NoDa Brewing Company, one of Charlotte's founding craft breweries and a cultural anchor of the North Davidson Arts District, opened here in 2011. NoDa Brewing opened in 2011 when the craft beer movement was still finding its footing in Charlotte, and it became one of the beers that put the city on the national craft brewing map. The brewery's Hop Drop 'N Roll IPA won a Great American Beer Festival gold medal, the kind of national recognition that announced Charlotte had arrived as a serious brewing city.
The taproom at this location has the easy, unpretentious energy of the neighborhood around it — mismatched furniture, local art on the walls, a crowd that mixes longtime NoDa residents with newcomers and visitors. NoDa Brewing expanded to a larger facility as demand grew, but the original taproom retains its neighborhood-bar quality. Charlotte now has more than fifty craft breweries, making the greater metro one of the most prolific brewing regions in the Southeast.
NoDa Brewing did not create that culture, but it helped prove that the culture was possible — that a mid-sized Southern city could sustain serious, ambitious beer-making alongside its banks and racetracks.