Uncle Jack (who is dealing with the death of a dog, and my heart goes out to him) has been doing better on the local scene than I have with one metaphorical arm tied behind his back. He 's got some ugly details here on the Independence shutdown. It's not looking good for continuance as a brewpub.
This shouldn't come as a terrible surprise: the plans never allowed it to take off. Red Bell/Jim Bell, who originally planned this thing as a satellite brewpub to their mothership brewery at 31st and Jefferson, never intended to use enough of the expensive floor space for enough brewery to support a place that size. The plan was for specialties to be brewed there, with the bulk of the beer coming from the big brewery. For various reasons (for which you'll have to wait till Jack or Don write a book about it), Bell never opened it, and when it did open, there was no big microbrewery to back it up. It's been a struggle ever since.
Without being privy to any more details than you can read at his site, I think Jack's right. This looks like the end for the brewpub beside the market.
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