One of Raleigh’s best new breweries unveils its first taproom. It’s in a bank.
If you remember the thrill of getting a lollipop from the bank, you’re probably old enough for a beer now.
In a nostalgic mashup worthy of “Stranger Things,” one of the Triangle’s best new breweries has opened its first taproom, repurposing an old bank branch into a new bar.
Ancillary Fermentation, a beer brand big on performance art, is known for juicy IPAs and theatrical can releases. The project is led by Bond Brothers’ Whit Baker and Andy Schnitzer, who also own and run Standard Beer & Food in Raleigh.
“We hope to impress with good beer and weirdness,” Baker said.
The Ancillary taproom opened in a longtime bank branch, most recently a Cooperativa Latino Credit Union, located at 1420 Hardimont Road, just off of Wake Forest Road north of the Beltline.
“We wanted to make the impermanent thing more permanent and looked in the structures of an old building that had a previous use,” Baker said.
Acclaimed brewery
Starting in 2018, Ancillary launched with tallboy cans of its first IPA. From there it moved around Raleigh, periodically announcing pop-ups in unexpected places. It’s been named one of the Triangle’s best breweries by national beer magazine Hop Culture and one of the country’s top 10 best new breweries by a USA Today poll.
The pop-up taprooms have included the All Saints chapel, another at a gym, where beers were poured into workout bottles, one at a bakery and another as just an epic house party with kegs you’d want to drink.
Building a taproom in a former bank fits the theme, Baker said.
“We’ve always been interested in activating places you don’t normally drink in,” Baker said. “We spent a lot of money to make it look like a bank branch still. We wanted to keep the heritage of the building while making it into a bar.”
Schnitzer said an eventual taproom was always part of the plan.
“We were always going to do a taproom,” Schnitzer said. “The first couple pop-ups were all awesome, but there are only so many places to pop up.”
The pandemic paused Ancillary Fermentation by and large, making can releases and pop-up taprooms impossible. The brand continued to brew beer, selling it instead to bottle shops.
Reintroduction of the brand
With the taproom, it’s something of a reintroduction of the brand.
“The project is mostly the same, it was sort of an impermanent pop-up,” Baker said. “Now it’ll be different in that we’re going to have a taproom and stuff.”
In the taproom itself, it looks just like a local bank on a weekday afternoon. The loan offices are intact, furniture is arranged around coffee tables. Outside, there are more than a dozen picnic tables surrounding the building. But the beer menu is built into an interest rate board, listing what’s on draft, who makes it, its alcohol content and the going rate. The wide teller counter is the main bar and the bank vault has been turned into the beer cooler.
“It’s exactly as they show it in a heist movie,” Baker said of repurposing the vault. “They take a big drill and drill into the door.”
Ancillary’s beer continues to be brewed at Cary’s Fortnight Brewing, but the some-day plan is for the brand to eventually have its own production space, Baker said.
Baker suggested more Ancillary taprooms could be in the works for the Triangle in the future.
“We’re going to keep the roots of the buildings,” Baker said. “We’re taking these buildings that are unused and turning them into places for the community. We’re hearing from a crazy amount of people ready to drink there.”
This story was originally published June 9, 2022 at 12:14 PM.
