Thirteen years ago this week, the biggest news in downtown Opelika was a rumor with a logo attached.
On June 23, 2013, we ran four sentences under the headline “Opelika’s First Downtown Brewery.” Red Clay Brewing Company was coming to town, the item said, and the guys had already scouted a few possible locations. That was the whole story. No address, no opening date, just a Facebook page to follow and a note from Opelika Main Street.
It is worth remembering how uncertain that sounded at the time. Downtown was still filling in its empty storefronts, Alabama’s brewing laws had only recently loosened up, and “first downtown brewery” was the kind of phrase you wrote carefully in case it never happened.
It happened. Red Clay has been a fixture on North Railroad Avenue for years now, and a good many of the places that opened around it can trace their nerve back to somebody being willing to try it first.
Read the original short item here: Opelika’s First Downtown Brewery, published June 23, 2013.
