NORTH MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. — JUNE 24, 2026

BY THOMAS BEACH VACATIONS

From a cozy independent coffee café expanding into Forestbrook to a 40,000-square-foot moonshine and craft beer destination at Broadway at the Beach, a wave of new dining options is reshaping the Grand Strand heading into summer 2026 — and not all of them are chasing tourists.

The Grand Strand has never had a quiet offseason when it comes to restaurant openings, but the stretch from late 2025 into this summer has been particularly active. New concepts are arriving from Tennessee, from within the local restaurant community, and from corners of the coast that have long needed more options. The range is striking: a neighborhood coffee shop that knows its regulars by order, a distillery-brewery hybrid that required three years of planning, a kosher Mediterranean counter on Kings Highway, and a celebrity chef’s entertainment compound taking over a former department store. Each one tells a slightly different story about where the Grand Strand is headed.

What runs through nearly all of them is something local business owners have been noticing for a few years now: the market here is changing. More people are moving to the beach permanently. Year-round residents want year-round places to eat — not just seasonal seafood shacks that close in November. The tourist economy remains the backbone of the Strand, but it no longer tells the whole story.

Milk & Honey Coffee Café Grows Into Forestbrook

Milk & Honey Coffee Café began at 351 Hwy. 17 Business in Surfside Beach, where it built a loyal following on the strength of signature coffees, fresh-baked pastries, and what regulars describe as a genuinely unhurried morning atmosphere. Rebecca Dechir, who had been a regular at the original café before stepping in to take over its operation in November 2025, has now expanded the concept north into the Forestbrook area — a corridor that has seen significant residential growth over the past several years but had little in the way of an independent local coffee option.

Dechir describes the Forestbrook shop as something built around the neighborhood rather than around foot traffic. She recognizes her regulars by name, knows their orders before they reach the counter, and has started thinking ahead to what a third location might eventually look like — one built from the ground up as a fully dedicated gluten-free facility, a response to the growing prevalence of celiac disease and the cross-contamination concerns that come with it.

The shift she describes — away from the idea that coastal businesses survive only on tourist dollars — matches what is happening across much of the Grand Strand. January and February still dip. But the slow months are less dramatic than they used to be, and the shoulder season feels less like a cliff and more like a gradual step down. The locals keep coming.

Ole Smoky Distillery and Yee-Haw Brewing Open at Broadway at the Beach

On the other end of the spectrum — deliberately, strategically, and at considerable scale — is Ole Smoky Distillery and Yee-Haw Brewing Co., which opened its doors at Broadway at the Beach in May 2026. The address is 1214 Celebrity Circle, and the venue is hard to miss: a 40,000-square-foot space that functions simultaneously as a working distillery, a craft brewery, a full-service restaurant, a live music venue, and a gathering place built around one of the largest screens in the Myrtle Beach area.

Both brands come out of Tennessee. Ole Smoky, founded in Gatlinburg in 2010 as the first federally licensed distillery in East Tennessee, is recognized as the leading producer of premium moonshine in the United States and the most visited distillery in the world. Yee-Haw Brewing Co., based out of a historic railroad depot in Johnson City, has grown quickly across the Southeast with locations in Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, Nashville, Knoxville, and Greenville, SC. The Myrtle Beach address is their first joint location outside of Tennessee.

The decision to land at Broadway at the Beach was deliberate. General Manager Chris Sobota has described the property as having the space and energy the concept required, and the brand has been transparent that it came here specifically to reach the tourism market — while building toward fall promotions and repeat local customers as a longer-term foundation. Guests can expect moonshine and whiskey flights alongside Yee-Haw craft beers, guided distillery tours, shareable food, and an outdoor beer garden with lake views. The design is family-friendly, the layout can accommodate private events and concerts, and the ambition is to become a fixture of the Myrtle Beach experience rather than just a season-opening novelty.

South Coast Beer Project Brings Carolina Forest Its First Brewery

At 5020 Carolina Forest Blvd., Chris Evans and Susan Heryadi of Coastal Concepts Hospitality have opened South Coast Beer Project — the first brewery to come to Carolina Forest, one of the fastest-growing residential corridors on the Grand Strand. Evans and Heryadi know the market well: they also operate three Grumpy Monk locations, Hop N Wich in Conway, and The Sneaky Beagle, which sits directly adjacent to the new brewery with a 1,000-foot walking path connecting the two properties across a retention pond.

The concept is built from the ground up — the first time the Coastal Concepts team has constructed a building rather than rehabilitating an existing one. The interior runs roughly 9,000 square feet with seating for 150 to 175; the outdoor space expands that capacity dramatically, with a beer garden that can hold upward of 250 guests. A fountain shaped like a giant beer mug pours continuously into a pool outside. An 18-foot outdoor screen is planned for movie nights. The décor leans coastal: palm trees rising through the floor, slat walls with greenery, painted surfboards, and enough natural light that the brewery side — visible through a glass wall from the dining room — reads as part of the atmosphere rather than a back-of-house operation.

Head brewer Brock Kurtzman, well known in local craft beer circles from his tenures at New South Brewing and Southern Hops Brewing Company, is guiding a lineup of house beers with names that lean into Carolinas identity: a blonde ale, a raspberry wheat, a mocha white stout named after Blackbeard’s ship Queen Anne’s Revenge, and an American brown called Board Meeting. The food program focuses on Detroit-style pizza and wings alongside sandwiches, salads, and full appetizers — all prepared in-house. Hours run 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and until 11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. For guests staying in North Myrtle Beach oceanfront homes or oceanfront condos along Ocean Drive or Crescent Beach, it’s a straightforward inland drive — the kind of evening outing that doesn’t require a reservation or a plan.

Guy Fieri’s Downtown Flavortown Opens at Myrtle Beach Mall

The most visible single opening of the season may be Guy Fieri’s Downtown Flavortown, which opened June 10, 2026, inside Myrtle Beach Mall at 10177 N. Kings Highway. Developed in partnership with FACE Amusement Group — the same company behind the flagship Downtown Flavortown in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee — the Myrtle Beach location takes what was a former anchor retail space and converts it into a 50,000-square-foot dining and entertainment operation unlike anything currently on the Grand Strand.

The numbers are hard to ignore: seating for 400 in the restaurant, over 100 arcade games, duckpin bowling, a Freaky Tiki bar, private party rooms, and more than 60 televisions spread across the space. The menu leads with the dishes Fieri made famous through years of television — his Bacon Mac-N-Cheeseburger, Cajun Chicken Alfredo, and the World Famous Trash Can Nachos, where a literal pile of chips and toppings lands at the table. All food is scratch-made. The atmosphere is designed for families as much as adults, and the event infrastructure makes it a viable option for group gatherings that need both a meal and an activity under the same roof. FACE Amusement has positioned Downtown Flavortown as a year-round anchor for the Myrtle Beach Mall’s ongoing revitalization effort.

More New Openings Across the Strand

Beyond those four marquee openings, several other concepts have quietly joined the Grand Strand dining scene this season. In Surfside Beach, Hakaya Café has opened its doors, adding to the area’s dining options south of Myrtle Beach proper. In Myrtle Beach, Pita Bar Kosher is now open at the corner of 31st Avenue and Kings Highway — a notable addition for visitors observing kosher dietary practices, a food category the Strand has historically underserved. Not far down the highway, the Chocolate Bar and Grill has also opened, offering a different kind of dining occasion. And in the Cherry Grove area of North Myrtle Beach, The Grove House has arrived as a new dining option for residents and visitors at the northern end of the Strand — adding to a neighborhood that already includes long-standing local favorites like The Shack, Snooky’s Oceanfront Restaurant, and Duffy Street Seafood Shack. Guests staying near Windy Hill now have another option within easy reach as well.

Taken together, the summer 2026 class of Grand Strand restaurant openings reflects a market that is growing in both directions — expanding to serve a rising year-round resident population while simultaneously rolling out experiences ambitious enough to become destinations in their own right. The independent coffee shop in Forestbrook and the 40,000-square-foot moonshine hall at Broadway at the Beach are, in that sense, two answers to the same question: what does the Grand Strand want to eat next?

New Grand Strand Restaurant Openings at a Glance

Frequently Asked Questions

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.

Frequently Asked Questions