South Coast Beer Project Is Opening in Carolina Forest — And It’s Unlike Anything the Myrtle Beach Area Has Seen

The Grand Strand has never been short on places to eat and drink, but every so often something new comes along that genuinely changes the conversation. South Coast Beer Project is shaping up to be exactly that. Tucked into the Carolina Forest corridor of Myrtle Beach, this family-friendly restaurant and craft brewery is putting the finishing touches on a space that’s part beer hall, part backyard, part neighborhood gathering spot — and it’s set to open before summer kicks into full gear.

Carolina Forest has been one of the fastest-growing communities along the South Carolina coast for good reason. It sits just inland from the beach, draws families who want proximity to the ocean without the noise of the strip, and it’s been hungry for exactly this kind of destination. A place where the beer is made on-site, the food is made in-house, the kids have room to run, and nobody feels rushed.

Whether you’re renting a vacation home along Cherry Grove Beach or settling in for a longer stay on Ocean Drive, South Coast Beer Project is the kind of inland detour worth building into the itinerary.

A New Kind of Gathering Place

The concept behind South Coast Beer Project is deceptively simple: build the kind of place where a family can show up on a Friday evening, the kids can disappear into the outdoor play area, and the adults can settle into a cold craft beer and a basket of wings without anyone watching the clock. In a market that can sometimes skew loud and tourist-heavy, that’s a real proposition.

The brewery spans a 9,000-square-foot indoor restaurant space alongside a 20,000-square-foot outdoor area — nearly three-quarters of an acre of lawn, seating, garden space, and entertainment. The indoor dining room is designed with an open-air feel, floor-to-ceiling windows looking directly into the brewing tanks, and a full-service bar running the length of the room. Step outside and the whole operation opens up into something closer to a well-designed backyard than a commercial venue.

The coastal theme runs throughout — palm trees rising from the restaurant floor, slat walls lined with tropical greenery, painted wooden surfboards, and beach scene artwork. It reads like the Grand Strand itself: easy, unhurried, and comfortable in its own skin.

The People Behind the Project

South Coast Beer Project is the work of Chris Evans and Susan Heryadi of Coastal Concepts Hospitality, a team with deep roots in the Myrtle Beach restaurant scene. Evans and Heryadi launched their first Grumpy Monk location back in 2015, eventually growing to three restaurants under that brand. They also operate Hop N Wich in Conway and The Sneaky Beagle in Carolina Forest — which happens to sit just next door to their newest venture.

They know the market here. They know who lives in Carolina Forest — middle-class families looking for a good meal and a place to unwind without driving across town — and they’ve built their businesses around that understanding. The approach is practical and genuine: quality food, fair prices, and a setting that makes people want to come back.

Guiding the brewing side of the operation is head brewer Brock Kurtzman, a name that carries considerable weight in the local craft beer world. Kurtzman built his reputation working at New South Brewing and Southern Hops Brewing Company, two of the more respected names in the regional craft scene. His involvement signals that the beer program here will be serious — not an afterthought to the kitchen, but a genuine focus in its own right.

The Restaurant: Coastal Vibes and Serious Food

The indoor dining room seats around 150 people. Large windows face the brewing tanks on one side, so guests can watch the operation in progress — there’s something genuinely satisfying about seeing where your pint came from while it’s still cold in your hand. The full-service bar runs along the room and carries a rotating lineup of a dozen or more house-brewed labels.

The menu centers on pizza and wings — and Evans, a Buffalo, New York native, takes the latter seriously. The kitchen also plans to offer around ten sandwich options, a selection of salads, and a full range of appetizers, all prepared in-house. It’s a menu built for groups and for lingering, which fits the overall design of the place exactly.

For guests who prefer the outdoor seating, walk-up service windows on the exterior of the building allow orders to be placed without stepping inside — a practical detail that keeps the outdoor flow easy and unhurried, especially on busy evenings when every table under the umbrellas is taken.

The Outdoor Experience: Built for the Whole Family

Twenty thousand square feet is a lot of space to work with, and Coastal Concepts Hospitality used every bit of it. The outdoor area is laid across artificial turf and organized into clusters of tables, patio chairs, and umbrellas — the kind of seating arrangement that invites groups to pull chairs together and stay a while. Several sections of the space are dedicated to inflatable playground equipment for younger kids, which means parents can actually relax instead of spending the evening on kid duty.

On one side of the building, an 18-foot outdoor screen anchors a space designed for movie nights and special events — a programming element that positions South Coast Beer Project as a community venue, not just a restaurant. The pond-side seating area offers something quieter: a corner of the property that seems designed for the conversation you actually want to have, away from the louder corners of the space.

One of the more memorable design touches is a fountain shaped like a giant beer mug that pours continuously into a pool — part sculpture, part visual joke, entirely on-brand for a brewery that knows it doesn’t need to take itself too seriously. The beer garden beyond the main dining room holds seating for at least 250 guests, making this one of the more generously scaled outdoor hospitality spaces in the entire Myrtle Beach area.

Families staying in one of our North Myrtle Beach oceanfront homes or oceanfront condos will find it an easy drive down the coast for an evening out — the kind of relaxed night that doesn’t feel like a production to organize.

The Walking Path: Two Restaurants, One Experience

Perhaps the most distinctive element of the whole South Coast Beer Project concept isn’t a dish or a brew — it’s a sidewalk. Between the new brewery and The Sneaky Beagle next door lies a retention pond, and the team realized they could use that natural boundary as a feature rather than a divider. The result is a 1,000-foot paved, lighted walking path that connects the two restaurants around the perimeter of the pond.

The practical upside is obvious: if South Coast Beer Project is at capacity on a Friday night, guests can walk next door, put their name in at The Sneaky Beagle, grab a drink, and wander back when the wait is over. But the larger intention goes beyond logistics. The path creates a mini-district — a pedestrian-friendly circuit of two completely different restaurants that can be experienced as a single outing. It’s an idea that fits naturally into how people in the Grand Strand like to spend an evening: unhurried, outside when the weather allows, moving at their own pace.

Visitors exploring the broader Crescent Beach and Windy Hill sections of the coast will recognize the appeal immediately — this region of South Carolina has a long tradition of informal, community-centered evenings out, and the walking path leans directly into that tradition.

The Beer: Meet the Brews

South Coast Beer Project operates a 7-barrel brewing system — a setup large enough to maintain eight to twelve house labels on tap at any given time, with room for specialty and aged releases as the program matures. The range covers enough ground to satisfy a group with very different tastes, from approachable sessionable ales to more adventurous styles.

Among the opening lineup: a blond ale called Blonds Do It Better, a raspberry wheat named Summer in the South, an American brown called Board Meeting, and a mocha white stout going by Queen Anne’s Revenge. The names have personality — they’re the kind of labels that reward a second look and make ordering at the bar into a small act of self-expression. Expect the tap list to rotate and expand as Kurtzman settles into the system and starts experimenting with seasonal and limited-run batches.

For non-beer drinkers, a full bar ensures the rest of the group is equally well taken care of — no one at the table is an afterthought here.

Location and Hours

South Coast Beer Project is located at 5020 Carolina Forest Blvd. in Myrtle Beach, SC — just down the road from The Sneaky Beagle and accessible from most of the North Myrtle Beach area with a short drive down Highway 17. The expected opening is by the end of May 2026, putting it right at the start of peak summer season along the Grand Strand.

Once open, hours are planned as 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. That Friday-Saturday closing hour means there’s no need to rush — this is a place built for late afternoons that turn into evenings without anyone noticing.

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