Charleston: Lagunitas Tap Room and Beer Sanctuary (November 2016)

Lagunitas Tap Room and Beer Sanctuary - Three Levels for Dining, Drinking, and Events

My spouse and I visited the Lagunitas Tap Room and Beer Sanctuary on a Saturday afternoon in mid-November 2016. We had just finished a tour of the Edmondston-Alston House nearby, and we noticed Lagunitas as we walked north on East Bay Street. The bar/restaurant is open daily for lunch, dinner, and drinks.

The Lagunitas Brewing Company began in 1993 in Lagunitas California, but moved to nearby Petaluma one year later. Their first beer was a pale ale called Dogtown Pale Ale, which they still brew today. The dog on the original label still appears as their logo today. (Beers called Dogtown, Cappuccino, and Bug Town were names of extinct railroad stops out in the west part of Marin County, where the founder lives). Lagunitas opened a second brewery in Chicago in 2012. By 2014, Lagunitas was the fifth top craft brewery in the US, producing over 600,000+ barrels and distributing their beer to 32+ states. The brewery radically interprets traditional beer styles, including irreverent descriptive text and stories on its packaging. In 2015, Heineken International acquired a 50 percent stake in Lagunitas, so Lagunitas is no longer characterized as a “craft” brewery. (The Brewers Association defines “craft” as a small company with less than 6 million barrels accounting for 3 percent of annual US sales.)

The Charleston outlet of Lagunitas opened in fall 2016 in the Wagener Building on East Bay Street in the space previously occupied by the Southend Brewery and Smokehouse for the last 20 years. The bar/restaurant overlooks Charleston Harbor from its top level; notable features include a 20-barrel brewhouse (which is not considered a full production facility) and a brick oven to make pizzas. The building is named for FW Wagener, a local merchant who bought and sold groceries, liquor, cotton, and fertilizer in the 1880s. In the 1930s, the building called Ohlandt Warehouse.

The 16,300-square foot turn-of-the-century corner space offers three levels for entertainment. The ground-floor/street level contains the main bar and open kitchen surrounded by table seating at light-wood picnic tables and regular-height and high-top tables atop light hardwood floors. The upper two levels (reached by elevator) is used for overflow dining, but can also be reserved for private events. Some outdoor dining space is also available. The top/third floor also offers a shop where you can buy “schwag” (Lagunitas-branded attire and souvenirs). The décor features old, mismatched chairs and sofas, musical instruments hanging on the walls, modern wood tables, and purple accent walls. 

We enjoyed drinks at the rustic bar on the third level of Lagunitas, munching on complimentary peanuts and pretzels while watching an afternoon football game on one of the restaurant’s many TVs.