Ole Smoky and Yee-Haw open 40,000-square-foot Myrtle Beach venue

Ole Smoky Distillery and Yee-Haw Brewing Co. are making a big Myrtle Beach play, opening a 40,000-square-foot venue at Broadway at the Beach on Wednesday, May 20. The project lands at 1214 Celebrity Circle and marks Ole Smoky’s first South Carolina location, while also giving the two Baker family brands their first joint site outside Tennessee.

The size and format tell the story. This is being built as an entertainment-driven distillery and brewery destination, not a standard neighborhood taproom or small brewpub. Company and venue listings say the space will mix indoor-outdoor seating, tasting rooms, guided tours, food service, event space, live entertainment, and private-event capability under one roof. Yee-Haw’s beers will pour on tap and in flights, with multiple bars, a beer garden, patio seating overlooking Lake Broadway, and a large TV screen aimed at game-day crowds and group outings.

That model says a lot about where beverage-alcohol money is going right now. Instead of betting only on production-side taprooms or a local regulars’ bar, Ole Smoky and Yee-Haw are leaning into a tourist corridor where the whole property can work as a full-day stop. Broadway at the Beach, which opened in the 1990s and sits around Lake Broadway, already functions as one of Myrtle Beach’s biggest entertainment and shopping magnets. Dropping a brewery-distillery hybrid into that setting gives the brands built-in foot traffic and a broader audience than a standalone beer house usually gets.

The brands also arrive with serious hospitality credentials. Ole Smoky says it opened in Gatlinburg in 2010 after Tennessee law changed to allow spirits production, becoming the first federally licensed distillery in East Tennessee. Yee-Haw Brewing Co. was founded in 2015 by Joe Baker, who is also behind Ole Smoky. That shared ownership makes Myrtle Beach less like a one-off expansion and more like a portfolio move, with beer, moonshine cocktails, food, live music, and events all feeding the same destination concept.

For independent beer culture, the opening is a clear marker. The most visible growth play is no longer always the small local brewery on a side street. It is the destination venue that can capture tourists, families, concertgoers, and sports crowds in one place. At Broadway at the Beach, Ole Smoky and Yee-Haw are wagering that experience, scale and mixed beverage service will outdraw the traditional taproom, and the 40,000-square-foot build suggests they expect that bet to pay off.