Today, if you walk into the Reed Building at American Tobacco Campus, you will find East of Texas holding its grand opening, plates of Tex-Mex barbecue moving out of a kitchen that soft-opened just ten days ago on July 31. Cross the courtyard toward the old Power Plant, the building sitting between the campus's water tower and smokestack, and you will find something else entirely: a taproom that still hasn't poured its first beer, nearly two years after it was announced as Durham's next big opening.
That gap between what just opened and what still hasn't is the actual story of ATC this summer. Everyone who follows Durham food news has been tracking Fullsteam Brewery's move since it was announced in September 2024. Almost two years later, the campus didn't sit still waiting on it. Three other tenants signed leases, built out spaces, and opened their doors first, changing the way the campus actually gets used before its highest-profile addition ever pours a pint.
The Anchor Everyone Is Still Waiting On
Fullsteam is Durham's oldest craft brewery, founded in 2010, and the operation that helped build the bar scene around Geer Street in the first place, according to Axios. When founder Sean Lilly Wilson couldn't land a long-term lease at the Rigsbee Avenue taproom, he closed it to customers on Halloween 2024 and announced a move to a 9,000-square-foot space in ATC's historic Power Plant, tucked between the Lucky Strike water tower and the smokestack.
At the time, the timeline sounded reasonable. The 9th Street Journal reported that the new taproom was expected to take about a year to complete, which would have put opening day sometime in late 2025. Wilson called it the brewery's "forever home" when the deal was announced, and the plans included a pilot brewing system, a small stage, and a private event space, all built into a former coal-fired boiler room.
A year came and went. As of a Triangle restaurant tracker updated in mid-June 2026, Fullsteam was still listed under "coming soon," alongside a note that production has already shifted to Fortnight Brewing in Cary while the Durham taproom finishes construction. Nothing in the weeks since suggests that changed, which means the space between the water tower and smokestack has likely gone unopened for close to two years now, well past its own one-year estimate.
What Opened While The Boiler Room Sat Empty
Here is what did open in that same window, all inside the same campus:
- Lutra Cafe & Bakery made the jump from pop-up to permanent address on June 26, 2026, taking over 312 Blackwell St. in the Noell Building. It now runs breakfast and lunch seven days a week, with weekend brunch, serving what American Tobacco Campus's own restaurant page describes as a rotating lineup of breakfast, deli, and ice box sandwiches alongside its signature sweet and savory buns, plus coffee, wine, and beer.
- Ment Beverage Co., the rebrand of the long-running Honeygirl Meadery, finished expanding its facilities at the end of 2024 and now pours mead, cider, beer, and what it says is the first sake produced in Durham, made with rice grown in eastern North Carolina. The tasting room has indoor and patio seating, games, and a retail section, and it hosts events regularly.
- East of Texas signed its lease in January 2026, took over 5,579 square feet in the Reed Building, soft-opened July 31, and held today's grand opening on August 10, bringing its Tex-Mex barbecue and outdoor dining format east from its original Winston-Salem location.
Three tenants, three different lease timelines, all landing before the one that was announced first.
| Status | Business | Space | Key date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open | Lutra Cafe & Bakery | Noell Building, 312 Blackwell St. | Opened June 26, 2026 |
| Open | Ment Beverage Co. (formerly Honeygirl Meadery) | ATC social district | Expanded/rebranded late 2024 |
| Open | East of Texas | Reed Building | Grand opening Aug. 10, 2026 |
| Still under construction | Fullsteam Brewery | Historic Power Plant, "Boiler Room" | Announced Sept. 4, 2024; expected timeline was about one year |
The Walk Between DPAC And The Ballpark Looks Different Now
The practical effect shows up if you actually walk the campus rather than read about it. The loop most people already make between the Durham Performing Arts Center and Durham Bulls Athletic Park used to lean on the same handful of names: Tobacco Road Sports Cafe for a pregame plate with a view of the field, Mellow Mushroom for the standby pizza order, Parker & Otis for a coffee and a wander through its retail shop. Those are still there and still busy.
What's different is what fills the middle of that walk now. You can start with a sandwich and coffee at Lutra before a matinee at DPAC, swing by Ment Beverage Co. for a flight that might include a sake nobody else in the Triangle is making, and end at East of Texas for barbecue before a Bulls game, all without leaving a few blocks of brick pathway under the Lucky Strike tower.
Food and drink aren't the only categories filling in the gaps. Yoga Off East relocated from its longtime 9th Street spot to a larger studio above Parker & Otis in fall 2024, nearly tripling its class capacity to accommodate 40 mats. American Underground, the coworking operation that helped put Durham on the startup map, announced in May 2025 that it was returning to its original ATC home. None of that required Fullsteam to open first. The campus has been building a daily rhythm around its edges while the center of that rhythm, the boiler room brewery, stays behind a construction fence.
Why The Wait Matters Less Than It Used To
None of this means Fullsteam won't be worth the visit once it opens. A brewery with its own pilot system and a stage for live shows in a converted power plant is a genuinely rare setup, and Durham has waited long enough to earn the right to be a little impatient about it. But the assumption that ATC's food and drink scene was on pause until its anchor tenant arrived doesn't hold up against what's actually happened on the ground. Three businesses signed, built, and opened in the time it took one to finish permitting, and the campus reads differently for it right now, this week, regardless of when the boiler room finally turns its lights on.
If you already live near enough to make this loop a habit, that's worth knowing before your next weekend plan. And if this is the kind of neighborhood detail that makes you curious about what it would feel like to live within walking distance of it, that's a conversation Triangle Style Living has all the time. Let me be your matchmaker. Schedule a consultation whenever you're ready to talk about what's actually around the corner from a Durham address, not just what's on the listing sheet.
