USA, NC: Oden Brewing Company eyes fall opening in Wilmington’s historic district

Jan Oden will be going before the Historic Preservation Commission this week to get approval on changes to a century-old building in the historic district, Port City Daily reported on September 10.

Construction is underway at 116 Dock St. in downtown Wilmington to adapt the former New Anthem Brewery into Oden Brewing Company. Its flagship opened in Greensboro in 2019.

“We hope to be open by mid-October,” Oden said Monday, as she fumbled through papers laying out the building’s history.

Since 1915, the location has been occupied by multiple uses, including a horse stable at the turn of the 20th century, followed by an automotive dealership and repair shop, an upholstery business, canning and packing facility, and wholesale market for feed and groceries.

Today, it’s parsed into multiple units, the majority of which are vacation condos, with the brewery fronting Dock Street.

The Odens have been on the hunt for the right spot to scale a second location; Bill and Jan have lived in Wilmington since the early 1980s. Today, along with their children, Mary Garner and well-known local artist Char, the family shuffles between the Triad and Port City to run the brewery.

In 2021, they were considering a larger space in the Soda Pop District — the former A&P grocery store on Princess Street.

“But that didn’t work out,” Oden said.

The Dock Street location came onto the family’s radar earlier in the year, as rumblings of New Anthem’s closure became apparent. Historic renovation is something the family is familiar with, having transformed the Greensboro 1930’s bottling plant, built by family patriarch William L. “Fate” Oden, into its flagship brewery. They worked with Preservation Greensboro to keep its historical relevance intact.

In Wilmington, Jan hopes HPC will allow changes to a brick wall, front door, windows and the door entry. She wants to change the single entrance to double French doors — specifically, she’s salvaging doors from the former Platypus and Gnome location on Front Street. It also was popularly known as Caffe Phoenix in the 1990s and early 2000s.

The doors are wooden, with metal handles designed to look like a tree, and fully glass. Installation will require demolition of a brick wall, with the floor of the entrance made up of mosaic square- or hexagonal-shaped tile.

The door entrance has been changed throughout the history of the building, according to the HPC application.

Oden said they’re also highlighting the skylights in the building by including stained glass and moving back the boat-shaped bar roughly 8 feet to provide more room for tables and a lounge area with comfy furniture. There also will be space to host a band, she added, noting the bar will offer various specialty nights seven days a week, whether it’s open mic night, Bingo, trivia or live music.

Oden hopes to secure partnerships with local college and university students, as done with UNCG at the Greensboro brewery. It hosts jazz nights, bringing together both students and faculty from the music department.

“The building looks a lot like our brewery in Greensboro,” Oden said. “I’m sad that we don’t have the outdoor space, but we’re going to make it so that you can walk through the brewery to the parking lot in the back, and reserve space for food trucks.”

She’s also hoping to provide an indoor-outdoor space on the Dock Street sidewalk. If signed off on by HPC, Oden wants to transform the front-facing plate-glass window into a fold-up.

“It will be like a swinging awning — they’re really cool,” she described. “We’ll be able to have a bar on the inside of the window, and then one that sticks out a little bit onto the sidewalk, and then people will be able to sit there on either side when the windows are open.”

The garage doors are staying and will open, especially during downtown farmers’ market days. One area that was previously an office will open up to the brewery and house a foosball table.

Old School Rebuilder and Co. is overseeing the renovation.

The brewery is already outfitted with a 10-barrel system and has capacity to brew more, from head brewer Brian Carter, who has been with Oden since its opening. An assistant brewer, Dani Bearss, formerly with Waterline, is being brought on board as well; she specializes in Belgian beers.

The brewery’s famed Hints and Allegations Juicy IPA will be one of 13 taps featuring the brewery’s flavors — joining Escape Into Sunshine Summer Ale, Steel Sister Dortmund Lager and Berry Blast Fruited Gose, among others. A hops design on the Hints and Allegations can is also being transformed into wallpaper with Char’s illustrative talents put to use, Oden said — to be hung in an area where a fireplace with electric logs is being installed.

“We want to bring a period feel to the space,” Oden said, leaning into a nostalgic vintage vibe with a modern industrial feel.

Two additional taps will host a guest cider and guest seltzer, though Oden Brewing is hoping to get into the seltzer game soon as well. A third tap will feature a specialty cocktail, as the Wilmington brewery will have full ABC permits, unlike Greensboro.

“We’re having our employee appreciation party and we’ve been talking about having everybody bring their favorite cocktail and, you know, do a sample of their favorite recipe and pick out which ones we like,” Oden said.

The goal is to appeal to all drinkers, particularly in downtown Wilmington, often packed with tourists. Oden said during her time residing in Wilmington, she has seen it transform beyond the normal inflated summer-only visitors into a year-round destination.

“And we felt it would be more in keeping with what people expect to find in downtown cities,” she said. “People who come to the breweries are coming to to drink the beer, but they also are bringing friends with them who don’t drink beer.”

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