Today I introduce a series of posts about places I like and think people should know about. My new favorite places. These are places that I am afraid might have slipped under the radar for a lot of people. Like, it surprises me how many people have yet to visit Fast Fashion Brewing.
Maybe you’re familiar with the name, and the beer, but have you visited the brewery and taproom in Seattle’s SoDo neighborhood? Yeah, I thought not. Fast Fashion fired up the brewery and started making beer at the location last February but the taproom did not open until late last summer. It’s on First Avenue just a couple blocks south of T-Mobile Park, next door to Hooverville. (1723 1st Ave S.)
If you are familiar with the brand, you know that the vibe has always been quirky and fun. Fast Fashion’s beer names and label artwork are always a bit off the wall. Eclectic might be the right word. When you visit the brewery and taproom in SoDo the same vibe fills the space. (See the video below.)
The taproom is divided into a few different spaces, each filled with a mishmash of furniture, decorations, and eclectic curios like bowling pins, a barber’s chair, mannequin arms, and so on. The beer is poured in the back room right next to the brewery. More like, you are actually in the brewery. Some video games back there too.
Fast Fashion Brewing was an idea born during the throes of the pandemic as Matt Storm and his friend Brian Strumke endured the business closures and quarantines by musing about beer. Matt owns a beer-obsessed pizza joint in Seattle, Masonry Pizza. Brian is the mastermind behind Stillwater Artisanal Brewing.
The term fast fashion is used to describe low-priced but stylish clothing that moves quickly from the design room to retail stores to take advantage of current trends. Matt and Brian pondered the idea of applying the same strategy to beer. In the world of fashion, it means one thing, but in the world of beer, Fast Fashion has become synonymous with a constant stream of tasty, creative, often one-off beers that the brewery bearing the name serves up to thirsty beer lovers.
In the beginning, and for much of its life thus far, Fast Fashion Brewing operated as a contract brewery. It was Matt Storm’s brand, vision, concepts, and recipes, but he brewed the beer on someone else’s equipment, packaged it in cans, and sold it online and at a very select group of retailers. Also, in the beginning, it was all about hazy IPAs. That part of the story is now history. Fast Fashion brews its own beer on its own equipment and no longer lends such a singular focus on the haze. In fact, my current favorite beer from Fast Fashion is an Italian-style pilsner called Sunday Gravy. Don’t worry, all you hazeheads, Fast Fashion still does plenty of those.
Fast Fashion Brewing has another location (16 Roy St.), a simple taproom in the Lower Queen Anne neighborhood. It is on Roy Street, at street level, in one of the newer mixed-use retail/apartment buildings. It’s popular with the neighborhood regulars and a great place to enjoy a beer before an event at Climate Pledge Arena, or any other time. It’s right next door to Masonry Pizza, the beer-focused pizza joint that is also owned by Matt Storm.
