The taproom that started it all for Hoppin' is shutting its doors. The self-serve beer and wine bar's original location at 1402 Winnifred St. in South End, which opened in 2017 and spans 4,600 square feet, is closing as the franchise behind it faces an uncertain path forward.
The closure was reported by the Charlotte Business Journal, which said Hoppin's future is unclear. Hoppin' let customers pour their own beer, wine, cider, cocktails and mocktails by connecting a credit card to a wristband that tracked how much they poured, according to a report from Franchise Times. The South End spot was the concept's flagship, having opened in the neighborhood in 2017 before the company began franchising in 2022.
A Franchise Model That Once Looked Promising
Franchise Times reported that opening a Hoppin' location required an initial investment ranging from $1.13 million to $1.97 million, with franchisees paying royalties of 5 percent of sales plus a $4,000 monthly digital marketing fee and a 2 percent national brand marketing fee. Those figures positioned Hoppin' alongside other self-pour chains chasing a slice of the same market — Franchise Times noted that competitor Tapster had five locations and another in the works, while Tapville operated just under 20 locations nationwide.
Hoppin's own growth plans once looked ambitious. The company told Axios it would expand to Raleigh in late 2025 and planned to open nine additional locations by the end of the following year, an expansion led by an investment group whose identity a spokesperson declined to name, according to Axios. Rock Hill's Cotton Warehouse redevelopment was also set to house the brand's first franchise location, per a 2023 report.
Closures Piling Up Across the Carolinas
The South End shutdown follows a string of closures elsewhere in Hoppin's network. Hoppin' Rock Hill, which opened at 110 Southern St. in June 2023, was scheduled to close on May 30, 2026, after nearly three years in business, according to the Post and Courier. That closure came on the heels of the Greenville location shutting down in December 2025 after six years of operation, the same outlet reported.
Charlotte's Wider Taproom Squeeze
Hoppin's troubles come amid a tougher stretch for craft beer businesses nationally. The Charlotte Observer also cited a New York Times finding that, for the first time in 20 years, more craft breweries nationally were shutting down than starting up, driven by a flood of new breweries, declining demand for craft beer, shifting tastes toward hard seltzer and canned cocktails, and lingering pandemic pressures.
Nationally, the numbers back up that squeeze. The Brewers Association reported that U.S. craft beer production fell 4 percent in 2025 to 22,034,000 barrels, even as craft beer's share of the overall beer market ticked up slightly from 13.2 percent to 13.4 percent. The number of operating U.S. craft breweries dropped 2.9 percent to 9,578, while new brewery openings plunged to 300 in 2025 from 518 the year before, and closures eased somewhat to 481 from 591.
Still, the trade group noted that hospitality-driven models like brewpubs and taprooms remained comparatively resilient in 2025, particularly those offering differentiated value to budget-conscious drinkers, and it described the industry's outlook as cautiously optimistic following several difficult years. For now, the fate of the brand that helped pioneer self-pour drinking in Charlotte remains unclear, even as its founding location on Winnifred Street prepares to go dark.
