Overwhelming response to Rock Hill’s new brew pub

Legal Remedy Brewing Co. of Rock Hill serves beer and wine, but it’s not a bar.

Legal Remedy serves food, but it’s not a restaurant.

The big-screen TVs will often have a game on, but it’s not a sports bar.

It is a brew pub where the beer and the food are handcrafted. About the only thing that hasn’t been made by the staff’s hands are the national brand sodas and the wine selection.

The public response, so far, has been overwhelming, and it has literally overwhelmed the staff.

On Sept. 5 Legal Remedy opened for business after several invitation-only functions. The brew pub opened without any grand-opening announcement – not even a post on Facebook.

That day more than 600 people swarmed the brew pub on Oakland Avenue. By 8 o’clock that night there was nothing left in the kitchen to cook. The beer still flowed.

The following Sunday, the owners purchased hotdogs, cooked them, and then gave them away with the beer. The lack of a menu apparently didn’t matter, as more than 500 people came for the beer – and ate hot dogs.

While the Legal Remedy staff hopes not to be so totally overwhelmed again, they say the learning curve, for them and their customers, will continue for a while.

Customers will learn brew pub etiquette. Drinking beer is a community event. If there are two empty seats at your table and it’s busy, expect to meet two strangers. You don’t own the table. More than likely you will leave as friends.

Expect the unexpected. The beers and the menu will change with the season. Yes, there will be some “staples” that won’t change, but the fun of handcrafted beer and food is seeing what you can do differently.

The Legal Remedy staff is also learning to make some concessions. The brew pub will never be a traditional meat-and-three restaurant where turning the tables over with waves of customers is expected.

But the staff understands that for the lunch hour, the food and the service have to be efficient. While some will come and linger over a sampling of craft beers, most lunch-hour customers don’t have that luxury. A lunch hour is, well, an hour.

Legal Remedy was started by Rock Hill attorney Chad McGowan and his friends to turn their beer-making hobby into a business. Legal Remedy has brewed beer since 2009.

The brew pub was the next step, and they originally envisioned a brand new pub in Riverwalk off Cherry Road.

But when new brewing equipment started arriving, they needed space immediately. They turned to the former Williams auto dealership on Oakland Avenue. The showroom where the Williams family once sold Chryslers, Plymouths and Jeeps now features taps for 24 different beers. The service bays house the brewery.

The character of the former dealership gives “some great vibes,” said Legal Remedy manager Jim Ogburn. Officially the capacity is 110 people indoors and an equal number outdoors.

Ogburn was recruited by his neighbor, McGowan. When they started talking food, Ogburn was hooked from McGowan’s first word. McGowan said he wanted “charcuterie.”

“That’s a fancy name for meat and cheese,” Ogburn said. It also meant a creative license in the kitchen equal to that of brewery.

“We have worked so hard on the beer, the food has to reflect that,” Ogburn said. “It’s good simple food, but it has to have the ‘wow’ factor.”

And, so far, there is the wow.

Jim Raines of Fort Mill came to Rock Hill Friday for a haircut and then stopped for the beer, not knowing quite what to expect. The facility impressed him first. The beer was as good as he expected, and then he had a “porksicle,” a barbequed pork shank for lunch. When it arrived he thought it would be overcooked and dry.

One taste dispelled his doubts.

The porksicle, he said, “was perfect.”

This story was originally published September 13, 2015 at 6:02 PM with the headline "Overwhelming response to Rock Hill’s new brew pub."