Mordecai Beverage Co. to close Raleigh bottle shop and taproom

Mordecai Beverage Co.’s closure in Gateway Plaza is more than one taproom leaving Raleigh. It is another sign that the city’s craft-beer retail model is getting harder to keep alive, even for a place that built a loyal following around taps, bottles and a neighborhood feel.

The business said it would close its bottle shop and taproom at 2425 Crabtree Boulevard after more than six years in operation. Mordecai described itself as Raleigh’s first combined brewery, taproom and bottle shop, and its mix of house beer, guest craft beer, wine, cocktails and cider made it a familiar stop for drinkers coming out of the Oakwood and Mordecai neighborhoods. The company opened in 2019 after owner Andrew Christenbury spent more than a decade homebrewing.

In its closing statement, Mordecai said the taproom would stay open for a few more days so customers could stop in, buy remaining merchandise and share final beers in person. A June 3 Instagram announcement did not give a firm final day, but it said the taproom would remain open at least until Wednesday while staff worked through inventory and merch.

That short runway gives Raleigh regulars one last chance to treat the place the way they have for years: as a neighborhood fixture rather than a transaction. The business had become part bottle shop, part taproom and part community room, with rotating pours and curated shelves that helped spotlight the local beer scene.

The closure also lands in the middle of a broader shakeout. Raleigh has seen a run of restaurant and bar shutdowns, including recent losses in Glenwood South and downtown, and Mordecai now adds another empty storefront to that list once the doors finally close. In North Carolina, the pressure is broader than one shopping center. Beer sales in the state fell 9.7% between 2021 and 2025, 21 breweries shut down statewide in the prior year, and the industry has entered a new phase after years of expansion. Even so, more than 400 craft breweries still operate in North Carolina, and the sector generated more than $2.2 billion in economic impact in 2024.

For Gateway Plaza, the loss is immediate and visible. For Raleigh’s beer community, it is another familiar room disappearing, just as the city’s craft-beer economics grow more unforgiving by the year.