The name “Rock Bottom Brewery” came into being when the founders of our company and the construction team were all sitting around (I don’t know if they were literally sitting around, but that’s the story I heard) in their new restaurant location on the 16th Street Mall in downtown Denver, wondering what to call it. The space was located at the garden level (meaning: halfway below ground) of Denver’s then-Prudential Insurance building. Prudential uses the phrase “the Rock” in their marketing campaigns even to this day because their corporate logo features the Rock of Gibraltar, and back then it put our new restaurant concept smack dab at… the bottom of The Rock. Rock Bottom.
Rae Hazen, Office Administration & Other Stuff at CraftWorks Restaurants & Breweries, Inc.
Rock Bottom may have started in Denver, but now has at least thirty brewpubs all over the United States. In 2010, Rock Bottom was purchased by CraftWorks along with the Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant Group. Back in Chicago, I used to frequent their brewpub on Grand Ave. Tons of pool tables and tasty beers to choose from.
Why It’s Named … is an ongoing feature about the stories behind brewery names