R & R Brewing, a microbrewery originating in Mount Olive, NC continues to make progress towards officially breaking ground on Sampson County’s first ever taproom and their second location which will be located in downtown Clinton at 104 Fayetteville Street in the historical Henry Vann Building. 

Originally announced by the City of Clinton in early 2023, Owner and head of “Hoperations” Ryan Roberts shared with the Greater Fayetteville Business Journal that he has toured the space planned for the new taproom and early structural work has begun to pave the way to begin fully  renovating the space. 

“We've almost finalized the engineered plans from the architect. Because it is a historic building, there's a bit of a slower process before you can go in and start swinging hammers. Basically, the local construction company has been able to go in and do some fortifying efforts to make sure that no further roof debris can fall down and kind of stop some of the ‘bleeding’ that may be going on there,” said Roberts. 

The space is made of two levels with plans to convert the top level into living spaces. 

According to Roberts, early conceptual plans for the lower level include a taproom to the left of the entrance, and a full restaurant space to the right. The restaurant will be a new addition to the R & R Brewing Brand, with their Mount Olive location being taproom only. 

Roberts said that the restaurant plans to provide “a fairly decent menu” comprised of classic bar foods and some additional items such as shareable appetizers, full course options and a lunch menu. He said that the restaurant addition is in response to recommendations from the community and is expected to be open for lunch and dinner. 

“A lot of people in the community said ‘Look, we love that you're coming to town, but can you please do food?’ And I said well, I really don't have the experience with it. But I do have some people who have been and I can rely on them to guide me in that. So we were taking on the challenge of putting in a kitchen and doing food. And they said specifically launch because on any given day for lunch. There's only so many options and it's been about the same options for a while,” said Roberts. 

Updates on the Clinton location will be available on R & R Brewing Facebook Page here and their Instagram page here. 

Editor’s Note: A longer version of this story which will include more details on the early concepts for the location will be included in the GFBJ’s Sampson County focused issue which will be released on August 11.