The Modern Times Beer Blog

A message from our Founder & CEO Jacob McKean:

There's no way to sugar coat this: I have a bunch of bad news for you. I very much wish this were not the case, but this past week has been difficult beyond words. 

Last week we had to do something we’ve been desperately trying to avoid since March: after L.A. County shut down indoor dining, we had no choice but to furlough most of our staff at the Dankness Dojo. And now San Diego County has followed suit by also shutting down indoor eating and drinking, as of midnight last night. Temporary furloughs will likely now extend to some of our co-owners here in San Diego hospitality positions, as well (this is not news to them).

While we felt it was important to make a public statement in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, we are well aware that statements only go so far. This blog post will outline the initial steps we’ll be taking as we look both inward and outward in response to this vital movement. In keeping with the democratic workplace culture of Modern Times, we gathered ideas from our employee-owners and then conducted an internal poll of our 276-person team to decide where to place our emphasis.

A message from our Founder & CEO Jacob McKean:

What's happening right now in this country is the inevitable result of tremendous inequality. A system that values some lives over others requires two things to maintain its stability: 1) Widespread belief in a collective lie, and 2) Violent repression. The lie at the heart of American racism is that black lives are less valuable than everyone else's. This manifests itself in every aspect of our broken society, from policing to housing to health care and beyond. 

On Monday, we will reopen our four tasting rooms in San Diego and Santa Barbara Counties-- counties which began allowing onsite eating & drinking last week. To some, it feels like an appropriate time to do so. Others still need more time—and that’s OK. Fundamentally, we appreciate that facets of this situation can be intensely personal in nature, and responses can understandably run in different directions right now.

A message from our Founder & CEO Jacob McKean:

We’ve publicly and privately supported single payer health care for quite some time now. As a growing business, we’ve had to deal with privatized health care every step of the way. As an entrepreneur, I had to take the terrifying step of giving up my health insurance when I left my last job in order to start MT. When we opened, I had to navigate the immense difficulty and expense of buying health insurance for a small company. And as we’ve grown, we’ve had to cope with the absurd costs and complexities of providing health insurance to hundreds of people across multiple states.