Popular brewery ‘locked out’ from SLO location after building declared unsafe
Popular San Luis Obispo brewery Bang the Drum was forced to close Wednesday and officially barred from its 1150 Laurel Lane home days after the city upheld a decision declaring the property unsafe and dangerous to inhabit.
According to a video posted on the business’s Instagram on Wednesday afternoon, Bang the Drum was notified that it was being locked out from the building and would have to cease operations immediately, despite several events planned for the coming days.
That included a sold-out trivia night slated for Wednesday night. The event was labeled as “The Last Trivia Wednesday,” on the business’s website.
“We are being told we cannot operate and we cannot have people here at all,” owner Noelle Dubois said in the video, fighting tears. “This really sucks. We never got to have a last day with you guys.”
Notices were posted on the door saying, “Do not enter, unsafe to occupy,” and a sandwich board sign read “Bang the Drum CLOSED.”
Why was SLO property declared unsafe?
On March 10, the city building official issued a vacate notice to tenants of 1150 Laurel Lane, which also include SLO City Church and co-working space Office Hours.
The notice claimed that because ongoing construction had lapsed at the warehouse property, it was unsafe and unfit for occupation, and all tenants were told they would have 30 days to vacate.
Chief building official Michael Loew on Monday described the site as “the greatest known active and unaddressed public safety threat that currently exists within our city’s built environment.”
The property owner appealed the declaration and asked the city for more time to complete the work so that it could ensure no disruptions to tenants.
That appeal was denied Monday by the San Luis Obispo Construction Board of Appeals, which found that the safety concerns presented by Loew were substantial enough to warrant the property being vacated until they could be completed.
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Brewery ‘locked out’ from SLO location without final goodbye, owner says
At first it was unclear the timeline of when tenants would be expected to vacate the property since the initial order’s 30-day window had already lapsed.
On Wednesday, city spokesperson Whitney Szentesi told The Tribune the city posted an updated notice Tuesday on the building “to state clearly that the building is unsafe to occupy and that people should not enter.”
“However, the property owner is responsible for vacating and securing the affected units,” she added.
In the video Wednesday, Dubois said the business had previously planned to stay in the location until Friday. A special karaoke night was expected to act as a final event for the beloved business that night.
“Up until yesterday, we were under every assumption, and had gotten emails, that we were allowed to operate through May 9,” she said. “Somewhere wires were crossed, or something got changed, and now the city is escalating against the landlords, and the landlords are escalating against us, because they have to lock us out. So we are being locked out of our building.”
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In a follow-up video posted soon after the first, Dubois said the business was struggling now to figure out what it would do in light of the abrupt change to its planned closing schedule, including what to do with beer, baked items and treats prepared in advance of Wednesday’s trivia night.
“This is not what we’ve been planning for the last two months,” she said. “This is the only thing we thought we had as a sure date for us.”
The visibly distraught Dubois concluded: “It’s changing a lot for us. So we are going to reconvene and come up with maybe some solution — if not, we will at least keep you guys updated.”
This story was originally published May 7, 2025 at 5:25 PM.
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