Three Rabbits Brewing brings German-style lagers to downtown Greensboro

Three Rabbits Brewing is betting that downtown Greensboro wants a tighter beer identity, not another tap list that tries to cover every trend at once. The brewery is aiming for a June soft opening at 214 Commerce Place, where a 3,400-square-foot buildout will include a 1,500-square-foot taproom centered on German-style lagers.

That focus matters because the plan is not narrowly German just for show. Lagers are supposed to be the core of the beer program, with IPAs, stouts, sours, ciders and non-alcoholic beer filling out the board for mixed groups. That is a smart balance for a downtown room: the brewery can build a reputation on crisp, clean, technically precise beers while still giving a group of friends enough options that nobody gets left out. If the lager program lands, Three Rabbits could carve out the kind of niche that is harder to copy than another hop-heavy opening.

Co-owner Chris Myers has framed the taproom as a meeting place, not just a production site with tanks in the back, and the space sounds designed around that idea. Food trucks will be part of the operation, bar snacks will be available, and the brewery expects to distribute some beer to bars while keeping the taproom as the main focus. A formal grand opening is planned for late summer, which suggests a measured rollout instead of the usual scramble to do everything at once.

The timing is good, and not just because downtown Greensboro keeps adding more beer options. Downtown Greensboro says the district now has more than 21 locally owned small-batch breweries and tap houses, and Downtown Greensboro, Inc. reported annual visits climbed from 8.7 million in 2024 to 9.2 million in 2025. The corridor already includes names like Hidden Gate Brewing Company, Little Brother Brewing and SouthEnd Brewing Co., so Three Rabbits is stepping into a crowded field. Its Old-World lager pitch stands out precisely because so many modern openings lean hard into IPAs and broad craft-beer variety.

The brewery’s name gives the concept a deeper German connection. Three Rabbits refers to the symbol for Paderborn, Germany, where a cathedral window shows terracotta rabbits, and Myers and his family spent a year there while his father was on fellowship as a professor. That background gives the brewery more than a generic Bavarian costume, and it helps explain why this opening is built around lagers, hospitality and a room meant for actual regulars, not just a quick novelty stop.