What’s in a name?

There exists two competing, and likely equally truthful, origin stories for the name Copper Crow, the first being that owner Jason Pierce, himself an avid student of history, wanted to chose a name and logo that spoke both to the historic nature of the building as a brewery and of his family background.

As the first story tells it, the “Crow” in the name represents the Crow family, ancestors of owner Jason Pierce, that first immigrated to the United States from England sometime in the late 17th century, first settling in Farnham, Virginia, with successive generations eventually making their homes on the banks of Emory River in Roane County, Tennessee.

The “Copper” in the name was meant to pay homage to Pierce’s Scottish and Irish ancestors, some of whom had worked in mines in the Copper Basin (near the borders of Tennessee and North Carolina) in the latter half of the 19th century after copper ore was first discovered there by a local prospector as he panned for gold in 1848. The copper also harkens back to the building’s historic use as a brewery from 1832 up until the early 20th century.

The second story tells of a night when, after having consumed several expertly crafted cocktails from Savoy Taproom, Jason and Kayleigh Pierce, frustrated that they had yet to come up with a name for their new establishment, called Kayleigh’s brother-in-law James, himself having had a few drinks that evening, and humbly requested his assistance in naming the establishment. Almost immediately he blurted out… “The Copper Crow.” The phone went silent for a moment and everyone knew that the search was over. They had found the perfect name.

Is one story any more or less true then the other, or do they both together tell the “whole story” behind our name? We’ll let you decide.