Knoxville's Black-Owned Ebony and Ivory Brewing Closes Taproom, Keeps Distribution

Eight days from now, Happy Holler loses one of the spots that put it on Knoxville's nightlife map. Ebony & Ivory Brewing will serve its final round at 2300 N. Central St. on Sunday, March 29, closing the taproom it has operated since September 2022 while keeping its distribution network intact across a stretch of Tennessee running from the Tri-Cities to Nashville.

Co-owners Chico Dupas and Mitchell Russell announced the closure on social media March 17. "All good chapters must come to an end and our time on North Central has reached that landmark," they wrote. The post cited "rising costs, changing climates, evolving nature of circumstances vastly out of our control" as the forces behind the decision, and offered a clear promise to the brewery's regulars: "This isn't a goodbye forever, just a farewell to the space that held so much for so many. Our distribution footprint will remain and your favorite beers will still be made; just a shift in direction."

Russell put a practical frame around the loss. "It's definitely sad, but we've been able to build community because of our space," he told Knox News. "Now we get to actually be in that community more with less overhead and greater focus."

The taproom sits at the corner of North Central Street and East Caldwell Avenue, sharing a building with Hard Knox Pizza. Dupas and Russell, college friends who co-founded the brewery, built it around a mission that was always bigger than the pints. Before the 2022 opening, Dupas told Knox News: "We wanted to have more of a sincere focus on something that can be more meaningful than just making beer, and that was one aspect of it, was recognizing that there was so much lack of diversity in the craft beer culture."

That context matters in Tennessee's brewing scene. Ebony & Ivory is Knoxville's only Black-owned brewery and, according to both the Knoxville Area Brewers Association and Visit Knoxville, only the second Black-owned brewery in the state. The taproom's roughly three-year run in Happy Holler drew regulars who treated the space as a neighborhood anchor; neighbors and nearby businesses are now bracing for its absence.

What happens to the brewing operation after March 29 is not fully resolved. Dupas and Russell have not said whether production will continue at the North Central building or move to a separate facility. What they have committed to is keeping the beer flowing through retail and partner taps, with social media updates to follow on inventory and future plans.

For anyone who hasn't made it out to Happy Holler yet, there are eight days left to order a pint at the source.