Raleigh continues continues to get blander 
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Darn 
anybody have any recommendations of similar spots downtown (a.k.a. intimate cocktail lounges with live jazz)?
NOPE. Growing tired of all the shiny new building announcements that are sure to sit with empty retail spaces for months if not years alongside all the announcements of our longstanding cool shit closing. I’m bout to start openly admitting Durham is the cooler/better city.
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Well damn, it might go deeper that that^^ - from reddit:
“A staff member was stealing tips from the tip pool, and she refused to fire that person so everyone else quit” and then another redditor confirmed with, “This is what I was told by a friend, who was one of the bartenders that quit.” YIKES if true.
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another comment: “They’ve had thieves working there for years. One of my closest friends worked there for like two months and knew something was off with the money. The day he quit he watched one of the bartenders slip cash into her pocket and try to be slick and when he addressed it, he was blown off. I’m surprised they made it through the pandemic at all to be quite honest. It was a cute spot with a good concept but kind of shit service and now we know why.”
And here’s an interesting comment on the Reddit thread, two places I have never heard of, anyone have any insight on these??
“Sad to see it go, but you can always visit its spiritual children, SideBar and Hank’s Downtown Dive.”
and a follow up: “The original GM of C Grace runs them both, and several staff from CG work(ed?) there. Now apparently the only place in town you can order an Odd Perfection.”
SideBar and Hank’s are both in 'DT’Cary and they are both cool spots.
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Welp, that explains why no one was jumping to pick up the reins with the owner retiring. You’d have to do a total staff clearout at minimum.
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Apparently they own the building as well. I imagine they will sell, but I suppose they could lease it out instead.
Bond Brothers East has the best Jazz jam in the Triangle every Thursday. It’s 
Bringing this back to DT Raleigh…uh…
I’ll be going to Cary and Durham more often moving forward? 
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Do any other cities have interesting ways of encouraging new small performance venues?
If venues that close down don’t get replaced by new venues opening up, it’s a great way to stoke anti-development feelings, even among people that usually support new construction (cough cough this board the last two weeks cough cough). Plus, even as someone that’s kind of ambivalent on live music, a thriving city should have a thriving music scene. It brings in interesting people.
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Pretty significant loss of small venues in the last couple years; C Grace, Berkley, Kings/Neptunes, Imurj, and if we zoom out a little further, Southland Ballroom.
In thinking of replacements we’ve gotten Tin Roof, Moore Square stage.
I’m sure I’m missing something, but pretty disappointed in the trend, none of the latter venues have any of the character that made the former great.
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Oh man I feel this post my trigger some people. Raleigh Mag has a two part podcast with Chef Katsuji Tanabe with part one last week and part two dropping today. Haven’t listened to the part two yet but part one they talk about the collapse of High Horse and the other plans they had in the area.
Before the pandemic he had planned to open five restaurants in the area. The Rum Runners space was going to be a seafood place and he had planned to turned City Market into a restaurant with a rooftop bar
The promising takeaway, albeit bittersweet, is that the opportunity of City Market is seen by food talent locally and hopefully (very big IF) future investment yields some movement in this direction and (again, hopefully) that coincides with redevelopment on the eastern lots adjacent to City Market / Moore Square. As those dominoes fall, it only makes these sorts of things come back around…
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Amen to that 
I’ll have to give the second part a listen sometime. Apparently he talks about his future plans in the area.
City Market needs to come home. Seriously, how can a bunch of local investors get it out the hands of the current owner and bring it back to a raleigh-based owner with 
?
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I kinda feel like that guy is all talk. Maybe I’m wrong. Went to High Horse once and wasn’t that impressed.
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Blast from the past - this building (501 Washington) and its big mostly-empty lot is up for a rezoning but it looks like they won’t get it.
City Council 9/06/22; Planning Commission recommends denial
I felt it was good when I went there. I’ve been to A’Verde once and it was really good too so
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I keep wondering how the closing of all of these smaller venues is going to impact Hopscotch which by design has always relied heavily on these spaces.
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