July 8, 2020

The Den a Casualty of Timing

Sly Fox Goggleworks Outpost Will Not Reopen

July 8,2020 — In October Sly Fox Brewing Company (Sly Fox) and GoggleWorks Center for the Arts (GoggleWorks) were excited to announce a partnership with the opening of the popular brewery’s fifth pub location. The Den by Sly Fox, located inside the much-loved art center in the heart of Reading, PA was less than a mile from Sly Fox Wyomissing in the Knitting Mills complex.

When the Pennsylvania Office of the Governor ordered all non-essential businesses closed, most pubs shifted to the take-out model. The Den was closed temporarily with the forced closure of the GoggleWorks campus. While the nonprofit center last week introduced its initial phase for safely reopening, Sly Fox and GoggleWorks announced today that it will not reopen The Den.

"We have decided that we will not continue to operate the location at the GoggleWorks due to the increased cost associated with operating a restaurant in a post COVID world,” said Sly Fox founding partner John Giannoppulos.

"Sly Fox will, however, continue to support the GoggleWorks mission and events, with beer sponsorship and catering from our Wyomissing kitchen.”

Sly Fox also opened new locations in Malvern and Pittsburgh in 2019 to compliment their existing brewery outposts in Phoenixville, Pottstown and Wyomissing. Sly Fox pubs feature a rotating list of award-winning Sly Fox beer and uncommon food menus featuring local, fresh ingredients.

All five Sly Fox pub locations have taken extreme precautions to go above and beyond CDC compliance.

During Pennsylvania’s yellow phase of the pandemic, Sly Fox pubs offered safe outdoor dining and have added limited indoor seating since the beginning of the green phase on June 26.

“We are not sure when we will be able to safely open a restaurant on campus again,” said Levi Landis, Executive Director of GoggleWorks. “Yet each chapter in the story of the culinary arts programs at GoggleWorks has brought new possibilities for serving our students and visitors.”

Beginning July 8, GoggleWorks will offer curated programs with a focus on safety—private screenings of patron-selected films, socially distanced demos and tours, and a shopping experience. Patrons can add on Sly Fox beer or fine wines for the packages.

“Sly Fox has been an exceptional partner even before opening The Den,” said Landis. “I’m so excited they will continue to be a strong presence in Berks County and I’m grateful for our past and future collaborations.”

About Sly Fox Brewing Company

Since their inaugural brew in 1995, Sly Fox has crafted more than 100 different top-notch craft beers. Their critically acclaimed year-round lineup and highly anticipated seasonals are available in their Pennsylvania pubs in Phoenixville, Pottstown, Wyomissing, Reading and Pittsburgh as well as top bars and restaurants in PA, NJ, NY, MD, VA, and Washington, DC. Sly Fox was the first craft brewery in the mid-Atlantic to implement a canning line and earned the first-ever Great American Beer Festival (GABF) medal awarded to a canned craft beer, in 2007. They have earned GABF medals virtually every year since, including a gold medal for Grisette Summer Ale in 2017, and are widely recognized among the region's best and most enduring craft breweries.

About GoggleWorks Center for the Arts

GoggleWorks transforms lives through unique interactions with art. The nonprofit art center, which operates in the former Willson Goggle Factory, is composed of 145,000 square feet, making it one of the largest art centers in the country. GoggleWorks offers year round arts education, including workshops, classes, and visiting artists; community outreach programs; a summer residency; youth programs and camps; 35 on-site studio artists; The Albert and Eunice Boscov theatre; three galleries for exhibitions; the Penn State Berks Launchbox maker space; and eight communal studios—hot glass, wood, 2D print, warm glass, metals, ceramics, photography and virtual reality. www.GoggleWorks.org