. The sudden spike comes along with the opening of the AC Hotel and 145 Front at CitySquare apartments, and otherwise appears to be a confident move that more people who work downtown — there are still few residents – will choose to stay after work for a bite or a drink, or even pop by before or after a show at the Hanover Theatre or a game at the DCU Center. Good news for these restaurants: More residents are on the way. The Central Building had 55 apartments open this summer, and another 118 are expected at Courthouse Lofts by next summer.

The cost of food and drink will become a concern in an economic slowdown.

Putting down $20 for a four-pack of beer might raise fewer eyebrows than it used to, as it’s become something of the norm to pay much more for a can of craft beer than someone might be used to for, say, a Bud Light. Undoubtedly, some breweries will close, as was the case with Maynard’s Battle Road Brewery. Otherwise, a period of economic growth lasting roughly a decade has been kind to food-and-drink businesses, and a weakness in brick-and-mortar retail has meant that more developers are leaning on restaurants to fill space. But with the unemployment rate so low, new restaurants and breweries may find it harder to continue finding new workers, and ever-climbing personnel and lease costs could make continued growth ever more challenging. An economic slowdown or recession on the horizon could force many to forego that night out for dinner or those pints of beer at the bar.