Ready for a brewski? Downtown Myrtle Beach brewery and restaurant sets opening date
The new arts and innovation district that is part of the revitalization of downtown Myrtle Beach will soon have its centerpiece.
The Grand Strand Brewing Company is scheduled to open Feb. 23 adjacent to Nance Plaza, near 9th Ave. North and North Kings Highway.
“We’re really fortunate to have this awesome building, a great park in front of us, a couple footsteps to the ocean, a super-excited community,” said brewery CEO Clayton Burrous. “You really have to pinch yourself sometimes. It’s pretty cool.”
The bar and restaurant will initially feature six unique craft beers that are all brewed on-site and will expand to about a dozen options in the near future.
The opening beers will be a red ale, a session IPA, hazy IPA, a stout, a mint stout and a pale ale.
Brews coming in the near future include a Belgian tripel, pilsner and amber lager.
“The most important component is we feel really, really excellent about the beer. The beer is fantastic,” Burrous said. “Core competency No. 1 has been achieved so all the other stuff we have to learn as we go we can manage. If the beer was no good we’d be screwed, but the beer tastes great.”
The menu is still being finalized and Burrous said it will feature upscale bar food including burgers and more creative dishes.
“Right now [we’re focused] to get the beer right, get the food right, set it up,” Burrous said. “It’s a really neat place. It’s a beautiful historic building, great view, we’ve got outdoor seating that’s really cool.
“We’re just wanting people to come and sit down and have a meal and drink some beer, then we’ll get more active in our programming in March once we have a better understanding of how much of this outdoor space we can activate in this current climate.”
Burrous plans to have music playing for the opening as well as games and activities for customers outside the building such as cornhole, giant Jenga and giant Connect Four.
“Just some kind of casual fun, family-friendly games that are enjoyable when you’re drinking a beer,” said Burrous, who moved to Myrtle Beach with his family from Charleston in September.
Grand Strand Brewing Co. is near a new performance stage at Nance Plaza, which is a couple blocks from the Myrtle Beach Boardwalk on the ocean, so the business will have live music on weekends in addition to other events, such as art shows.
Burrous said he will be requesting special events permits from the city to utilize the park and stage. The band StereoType is the first scheduled band on March 5. Shows and events will generally be held from 4-8 p.m., and upcoming events can be found on the brewery Facebook page and Untapped mobile app.
Nance Plaza has been renovated with a new stage, artificial turf, landscaping and lighting in trees. “It’s absolutely stunning,” Burrous said. “We’re so fortunate the city kind of chose to run a parallel path with us in trying to kind of be the catalyst to bring downtown Myrtle Beach back to life.
“I think going forward this is going to be a local kind of institution if you will for just having a good time.”
The brewery building will have 10 upstairs apartments that will be fully furnished with full kitchens and washer/dryer units, and four currently have views of the ocean. They should be available within a few weeks.
“We feel super fortunate we’re able to pull it all together, especially during a tough year,” Burrous said. “. . . We’re just trying to put our best foot forward and make good beer, put out good food and create that authentic local craft brewery experience we feel people in Myrtle Beach are really looking for.”
This story was originally published February 12, 2021 at 2:13 PM.
