Fife Street Brewing is pouring new life into downtown Charleston.
There are a couple unusual things about the origin story of Fife Street Brewing in Charleston. The owners aren’t homebrewers, for one thing. Derek Godwin badgered his wife, Lisa, about opening a sports bar for a decade. She hated the idea. “But we were in a brewery in Florida in 2019,” Godwin says, “and she looked at me and said, ‘I think I’d let you open a brewery.’” Both West Virginia natives—he’s from Jackson County, she’s from Boone—they’d been in Charleston for decades, and they wanted to do something to enliven downtown. Around that time, the city was revitalizing Slack Plaza so, with co-owners Josh Dodd and Jody Driggs, they rented a place just across Summers Street, alongside the wide, brickpaved pedestrian Brawley Walkway—the home of the former Fife Street Shoe Store on the former Fife Street. They hired a brewer and opened in May 2022.
It must have been an unpleasant surprise when another brewery opened in the same city block in November, right? Well, that’s the other unusual thing. Fans of the active craft brewery scene in Asheville, North Carolina, the Godwins actually invited the owners of Short Story Brewing in Rivesville to take a look at the empty storefront. “They fell in love with it,” Godwin says. Bad Shepherd Brewing is just around the corner, too, and the trio form a district dubbed Brewers Row. “There’s also a microbrewery on the west side and one popping up on Hale Street,” Godwin enthuses. “If we can produce a couple more, plus the river and its activities and other things going on in Charleston, we’ll have a destination for a weekend trip.”
Fife Street taps four flagship ales—Charleston Beer, a golden; Summers Street Wheat; Charlie West Coast IPA; and Chuck’s P51 Porter—plus eight rotating in-house brews at any one time. Regulars love the menu, centered on elevated grilled cheese sandwiches, and the seasonal outdoor dining. And events range from live music to trivia nights, beer yoga, and surprises. “We’re always thinking of creative ways to make it fun,” Godwin says.
180 Summers Street, Charleston, fifestreetbrewing.com, @fifestreetbrewing on FB
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