Ponysaurus Brewing Co. Raleigh Iron Works

Location

Raleigh, NC

Market Sectors

  • Commercial
  • Hospitality

Sub Sectors

  • Adaptive Reuse
  • Food/Beverage - Brewery/Distillery
  • Food/Beverage - Restaurant/Bar
  • Retail

Client

Ponysaurus Brewing Co.

Partners

  • Center Studio Architecture
  • The Cast Iron Group

An industrial-inspired space for a forward-thinking brewery rooted in local craft and community

A beloved Durham-based company founded in 2015, Ponysaurus Brewing Co. opened its third location in the revitalized Raleigh Iron Works (RIW) development. Backed by a bold vision and their “forward-thinking, backward-tasting” craft beers, this project showcases the power of adaptive reuse while celebrating local craftmanship, materials, and history.

6,000
Square Feet
Local
Craft Brewery
Adaptive Reuse
Development
$75K
In Savings
Heavy
Equipment Coordination & Installation

A unique, community-focused space

The design of Ponysaurus Brewing Co.’s Raleigh barrel room and restaurant achieves a balance between historic character and contemporary amenities. Spanning 6,000 square feet across two levels, the space features a full bar and kitchen, 18 taps, and a sour beer facility with production space for barrel aging, blending, and bottling. A custom layered seating concept with a mezzanine, cast-in-place concrete booths and wood-topped bar backed by hand-made tiles offers flexibility and convenience. Overhead doors were installed to create a seamless indoor-outdoor flow, and a life-size Ponysaurus “fossil” anchors the space with playful impact. All brewery systems, AV, and furnishings were carefully coordinated to ensure a smooth and cohesive upfit.

Savings through a collaborative preconstruction approach

Throughout the preconstruction phase, extensive value engineering exercises were conducted by members of the construction and design teams to help identify creative cost saving opportunities. These exercises resulted in saving the client more than $75,000 in materials and construction costs without compromising design or quality.

Side Story

The story behind the life-size centerpiece

Perhaps the most unique design element of all is the eye-catching life-size Ponysaurus skeleton, which serves as a striking centerpiece that ties the brewery’s playful personality to its innovative design. Standing atop a cherry wood slab, this horse-dino hybrid’s skeleton was 3D printed in Denmark, delivered to the brewery as boxes of bones, and assembled and glued together on site over the course of four weeks. The company even brought in paleontologist Matt Borths, Ph.D., Curator at Duke Lemur Center’s Museum of Natural History, to assist with the anatomical arrangement of the structure.