Inside the Vicious Fishes location in Cary, during evening hours still listed on the brewery’s website as open, a small forklift sits parked in the indoor seating area. Planks of wood sit on a barrel that served as a high-top table.
No one is inside, and a “section closed” sign is the only indication to West End Biergarten attendees that one of the two breweries in the beer garden isn’t serving. The brewery’s social media accounts haven’t shared the news; the website is still active, though the doors haven’t opened in June.
West End Biergarten opened at the western edge of Downtown Cary in November 2023 with two breweries operating on the property. At the time of the opening, Vicious Fishes was the established brewery, with four locations and several years of doing business. Then-new brewery South Line was opened by two owners with restaurant experience. It’s remained a popular spot.
On fair-weather days, both breweries would open garage doors to the shared common area. Artificial turf serves as event space for vintage markets or for pickup soccer games for families.
Things have changed in recent years for Vicious Fishes, which once had four locations—Apex, Fuquay-Varina, Angier, and the Cary location. Two closed in the past year. The Apex location shuttered with little notice beyond a social media post in early December 2025 after Vicious Fishes posted that its lease expired. The Local, a coffee, “dirty soda,” beer, and wine spot, has since opened in its place.
The Fuquay-Varina location of Vicious Fishes, well-reviewed by The News & Observer’s food writer for its kitchen, also closed in late 2025. Duke’s Kitchen and Taphouse opened in that former location.
The Line reached Vicious Fishes owner Ken O’Berry via email, who said the Cary and Angier taprooms are closed because of an issue renewing ABC permits that is connected to a missing withholding filing by the payroll company used by the brewery. That missing filing, which he says is from December 2022, caused the N.C. Department of Revenue to block its permit renewals. Restarting the process could take weeks, O’Berry wrote.
Vicious Fishes still has its commercial permits, O’Berry said, which means Vicious Fishes beers will still be sold to wholesale customers like local bars and restaurants. (O’Berry mentioned a West Coast IPA collaboration in the works.)
South Line Brewing is open as usual. This weekend, when South Line planned to be closed to the public for an event, they set up a tent and a pop-up bar with beer on Vicious Fishes’ side of the beer garden.
South Line Brewing co-owner Mike Markham said in an interview with The Line that they’re working with the remaining partners and landlord to figure out what’s next for West End, and that future doesn’t include Vicious Fishes.
The details still need to be decided, but it might include a designated space for kids for the family-friendly beer garden. “That’s been our number one complaint and issue,” Markham said.
The Vicious Fishes space could also become another type of food or entertainment business. Demand for beer is down, while demand for cannabis beverages is up, Markham said, though he noted that restrictive state laws make investing in or producing cannabis beverages difficult.
On the east side of Downtown Cary, O’Berry was also a partial owner of another bar, Beach House by Tiki Brewing, that closed earlier this year.
According to ABC commission minutes in February 2023, O’Berry owned 50% of Island Time Beverage Company—the operator of Beach House by Tiki Brewing—and Alex Gremmo owned the other 50%. The two asked for an exemption to the law that doesn’t allow brewers to own separate bars.
The vote passed, with the conditions that O’Berry and Gremmo not handle day-to-day operations and that an independent manager should be in charge of ordering beer, including a “reasonable share of other breweries’ malt beverages.”
After a holiday pop-up and a Valentine’s theme at the Beach House by Tiki Brewing, that bar also quietly closed. Island Time’s permits were canceled June 1.
O’Berry said he didn’t want to make any “forward-looking statements” on what’s next for Vicious Fishes.
“We’re not immune to the pressures that have been facing lots of other hospitality businesses, such as inflationary pressures, families pulling back on their discretionary spending due to elevated gas and grocery prices,” O’Berry wrote. “We’ve seen a slowing of buying from our wholesale customers (restaurants), and our taprooms have been slower than the norm from previous years. … It’s very difficult as our expenses grow and taprooms remain closed. So we’ll just have to see how things develop.”
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