New waterfront brewery, restaurant coming to former port property in Beaufort Co.

A place to grab dinner and a craft beer is coming to Port Royal’s waterfront in what the owner believes will be an experience unique in northern Beaufort County.

A brewery, restaurant and taproom by Salt Marsh Brewing is planned for the end of 11th Street on Battery Creek.

The $4.4 million project, announced Tuesday by Gov. Henry McMaster’s office and the S.C. Department of Commerce, could be completed in 16 months. The new business will employ 43 people to start, the governor’s office said. It will occupy 11,000 square feet in a warehouse and building currently used to process seafood from the nearby town shrimp docks.

An additional 6,000 to 7,000 square feet will be dedicated to an outdoor deck and a dock will give boaters a place to tie up, said owner Nick Borreggine, who is partnering in the business with his father, Nick Borreggine Sr., and investor Lynn Jersild.

“To be on the water and be able to have that size space on the water is kind of unprecedented,” Borreggine said. “I don’t think there’s going to be anywhere else in northern Beaufort County that can offer that view and that size space required for a brewery.”

Borreggine has worked on the deal since early this year with state and local officials and the Beaufort County Economic Development Corporation.

“This project is a win for Beaufort County, for Port Royal, our residents and visitors who are increasingly discovering Port Royal,” Beaufort County Council member Alice Howard said in a statement.

Borreggine owns Fat Patties burger restaurants in Port Royal and Bluffton and is a partner in the Salt Marsh Brewing, which currently operates above the restaurant in Old Town Bluffton.

The new Port Royal business will be an expansion of Salt Marsh Brewing and offer the same beers as well as a new line of sour brews aged in oak barrels. A 15-barrel brewhouse with a canning line will produce Salt Marsh’s line of beers, with plans to sell them in local stores.

The restaurant is yet to be named and won’t be another Fat Patties, Borreggine said. The menu is in the works but will include seafood and fire-roasted meat.

The brewery and restaurant expected to eventually employ about 70, with more than 40 of those people working on the beer operation.

Another restaurant along Port Royal’s waterfront is a win for developers seeking to turn the former port terminal into a mix of dining, shops and homes. The new brewery is a short stroll from Fishcamp on 11th Street and within sight of the town shrimp docks and its fleet of fishing boats.

“When my wife and I discussed where we spent a lot of time, we realized every weekend we were headed to Port Royal,” Borreggine said. “We are excited about the future of Port Royal and growing our business there.”

The seafood operation will be relocated from the industrial building where beer will later be brewed. Town officials are working with developers to move a large fuel tank serving the shrimp dock to make room for the new business.

The building and surrounding property still show evidence of the area’s history of a working waterfront. A large decommissioned ice machine inhabits most of the building where the new restaurant will go.

Railroad tracks extend into the water where boats were once pulled out

“It’s a great spot on the property,” said Whit Suber, a member of the development group that bought the port property in 2017. “And I think it’s really going to be one of the most unique and special restaurants, bars in South Carolina.”

This story was originally published August 27, 2019 at 9:58 AM.