A popular brewery in Maple Grove has apologized after it canceled a reservation for a conservative organization that had booked its private event space. That came less than 24 hours after a Democratic candidate for the Minnesota legislature held a fundraiser in the same space.
OMNI Brewery took to social media last week to explain the “perceived political bias,” where it had allowed a Democrat fundraiser to take place the day before it notified the conservative group it would cancel its private event and refund its booking deposit.
The Twin Cities chapter for Americans for Prosperity was supposed to hold its “Big Beautiful Bill” celebration last Tuesday afternoon at the private event space inside the OMNI Maple Grove taproom.
Americans for Prosperity (AFP) is a conservative-libertarian organization that focuses its work on advocating for fiscally-conservative policies. The local AFP-Minnesota chapter marketed the event to its audience on Facebook.
On July 11, just four days before the event was to take place at OMNI, AFP-Minnesota said a staff member received a refund email instructing them the reservation was canceled, with no explanation.
Following the cancellation, OMNI posted a screenshot of an AFP-Minnesota advertisement on its Facebook page, with a bolded message on it that read: “We do NOT support this! The event has been canceled, please read the caption for more information.”
The OMNI Maple Grove post went on to insinuate that AFP-Minnesota was less than truthful in how it described the nature of the event, and said that the brewery’s booking policy explicitly prohibits political events.
According to OMNI, AFP-Minnesota filled out the reservation and submitted an explanation for its event that read, “networking event focused on economic policy, we are inviting local community leaders to thank them for all their contributions and advocacy in the last 3 months.”
The brewery claimed this description “was intentionally vague to bypass our booking policy.” However, AFP-Minnesota contends that there was no indication when it completed the booking process that political events weren’t allowed.
OMNI appears to have deleted its original post, but the brewery said in another post that the fundraiser that was held on July 10 for Democrat state Senate candidate Kristy Janigo was booked before a new website and policies were implemented.
“We’re sorry we missed canceling this event and for the perceived political bias that not cancelling it created given our cancelation of another political event that was scheduled for July 15th,” the brewery said in its statement on Facebook. That drew more than 160 comments, ranging from expressing support for the brewery to those saying the inconsistency will lead them to no longer patronize the business.
In an email to Alpha News, a representative for OMNI Brewery reiterated that the July 10 DFL fundraiser had been booked with an old booking software and that the AFP-Minnesota event was booked with a new software.
“Please reference our social media post from this morning explaining the error we made and our apology in not catching the recent event for Kristy Janigo and canceling,” Justin Walsh, founder and CFO of OMNI, told Alpha News. “The Janigo event was booked on our old website and the AFP event was booked on the new website.”
That explanation still doesn’t sit well with staff members for AFP-Minnesota, who told Alpha News that they were surprised OMNI took the issue to social media. They said they would have understood and moved on if OMNI had simply called to explain.
“While it’s unfortunate that OMNI Brewery says they won’t hold any political events at their brewery, it appears they only want to hold events by Democrat organizations,” said Jake Coleman, state director for AFP-Minnesota.
“AFP-MN will continue to celebrate the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which benefits hardworking Minnesotans and small businesses—including OMNI,” Coleman added, noting that the organization moved its event to its offices.
OMNI has two other locations in the Twin Cities, and as recently as May it allowed a “DFL Senate District 56 Happy Hour” to be held in its private event space.
Last fall the brewery allowed a Republican legislator to hold a fundraiser inside its private space. That same month a local fundraiser for the Harris-Walz campaign was also held there.
Hank Long
Hank Long is a journalism and communications professional whose writing career includes coverage of the Minnesota legislature, city and county governments and the commercial real estate industry. Hank received his undergraduate degree at the University of Minnesota, where he studied journalism, and his law degree at the University of St. Thomas. The Minnesota native lives in the Twin Cities with his wife and four children. His dream is to be around when the Vikings win the Super Bowl.
