How SLO’s Duncan Alley became a hot spot for wine, beer and more: ‘A mini Tin City’
Imagine a destination in San Luis Obispo where you can sip on a latte, sample a hard cider, taste an Edna Valley pinor noir and swig a locally crafted India pale ale.
That’s the vision behind Duncan Alley, an up-and-coming makers marketplace in SLO’s LoBro neighborhood.
San Luis Obispo development company CoVelop bought the complex at 3197 Duncan Road, at the corner of Orcutt Road, in late 2021.
In the past few years, the hub has grown into a new beverage hot spot, attracting more than a dozen local business owners primarily dedicated to serving up cups of coffee, glasses of wine and pints of beer.
“Once an aging industrial complex, it has been infused with life by the artisans who now call the Alley home,” according to the Duncan Alley website.
From the get-go, the marketplace was designed to be a gathering space for fans of fine foods and diverse drinks where businesses could produce products on site, according to CoVelop owner Damien Mavis.
“We were thinking it would be really great to have a majority of the tenants at least manufacture something food (or) beverage-oriented ... manufacture it in the back and sell it in the front,” Mavis said.
As of early March, the complex was home to a variety of trendy spots, including Ancient Owl Beer Garden, Shindig Cider and KBRG Coffee Lab, according to the Duncan Alley website. Shrine Brewing opened a new microbrewery taproom on March 1.
There are also a few winery tasting rooms and yoga and pilates studios.
SLO marketplace serves as ‘authentic third space’
CoVelop, which also owns The Creamery Marketplace in San Luis Obispo, decided to develop Duncan Alley after seeing an explosion of new properties pop up near the complex.
The area has seen an burst of new housing along Orcutt Road in recent years, including the Avivo Townhomes complex constructed across the street.
“The reason we bought it was because there’s 1,000 new homes that have recently been built or are being built right in that area,” Mavis said.
When CoVelop purchased the light industrial complex in November 2021, it was composed of three separate nearly vacant warehouse buildings with “a ton of deferred maintenance,” Mavis said.
However, he was determined to create an “authentic third space,” he said, a social setting beyond work and home where people could hang out and connect with each other.
After months of construction, Duncan Alley now has a total of 13 tenant spaces between 1,000 and 10,000 square feet and 55 parking spots.
Only one spot remained vacant as of March, Mavis told The Tribune.
What businesses call Duncan Alley home?
Three wineries, two taprooms, a beer garden, a cafe, a co-working space, a couple of exercise studios and a handful of businesses make up the web of establishments at Duncan Alley.
Alanna Andruszkiewicz, owner and co-founder of Ancient Owl Beer Garden & Bottle Shoppe, said she and her two business partners decided to open a second location in Duncan Alley in January 2024 so that area residents could have a place to gather with friends and family.
The San Luis Obispo beer garden offers 24 craft beers that are constantly in flux. It also hosts food trucks and local musicians, Andruszkiewicz said.
“Our clientele here really is families walking over from the neighborhoods, people who are locals who want to avoid downtown parking and traffic,” she said. “It’s a lot of your locals, your artists, your people who want to be in a well-crafted environment that always has something fun.”
Ancient Owl Beer Garden & Bottle Shoppe also has a location in Atascadero.
Husband-and-wife duo Chris Steins and Mindy Oliver chose Duncan Alley to open a tasting room for their winery, Croma Vera Wines, in January 2024.
The couple liked the idea of being a part of a burgeoning beverage district.
“We thought of it originally as a mini Tin City,” co-owner and tasting room manager Chris Steins said, referring to the popular industrial makers market in Paso Robles.
The Croma Vera owners were thrilled when El Lugar Wines and Rhônedonnée Wines joined the complex, giving visitors an opportunity to taste a variety of wines from around the region in a single SLO destination.
“The really cool thing I think that Duncan Alley has to offer is that there’s all these different businesses,” said Coby Parker-Garcia, El Lugar Wines owner and winemaker. “You’re not going to just come to Duncan Alley and drink El Lugar pinot noir. That’s just one component. You can go to Shindig Cider and drink some other really nice dry ciders, or you can go to Ancient Owl and have a bunch of micro brews from all over the state.”
Duncan Alley is a major draw for people because there are a variety of drink options to sip on, Parker-Garcia said.
“The more beverage organizations that open here, the better off we all are,” Steins said.
Industrial complex is home to pilates, yoga studio
The industrial complex isn’t just a haven for those who love to sip caffeine and imbibe alcoholic drinks. It’s also a spot for locals to get their fitness fix.
“We have some gym fitness-oriented (businesses), which plays into that idea of where people want to be,” Mavis said.
Duncan Alley is home to Ritual Reform X Pilates and Ivory Yoga Studio.
Sarah Whitmore Boe, the owner and founder of Ritual Reform, opened up a second location of her fitness business at Duncan Alley about a year ago. The studio offers up to 10 classes per day in a nearly 1,200 square-foot space. The pilates studio’s other location is in Templeton.
Whitmore Boe said she signed the lease after being hooked by CoVelop’s vision to create a hangout spot for residents in an up-and-coming neighborhood in San Luis Obispo.
“That concept, combined with the community that Duncan Alley has to offer, really drew us to the space,” she said.
“Things are decentralizing from Higuera (Street) and spreading outwards,” Whitmore Boe said. “So that felt like a really great move to be over on that side of town.”
She said her SLO studio has been successful since day one.
Business owners find community at Duncan Alley
Several shop owners at Duncan Alley gushed about the tight-knit relationships they’ve formed with other retailers on site.
“All the business owners are very collaborative here,” Shindig Cider co-founder John Wilson said. “We share forklifts and we share ideas and all of that. It’s a very collaborative zone.”
The hard cider operation open its first taproom in Duncan Alley in late 2023. Since then, the cidery has hosted a variety of events, including concerts, movie premieres and games.
According to Wilson, business owners in the complex “bounce stuff off each other” and communicate often to ensure that they don’t double-book events such as trivia nights.
Food trucks brought in by Ancient Owl Beer Garden can be enjoyed by all visitors to Duncan Alley.
“Moving in here was definitely a roll of the dice,” Wilson said. “We didn’t know what it was going to turn out like, but it’s been a lot of positivity and a lot of support from the community.”
