Modern Times to open Leisuretown in Anaheim

Friday morning, Modern Times announced a significant new expansion to downtown Anaheim. Dubbed Leisuretown, the brewery, food, and entertainment complex will occupy nearly 32,000 square feet at 554 South Anaheim Boulevard, just across the freeway from Disneyland.

The Modern Times location will sit within a couple blocks of Anaheim Brewery and Unsung Brewing Company. Other notable Orange County craft brewers The Bruery, Noble Ale Works, and Bottle Logic are also nearby, and so is a recently opened Karl Strauss brewpub.

The email announcement describes Leisuretown as "the next major research facility in our ongoing investigation into the art of partying." The ambitious venture has been planned with the assistance of Orange County developer The LAB, which has launched unique shopping center concepts including Costa Mesa's Antimall, and the Anaheim Packing District, which sits a block north of the Modern Times site.

Like those projects, Modern Times' venture will feature an updated take on a food court, with stalls serving food by "some of SoCal’s most kickass restaurateurs." Plans also include a swimming pool equipped with a poolside bar and movie screen. Within a two-story craftsman home on one corner of the property, the beer company will operate a vegan café and restaurant.

Naturally, the chief component will be a new Modern Times brewery, this one dedicated to funky and sour beers. The planned brewhouse is being described as "chock-full of foeders, amphora, and various experimental fermenting vessels, housed in a jaw-dropping old hoop-style wooden warehouse." It will be run by a tandem of Orange County and San Diego brewers, and large enough to distribute beer to Modern Times' growing list of tasting rooms, as well as select bottle shops and bars. Modern Times' barrel program will remain in Point Loma.

The Anaheim project is early in the planning stages with no set opening date, and while the company has provided conceptual layout, design changes are likely. Meanwhile, the Dankness Dojo, a planned restaurant and pilot brewery slated for downtown Los Angeles, continues construction, with no opening date set.