Former home of Columbia’s River Rat Brewery has been sold. What’s going in the space?
A new project featuring at least one new venture from a prominent local business owner could be coming to a former brewery space near the football home of the Gamecocks.
The development, named Finn’s Farm, has taken over the space vacated by River Rat Brewery at 1231 Shop Road a year ago, and is set bring a new restaurant/cafe from the owners of the coffee shops Drip in Five Points and Brickhouse in West Columbia to the property that has a rooftop view of Williams-Brice Stadium. Akera Sellers, who took over Drip late last year, said the forthcoming Harvest Cafe will serve food, coffee and alcoholic drinks.
The new cafe adds to Sellers’ growing list of Columbia-area businesses, including The Corner Blend in downtown Columbia, which he purchased in September.
Sellers said the hope is to open the cafe portion of the development by the summer.
“The yard is still out front so we’re going to have benches out there, it’s going to be a real family environment,” he said. “What I’m really looking forward to [are] good weather days where people just come hang out and have fun.”
A “coming soon” sign for Finn’s Farm hanging outside the space also advertises the involvement of another prominent local business: Bierkeller Brewing Company. The brewery, which opened its brick-and-mortar location in the riverfront Canalside Lofts off Taylor Street in August 2023, poured beers at a series of tailgate events hosted at Finn’s Farm this football season. But when reached by The State, Bierkeller owner Scott Burgess wouldn’t confirm his business’ involvement in the development.
The former River Rat property was sold in July for $875,000, according to county deeds.
When the brewery closed in December of last year, it was the last of the first three production breweries to open in Columbia amid the craft beer boom of the early 2010s still operating; Conquest Brewing Company and Swamp Cabbage Brewery, which were also located near Williams-Brice Stadium, closed in 2019 and 2022, respectively.
This story was originally published December 17, 2024 at 5:00 AM.
