Is ‘LoSo’ the new Charlotte drinking district?

If you wanted a local beer a few years ago in Charlotte, you didn’t go to NoDa or South End. No, you drove past South End and into a section of town filled with large brick warehouses, some of them surrounded by barbed-wire fences.

And then you looked for The Olde Mecklenburg Brewery’s sign. You had to look, because the building itself wasn’t so different from those surrounding it.

Things have changed. When OMB left its original home for a much larger brewery and biergarten a couple doors down, Sugar Creek Brewing moved into its old spot. Last year, Doc Porter’s Distillery opened just around the corner at 232 Peterson Drive, where they will produce vodka, gin and whiskey.

Great Wagon Road Distilling Co. moved into a building between OMB’s new facility and Sugar Creek Brewing, and just recently opened The Broken Spoke, a bar with a large selection of North Carolina spirits and a dozen taps. And did I mention that GoodRoad CiderWorks will open at 117 Southside Drive later this year?

Don’t look now, NoDa and South End, but this formerly industrial area might offer the most diverse selection of locally produced beverages in Charlotte. And it’s got its own hip name, too: LoSo, short for “Lower South End.”

In a short period of time, the area’s gone from a fairly industrial part of town to one that now houses a brewery that specializes in German styles, one that focuses on Belgian ales, two distilleries, a cidery, and a bar to serve all of these libations and more. And that’s just the immediate area: Red Clay Ciderworks is a little north, and Three Spirits Brewery a little south.

To be in close proximity to these businesses was one of the reasons Oliver Mulligan opened Great Wagon Road Distilling Co. and The Broken Spoke next door.

“To be just right between those breweries, I thought it would be excellent for visibility and foot traffic,” he said.

So far, it has. Visitors to both breweries often venture over to the distillery to peek in, and Mulligan suspects that will happen more once his new, much larger still fills the window.

“They come here because they’re interested in local craft brewing and, as it turns out, they’re interested in local craft distilleries as well,” he said.

Mulligan initially planned to open a simple tasting room for Great Wagon Road Distilling Co., but decided to open The Broken Spoke because he wanted to support other North Carolina breweries and distilleries as well.

“I was disappointed to see I couldn't get a TOPO vodka or a Muddy River rum in the vast majority of Charlotte bars,” Mulligan said.

On the distilling side, he hopes to partner with GoodRoad and Red Clay to turn their ciders into apple brandies. It all goes back to a word that he and Eric Flanigan, co-founder of Sugar Creek Brewing, used to describe the area: synergy.

“We wanted to use that synergy to kind of put the area on the map,” Flanigan said. “It was one of the major things that Olde Meck and Sugar Creek talked about early on. John Marrino was investing a lot of money into that piece of property, and he knew he couldn’t turn it around on his own.”

While these businesses will bring more visitors in, Flanigan believes the area around Southside Drive needs its own name or brand.

“I definitely think we need to call this area something,” said Flanigan, who when asked where his brewery is often cites Mac’s Speed Shop or McKoy’s Smokehouse as landmarks.

Will the name LoSo stick? While reactions have been mixed, Flanigan and Mulligan have at least heard patrons using it.

“It’s something I hear people talking about when they come in,” Mulligan said. “Queen’s Park is another one, or the warehouse district. But I don’t really like that one.”

And for good reason. The warehouse district might have worked a few short years ago, but somehow it doesn’t seem as fitting today.

This story was originally published January 13, 2016 at 5:49 PM with the headline "Is ‘LoSo’ the new Charlotte drinking district?."