With all of the old Modern Times brewing equipment still inside the facility, Kominek has been able to get up and running quickly. Kominek, who has spent years in Southern California craft beer, including stints as the head brewer at Noble Ale Works in Anaheim and at Green Cheek Beer Company, will be handling the brewing. The former Leisuretown’s long public pool. “This is like being given the keys to a Ferrari after years of driving a Civic,” says Hernandez. To accomplish that goal, the grilling and smoking at the Craftsman will be done on a new Fatstack Smoker. ![]() “The Craftsman is going to be a menu with 100 percent open-fire cooking,” says Hernandez. There will be cocktails where the coffee machine once sat, and Kominek’s beers brewed on-site. The upcoming restaurant, currently called the Craftsman, will lean more high-end and will use both floors (and possibly even the cellar) of the original home. Hernandez is promising barbecue and other meaty snacks (a departure from Modern Times’ meager vegan menu) as an extension of his growing restaurant chain Craft by Smoke and Fire, but with more of a steakhouse feel. With partners Hernandez and Kominek now in charge, the new venture is moving in a different direction. The space had all of the hallmarks of a successful indoor-outdoor operation, but a second pandemic wave, mandated indoor dining restrictions, and credible allegations of toxic workplace environment, discrimination, and sexual misconduct at Modern Times resulting in the resignation of founder and CEO Jacob McKean ensured that Leisuretown would never reach its full potential. There’s a 1911-era Craftsman-style home, a former grocery store-turned-brewery, and an old auto yard that has been overhauled to include a lush Palm Springs-style courtyard, complete with cabanas and a 45-foot-long pool. Owned by Orange County “anti-mall” mogul Shaheen Sadeghi, the sprawling Leisuretown development - initially built in conjunction with Modern Times - actually encompasses three distinct spaces. Now two hospitality veterans in Brad Kominek (a well-respected brewer) and Isaias Hernandez, of the growing chain Smoke and Fire, have taken over the operation. ![]() At 33,000 square feet, Leisuretown was billed as a huge play place for Orange County craft beer drinkers, with different areas to drink, dine, or just hang out in poolside cabanas, but two years later the property closed with little fanfare. Ambitions were lofty when Modern Times Beer opened its Leisuretown location in Anaheim in September 2020, even if the timing wasn’t ideal.
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