Cherry Hill’s brewery Forgotten Boardwalk to close

The squat brick building at 1940 Olney Avenue in Cherry Hill may look like any other business park, but it actually holds a special place in New Jersey’s craft-beer history: This was the original home of Flying Fish, one of the state’s first microbreweries, when it opened a taproom in 1996. For the past decade, it’s been home to Forgotten Boardwalk, a woman-owned brewery specializing in easy-drinking beers and award-winning hard seltzers.

But owner Jamie Queli announced on Instagram last week that Forgotten Boardwalk will close at the end of February, after attempts to extend its lease failed. Queli indicated the brewery was open to alternatives to completely shuttering.

“We have vigorously tried to sign a lease extension with our landlord to no avail as our next door neighbor has leased out the space from underneath us,” the Jan. 12 post read. “While this chapter is coming to an end, we hope that Forgotten Boardwalk will continue, possibly in another form, in the future. In the meantime, we are welcoming any and all business opportunities for Forgotten Boardwalk.”

Forgotten Boardwalk taproom will operate on its regular schedule, Thursday through Monday, until Feb. 29. Commenters responded to word of its closing by the hundreds, lamenting the loss and suggesting Queli look for a home either closer to the Shore or across the river in Pennsylvania.

Queli could not be reached immediately for comment, nor could her landlord, Radnor’s Endurance Real Estate Group. Queli told the Philadelphia Business Journal that she learned Forgotten Boardwalk’s neighbor, nonprofit manufacturer Bestwork Industries for the Blind Inc., wanted to expand into the brewery’s space last fall and that attempts to negotiate with both companies did not pan out.

The announcement came weeks after Flying Fish, which moved to a larger facility in Somerdale in 2012, filed for bankruptcy protection — months after a sale to Cape May Brewing fell apart for undisclosed reasons. “This has been a harder space than ever,” Flying Fish president Frank Rio told The Inquirer in October, citing a sea of competitors in the retail sales and distribution space.

While new breweries continue to sprout up and a few markedly successful ones expand, the craft beer market has grown shaky in recent years. Three Pennsylvania craft brewers — Liquid Art, Stickman, and Separatist – shuttered in the space of three weeks last fall, with some owners signaling they had heard of more to closures to come.

Another small local brewery, Bucks County’s Moss Mill Brewing, closed its doors for good on Dec. 31.