Charleston's Brewery Survivors Are Pouring Margaritas Now

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Charleston's beer boom has a body count, and Revelry is still standing. Its survival plan now includes margaritas.

Start with the numbers. The Charleston City Paper went back through its 2023 list of almost 40 local breweries and brewpubs last fall and found more than 10 had closed. About 20 are left.

The names hurt. Palmetto Brewing, open three decades, poured its last beer in 2025. Fatty's, Cooper River and Bevi Bene all shut their taprooms. Live 5 counted six closures in a single 12-month stretch.

It's national, too. The Brewers Association tallied 434 craft brewery closures in 2025 against 268 openings, the second straight year the closings won.

Revelry opened at 10 Conroy St. in 2014. It turned four with an oyster block party in 2018, which makes this year number 12. The rooftop, the Lefty Loosey IPA and a stack of Great American Beer Festival medals got it through the fat years.

The lean years call for liquor.

The Post & Courier reports Revelry got its liquor license and rolled out a full cocktail list on Oct. 19. About a dozen drinks, margaritas and Moscow mules among them, plus a frozen painkiller riff called the Part Time Pirate. Folly Beach got cocktails first, seven months earlier, and co-owner Sean Fleming told the paper the Charleston bump was immediate.

Some quick background on Folly. Revelry opened that one on Christmas Eve 2023, tucked down the alley at 13-B Center St. Fleming owns it with head brewer Ryan Coker and partner Jay Daratony.

Then there's the food.

Michael Toscano took over Revelry's kitchen in spring 2024 with da Toscano Fugazzi, a deliberately fake-Italian menu of porchetta cubanos and porcini prime rib cheesesteaks. "Fugazzi" is slang for fake. The man has a sense of humor.

Per the Post & Courier, the Italian stuff is on the way out. In comes the menu from Blanca Estrada Taqueria, Toscano's Mexican pop-up.

That pop-up opened in late 2024 at 164 Market St., in an old UPS Store that shares a wall with his Le Farfalle. Toscano made his name on Italian. His mother is Mexican, with family from Guadalajara. The taqueria is the food he grew up eating, with tortillas made from scratch.

So a beer bar adds tequila, and the Italian guy goes back to his Mexican roots. Charleston in 2026.

The Post & Courier also says Toscano wants a permanent home for Blanca Estrada somewhere in the Lowcountry, and the Market Street pop-up keeps running until he finds one.

Revelry has company. The City Paper found several local breweries adding full bars and full menus, and Holy City is building a small speakeasy behind its taproom in Park Circle. Low Tide's founder pushed back on the trend and is keeping his place all beer.

One date for the calendar. Revelry's annual block party is Saturday, Nov. 7, according to the Post & Courier. Last year's party was a Charleston Animal Society team-up with adoptable dogs, and the paper says this one benefits the shelter again.

The Conroy Street taproom opens at noon daily and closes at 10, except Sunday, when it shuts at 8.

Sources: Charleston City Paper (brewery count, full-bar trend, Holy City speakeasy), Charleston City Paper (Blanca Estrada location, Toscano's heritage), Charleston City Paper (da Toscano Fugazzi), Charleston City Paper (Revelry's age), Live 5 (local closures), Inside.beer (national closure numbers), Folly Current (Folly location, owners, medals), Charleston Animal Society (block party partnership), Revelry Brewing (address, hours) and the Post & Courier (cocktail launch, menu change, block party date)