Hop City's Kraig Torres: Atlanta Restaurant Impresario and Classic Beer Style Defender

Boxcar at Hop City West End evolved into a beautiful, welcoming dining space with plenty of free parking just steps from the Atlanta BeltLine. The store offers nearly 1,000 bottled/canned beer choices, more than 800 wines, 48 rotating draft beers and a full bar with craft cocktails. Patrons visiting the West End complex can also walk the grounds with open containers, sipping while exploring. The West End buildings also provide a home for Best End Brewing and ASW Whiskey Exchange, aka “Malt Disney World.”

Somewhere along the way, Torres was talked into opening a Barleygarden restaurant/bar in the south Atlanta suburb of Fayetteville, Georgia. "There's a big movie campus right across the street where they film many of the Marvel productions," notes Torres. "We opened our Fayetteville spot around two years ago with 72 taps and a beer and retail wine space. We get film crew members and actors eating and drinking there almost daily."

Boxcar at Hop City West End has evolved into a beautiful, welcoming dining space with plenty of free parking just steps from the Atlanta BeltLine.

Including the Hop City location in Atlanta's urban Krog District, Torres now boasts five businesses. "Making all this a reality was a grind," he recalls. "I worked 80-90 hours a week for years, but things are a bit calmer now. My favorite part of the job these days is working the floor and helping our customers. Getting people to try delicious beers is my passion."

Torres has seen much change and growth in the craft beer business over the years and expresses some concern about the industry's explosive growth. He explains, "There are so many fun breweries now, but the bulk of craft beer seems to have become sort of a corporate machine. It's harder for me to get enthusiastic about a brewery after a huge corporation buys it."

Craft beer has also changed stylistically in recent years. For example, when Hop City first opened, Torres found it challenging to get customers to try a classic style like Saison. These days, he notes that it's difficult even to find a local Saison. "No one seems to care about classic styles anymore," Torres laments. "I think what many people are now buying seems like the lowest common denominator in craft beer. Some of these trendy milkshake IPAs, hazy IPAs and pastry/adjunct stouts can be okay, but I'm sometimes disheartened to see what most new breweries make. I would love for my brewery partners to be their own people and make more of the classic beers they love. Hop City will always be on board to promote and support these lovely classic beer styles and the breweries that produce them."

"Making all this a reality was a grind," Torres recalls. "I worked 80-90 hours a week for years, but things are a bit calmer now. My favorite part of the job these days is working the floor and helping our customers. Getting people to try delicious beers is my passion."