Why Out-of-Town Breweries Flock to Charlotte – Charlotte Magazine

One by one, breweries from other cities are crashing the raucous party of Charlotte’s beer scene: Hippin’ Hops and Monday Night from Atlanta; Burial and Hi-Wire from Asheville; Frothy Beard out of Charleston. As of January, by our count, out-of-town breweries owned and operated nine taprooms in the Charlotte area.

It’s no mystery. Charlotte’s a booming city packed with young professionals who like to quaff craft beer. But what about the reverse—Charlotte-area breweries opening in other cities and towns? To this point, even those with multiple taprooms here are content to stay close to home. That may change soon, though—and it could signal Charlotte beer’s first venture into another market. 

Legion Brewing, which launched in Plaza Midwood in 2015 and has since opened three more locations in Charlotte, is eyeing property in Raleigh, Durham, and Wilmington for potential taprooms. When we speak in January, CEO Phil Buchy says the brewery has begun to distribute beer statewide, and “that opens the possibility of doing a brick-and-mortar spot somewhere outside of Charlotte.”

Legion hasn’t picked a location or set a deadline. “It’s just got to feel right,” Buchy says. “It’s got to be the right opportunity and the right neighborhood and get us jazzed up, because we’re not looking to cookie-cutter stamp out a product or just shove a manufactured, this-is-our-model spot somewhere. We want to find inspiration in a building or neighborhood and create something new and wonderful.”

That’s always the challenge, and it complicates any brewery’s attempts to venture outside its hometown. Craft brewing’s small-batch, artisanal “localness” is central to its appeal; start trying to build an empire, like Genghis Khan with bagfuls of hops, and you might as well franchise or sell out to Anheuser-Busch. Plus, even with distribution to bars and grocery stores in other markets, taprooms and staff are expensive—and there’s no guarantee that a sound business plan in one city will work in another.

COVID and increased competition have forced brewery owners around the country to scale back their ambitions, says Bart Watson, the chief economist for the Brewers Association, a Colorado-based trade group. Watson mentions prestigious Oregon-based Deschutes Brewery, which had to close its 4-year-old taproom in Roanoke, Virginia, at the end of 2021.

“It takes a lot of capital to build these breweries and manufacturing facilities, and if you don’t get the customers to come … that can be a risky investment,” Watson tells me. “And you’ve got markets that are fiercely local, so somebody coming in is going to have more challenges getting their roots down.”

Some of the larger and more successful Charlotte breweries have looked into expanding to other cities but decided against it. NoDa Brewing Company already tried it, in a sense—the brewery and a partner opened a combination taproom-tapas restaurant in Chapel Hill in 2022. It lasted less than a year. As of January, NoDa Brewing wasn’t planning any taprooms outside of Charlotte, says Jacob Virgil, its development director.

“It’s definitely been a consideration many times over the years. We haven’t really pursued it, though, just with the rate at which Charlotte has been growing,” Virgil says. “We’ve been, from a taproom perspective, dedicating our resources in Charlotte, trying to capitalize on that growth.”

Some out-of-town breweries have done the same. Monday Night Brewing, an Atlanta-based operation with additional taprooms in Nashville and Birmingham, opened an 8,000-square-foot taproom on South Tryon Street in June. Monday Night offers far more than just beer, a near-requirement for a new entry in jam-packed South End. It offers cocktails made with proprietary liquor, pizzas from two wood-burning ovens, and an expansive beer garden with yard games and a fire pit.

Monday Night also has a secret weapon in General Manager Amanda Buckley, the former manager of Legion Brewing’s Trolley Barn Fermentory & Food Hall, just a few blocks away on South Boulevard. The Atlanta brewery hired her away a year ago and told her: Make this space your own, and Charlotte’s.

“We are not trying to come in and do it the Atlanta way. We are coming in and trying to become a great spot for Charlotte and embrace the community and do cool events for them,” Buckley says. “We’re not necessarily looking to be the best, but we want to be a lot of people’s favorite.”

GREG LACOUR is the editor.