Springfield, IL (CAPITOL CITY NOW) – The end of the year marks the end of business for Buzz Bomb Brewing Co.

“A lot of those folks downtown shifted to either remote or hybrid work, and certainly that has only gotten worse, not better, over the last few years, and then the Adams Street fire and the displacement of Cafe Moxo disrupted a lot of foot traffic as well,” said Springfield Business Journal publisher Michelle Ownbey, who adds owner Josh Flanders never recovered Buzz Bomb’s pandemic loss and no longer sees it as a sustainable operation.

Ownbey says the Buzz Bomb closure affects another business, A Taste of Seoul, which occupied the building’s upper story. “Kimsimone Manning has had that for just shy of two years now,” said Ownbey, “and, because she relies on a lot of the infrastructure from Buzz Bomb, it’s no longer going to be sustainable for her to continue operations, either.”