Little Rock-based Flyway Brewing Co. is taking over one of Memphis’s oldest craft breweries and taprooms, but the legacy of High Cotton Brewing Co. won’t be lost to history.
Flyway and the ownership group behind City Silo Table + Pantry are transforming High Cotton’s brewery and taproom, along with the former Edge Alley space next door on Monroe, into a Flyway-branded brewpub, featuring beers, food and music.
But the fingerprints of those who founded and worked at High Cotton, a trailblazer of the Memphis beer scene in the past decade, will remain.
The High Cotton mural painted on the brick wall of the patio is staying. The High Cotton brewing team will retain “artistic license” moving forward in crafting new beers. Ross Avery, one of High Cotton’s original founders, will have an ownership stake in the new Flyway Memphis. It’s even possible that the High Cotton sign above the front door may be preserved.
“High Cotton,” Flyway founder and co-owner Matt Foster told Memphis Beer Blog, “is there to stay.”
Furthermore, for fans of High Cotton beers, some of the brewery’s core offerings will still be sold both in the Flyway taproom and in the Memphis market, complete with the High Cotton label on the cans.
At a minimum, Foster said, High Cotton’s Mexican Lager, Scottish Ale and Riverking IPA will continue to be brewed and distributed in Memphis, Northeast Arkansas and Mississippi.
“We would like to continue to grow them,” added City Silo’s Scott Tashie. “We see a lot of potential in those beers.”
As a disclaimer, Foster said that Flyway reserves the right to tweak and improve any of the recipes, adding: “That doesn’t mean that we will, necessarily.”
Flyway’s Memphis connections
Flyway Brewing’s brand was inspired by the Mississippi Flyway, one of the four main bird migratory routes in North America.
“Memphis sits right in the heart of the Mississippi Flyway … and it just makes perfect sense,” Foster said. “I’ve always thought Memphis was a natural place for a Flyway.”
Flyway, which was founded in North Little Rock’s Argenta district in 2015, has another Memphis connection.
“When we first started brewing Bluewing, we didn’t have enough capacity to meet demand. We brewed some of our early batches of cans in Memphis at a place called City Brewery, which does contract brewing. … So we have a history there,” Foster explained.
High Cotton is not the first small brewery to become a Flyway outpost.
Late last year, Flyway added a second location in Fayetteville in the former home of Apple Blossom Brewing Co.
Foster said working with existing breweries and brands has become part of Flyway’s purpose.
“Anywhere we have the opportunity to go work with existing breweries for whatever reason … if there’s a way to preserve that and continue those really creative brands, really awesome facilities, really neat people involved, like the entire crew at High Cotton, I want to help to continue that … almost as a mission. That’s a really important part of what we’re trying to do here,” he said.
Plans for Flyway’s Memphis Brewpub
High Cotton’s brewery and taproom remain open and won’t close during the renovation of the neighboring restaurant space.
Not much will need to be done to the restaurant space, Tashie said, because it’s in such great shape.
The only “heavy construction” planned is to open up the door between the taproom and Edge Alley space.
“We’ll be opening that door and widening it up to basically create a synergy between the two spaces … so when you’re in there eating or drinking, you’re not separate,” Tashie said. “It will all be functioning as one unit.”
The goal is to have the brewpub fully open by summer.
Meanwhile, the team is developing the menu for the restaurant.
The food menus at the Little Rock and Fayetteville Flyway locations feature pretzels, nachos, chicken wings, duck tenders, cheese fries, salads and more.
Tashie said the menu at the Flyway Memphis location will be a blend the offerings from the other Flyway locations, with some added Memphis touches.
Tashie, a lifelong Memphian, said he’s always enjoyed High Cotton’s beers and location in the Edge District.
“We’re seeing this as a great stop on your way to a game, or if you’re going out downtown for the night and you want to stop off and grab a beer and get some dinner before you go down to Beale Street,” Tashie said.
“The location is really great not only for people going out Downtown, but, also, we’re right by Midtown.”
In addition to being close to both Downtown and Midtown, the new Flyway location is just around the corner from Memphis Made Brewing Co.’s second location, which opened last year at 435 Madison in the former home of a glass manufacturing company.
Memphis Made has shifted its brewing operations to its larger Edge District location, and will be opening a new taproom there, as well.
Foster said he sees Flyway’s proximity to Memphis Made’s new spot as a good thing.
“It’s well proven across the region and nation, really, that where there are multiple breweries, they feed off of each other,” he said. “We’ve seen that a lot, and I think it’ll be really cool. It’ll create even more of a destination.”
Introducing Flyway beers to Memphis
Flyway’s beers are not yet available on store shelves in the Memphis area or on restaurant taps, but they will be at some point.
Meanwhile, Flyway’s flagship Bluewing Blueberry Wheat Ale, 4.9% ABV, will be the first Flyway beer to be sold in Memphis, and it should be arriving soon in the new taproom.
Bluewing has been one of the top-selling beers in Arkansas in recent years, Foster said, and it’s proven to have mass appeal.
Slowly, additional Flyway core beers will be introduced here, such as Flyway Light American Pilsner, Early Bird IPA, Honeybird Blonde Ale, Magdalene Belgian Tripel, Free Range Brown Ale and Nine Killer Imperial IPA.
While Foster said Flyway does encourage innovation in creating new beers, brewing traditional styles of beer has been the focus,
“By and large, our goal is not to see how crazy we can get, it’s to see how well we can brew traditional styles, the way they’re intended,” Foster said.
“When we serve a lager, it’s lagered. … We actually believe in the process.”
Does the widening of the door between the taproom and the restaurant mean dogs are no longer allowed inside?
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