A YEAR OF FINNEY'S CRAFTHOUSE
This story is a profile on a local restaurant in downtown San Luis Obispo.
January 21, 2021
The door opens to the friendly face of a host and rock ‘n’ roll music subtly playing in the background. In a room that normally seats 150 people, stands 100 year-old brick walls, reclaimed wood furniture and a copper bar with 30 California beer taps. This is Finney’s Crafthouse.
Located at 857 Monterey Street in San Luis Obispo’s quaint downtown area, this relatively new restaurant has received community praise and an average 4.5 star Yelp review. Finney’s offers 70 food items the San Luis Obispo Chamber of Commerce described as “a roadtrip across America.”
For Greg Finefrock, co-founder of Finney’s Crafthouse, expanding his small, but growing franchise to San Luis Obispo was an obvious choice. He spent his childhood summer vacations in SLO visiting family. Since then, he has admired SLO’s downtown and restaurant scene.
With about 60 other restaurants in the downtown area, Finney’s may get overlooked in the vast variety of food options SLO community members and visitors have to pick from. However, Finney’s sets itself apart by offering high quality food and service at an affordable price, with the average entree at 12 dollars and beer at seven dollars.
Jorja Murphy, a Cal Poly student, admits that she was hesitant to try Finney’s because she expected average pub food that could not compete with her usual downtown go-tos. After ordering fish tacos, Murphy immediately took back her original sentiments about the restaurant. Just months after trying Finney’s for the first time, it is now one of her favorite restaurants in SLO.
Though overcoming the odds and earning a community following, its opening date was January 22, 2020. Meaning that just a month and a half after its grand opening, COVID-19 safety regulations prohibited restaurant dining. With this news, Finney’s was only able to offer curbside pickup for the following few months. In this initial restaurant dining closure, Finefrock explained that they had to layoff 90 percent of their normal staff.
Barely avoiding temporary closure, Finney’s was able to expand to outdoor seating in the summer of 2020 as COVID-19 safety precautions began to ease. Sales at this point surpassed even pre-COVID earnings.
This era of business bliss was cut short with another spike in COVID-19 cases entering into the fall season. This time, the restaurant laid off about 80 percent of their staff, keeping 10 percent more than the previous layoff. However, the once booming success of outdoor dining came crashing down as sales decreased by about 80 percent.
Since this third phase of COVID-19 restaurant regulations, several restaurants in SLO—including Finney’s—offer pick-up dining with optional outdoor self-seating available.
Though Finefrock knows the restaurant itself will survive this wavering time, he said “staff layoffs have kept me up at night.” This issue remains the primary concern for the owners and management of the Finney’s San Luis Obispo location.
As a franchise, Finney’s aims to expand from four restaurant locations to seven in the next two years. A location in Puerto Ranch is scheduled to open around February 2021. The location in Burbank is under construction with plans to open in the next year and they have also signed a lease for a location in Orange County.
Regardless of the location or COVID-19 safety regulations diminishing the restaurant experience, Finefrock recommends ordering his favorite menu item named after his mother: Peggy’s crispy chicken sandwich.