Owners of Sura Korean BBQ buy Fine Feathers Kombucha; production continues
Fine Feathers Kombucha, Long Beach’s homegrown kombucha brand that had spread across the county, will be closing their brick-and-mortar storefront permanently with the possibility of shutting down all their operations.
“We don’t know the full extent of everything yet—we’re figuring that out concurrently,” said co-owner Jay Penev. “What we do know is that the Long Beach Boulevard storefront is closing.”
The store’s new retail hours are Wednesday through Sunday from noon to 4 p.m., with Sunday, Oct. 4 being the last day the retail shop will be physically open. Additionally, the store will be closed Sept. 30 and Oct. 1.
Having moved to Long Beach in 2011 from Portland, wife and husband team Jodine Penev West and Jay Penev came with no clear intentions outside escaping the gloom of Portland. Jay hails from Bulgaria while Jodine was born and raised in Long Beach and soon, with Jodine’s hometown community backing them, began the work that would be Fine Feathers Kombucha.
Birthed out of their home in 2012, they launched what would soon become a mini-empire as coffeeshops, retailers, and restaurants began carrying their bottles of guava, lavender and lemon-cayenne concoctions. Two years later, after failing to find a production facility in Signal Hill, the pair found a spot located at the southwest corner of Long Beach Boulevard and 23rd Street, cementing the small business as a bonafide kombucha producer.
“Our business model isn’t a typical business model, we just want to create a community,” Jay said in an interview when the space first opened in 2014.
The announcement of their closure was first mentioned on their Instagram: