7th Settlement Brewery hints about future plans

DOVER — One of the owners of 7th Settlement Brewery, which has been closed for months, said Wednesday the business was "close to making an announcement" about its future.

David Boynton wouldn’t say what the announcement would entail other than to say there is an acquisition in the works. He said he wants it to be finalized before commenting further. “It’s been a long, difficult process,” he said.

Boynton would not say if the business had been evicted from its 47 Washington St., location, which is inside the Chinburg Properties-owned Cocheco Mills. Boynton would only say, “We are working with the landlord. That is part of the process.” Attempts to reach a Chinburg Properties representative were unsuccessful.

A sign on the door, which has hung for months, says “the restaurant side is temporarily closed,” though it notes its beer-making operations continued. Inside the main door of the business, a 7th Settlement poster still hangs as does a brewery T-shirt. The 7th Settlement catering food truck remains parked in the mill's parking lot. Boynton said in an interview Wednesday that as of August, the company stopped brewing beer and selling it wholesale.

Boynton and co-owner Joshua Henry opened the brewery restaurant in 2013. This past May, Boynton told Foster’s that 90 percent of its workforce was being laid off, which also coincided in reduced hours. By early July, the restaurant was closed.

In May, Boynton told Foster’s, “We started out under-capitalized. We made a couple of mistakes with some expenses and growth,” he said. “It’s our debt and a couple of things that happened."

He stressed the financial issues the company was not connected with the decision the company made last year to eliminate tipping and pay waitstaff a higher wage.