CHARLOTTE — The fallout continues for Sycamore Brewing as a Charlotte small business owner canceled a planned holiday event, citing concerns about holding a celebration in the wake of child sex crime charges against the brewery’s co-founder.
Lidia Werntz said she understands that the actions of one man don’t represent the entire company.
However, she doesn’t feel comfortable holding an event about peace and love in the holiday season in light of the recent charges against the brewery’s co-founder Justin Brigham.
Werntz organizes popup markets around Charlotte through her company Makers Market CLT.
Earlier this week, she canceled the holiday market scheduled for Thursday night at The Line building in South End, which would have highlighted her vendors and the other businesses that operate in the same building as Sycamore Brewing.
“I was under the impression that they were going to try to open and sell beer,” Werntz said. “It was an immediate ‘No’ In my head. I can’t, I can’t.”
Werntz said her heart was with the survivor in her post announcing the cancellation saying, “We want to be clear that we stand in support of victims.”
That is something Werntz did not see in the first statement Sycamore Brewing put out last week, which said nothing about the victim.
“Well, the owner, I feel for her,” Werntz said. “She is going through something that I don’t think there’s a guidebook for.”
She added, “But even that initial press release that they did. I think, is what set my mind to, like, ‘OK, we’re done.’ Because it felt like it wasn’t about the community. It wasn’t about the victim. It felt a little … to me, a little selfish.”
Sycamore put out a three-page statement on Instagram three days after the first.
Werntz said she’s out some money, and so are her vendors, though they did get a credit for future events.
She said the incident is about the victim and not about her or her vendors or even Sycamore.
“Two things can coexist,” she said. “I can feel bad for her, and I can feel bad for her employees, while simultaneously keeping true to my morals.”
Channel 9 learned that several Charlotte bars have been unable to order Sycamore products all week through Adams Distributing, which is one of the biggest distributors in the Charlotte area.
Channel 9 reached out to Adams Distributing multiple times this week to confirm it has dropped Sycamore products, but we have not still heard back.
Channel 9 also reached out to the company who owns this building, which had no comment.
The company who manages it, Foundry Commercial, said “all tenants (office and retail) are operational and are approaching business as usual.”
On Tuesday, Channel 9 reported Comer Distributing stopped selling Sycamore’s beers writing on social media: “Our responsibility goes beyond the products we sell even though the vile person responsible has not been involved in the day-to-day operations of the brewery for a couple years,” and that, “He resided outside the U.S. prior to this happening.”
Sycamore statements:
Sycamore put out a 3-page statement on Instagram three days after the first.
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