Ole Smoky Distillery and Yee-Haw Brewing Co. will open a joint venue in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina on Wednesday, May 20, 2026, the companies announced, expanding both brands' physical retail footprints into one of the Southeast's highest-traffic tourism markets.
The combined location is positioned as an entertainment-driven destination rather than a conventional tasting room, incorporating live music programming alongside spirits and craft beer sales. No square footage, seating capacity, capital expenditure figures, or projected revenue targets were disclosed in the announcement.
The Myrtle Beach market draws an estimated 20 million visitors annually, making it among the most commercially active leisure corridors on the Atlantic Seaboard — a profile that aligns with the experiential retail strategy both brands have pursued across their existing Tennessee home-market locations. Ole Smoky, headquartered in Gatlinburg, has built its distribution and brand-awareness model around high-footfall tourist destinations, a playbook that has helped the distillery grow into one of the most-visited craft spirits producers in the United States. Yee-Haw, based in Johnson City, Tennessee, operates taprooms that similarly blend craft beverage service with live entertainment.
The co-location model reduces individual occupancy and operating costs for each brand while pooling draw across two distinct consumer bases — spirits drinkers and craft beer enthusiasts — a structure that has gained traction among mid-tier alcohol producers seeking to extend geographic reach without the capital burden of standalone flagship buildouts. Food & Beverage Magazine has tracked a broader uptick in co-branded experiential venues as craft producers contend with slowing on-premise traffic in legacy markets.
The opening arrives as the craft spirits and craft beer segments face divergent volume trends. Craft beer's share of total U.S. beer volume has plateaued near 13.0% in recent years, while American whiskey and flavored spirits — categories central to Ole Smoky's portfolio — have shown more resilient retail velocity. A joint venue allows both operators to cross-promote and capture incremental spend from the other brand's core consumer. For further context on experiential retail's role in craft alcohol growth, see F&B Industry News coverage of destination distillery economics and brewery taproom expansion trends.
No executive commentary on same-store sales performance, franchise plans, or broader South Carolina expansion timelines was included in the release.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.