Ship Happens

Local Icon’s shipping container concept at Peace & Glenwood is on.

Remember “The Yard” we first told you about last spring cropping up at the corner of Peace and Glenwood in the old Peace Street Inspection Center? We do—and it’s still happening. Now dubbed Embargo—a play on bar/shipping container, get it?—the buzzy concept will break ground in July and deliver (had to) late summer/early fall, transforming the abandoned repair shop and otherwise dead space atop Glenwood South into a dynamic social hub.

Adding another calf to the cash cow that is the thriving district—which doles a $1.2 billion annual impact—the converted OG go-to auto inspection station will expand the district footprint by extending its northern gateway across Peace Street.

From service station to, well, service, Local Icon Hospitality founder/owner Jon Seelbinder and team (think The Merchant, Virgil’s, Little City, to name a few) are upfitting the original building into a hip hangout to max out the space with a unique boundary-pushing concept while maintaining the legacy of that popular Raleigh pocket. Think: unique one-story F&B concepts over towers, a vision shared by local Icon and property owners CityPlat and Modalia Capital, who aim to create synergy with the current area.

Leaning into the surging popularity of shipping container bars (e.g. Boxyard RTP), the main building’s bar and small kitchen will be surrounded by ~20 shipping containers (some multistories) filled with bars and unique food concepts spread among a fire pit- and game-dotted outdoor space, and playing host to rotating food trucks. And it’s gonna be a total vibe.

With a longstanding MO of maintaining the essence of Raleigh while simultaneously pushing the envelope, Local Icon is primed to perfectly play out this avant-garde vision by thinking outside the box (and literally inside the box, in this case.). While the details are still being flushed out, Seelbinder and his team are flirting with three or four casual food concepts—tossing around ops from resurrecting their former famed Linus & Peppers sandwiches to a “really slick burger program,” he says. 

“Let’s make it vibe with Raleigh, but also make it unique in our way,” says Seelbinder. “Let’s make it elevated, but approachable. Let’s not go so over-the-top that it doesn’t resonate with our drinking community—but let’s do something really cool” to visually activate one of the most heavily trafficked intersections in DTR.

Ultimately, “this is not just another Glenwood South bar. … More than anything, it’ll be a cool outdoor drinking and hangout space,” says Seelbinder. “And I’m just really excited to bring it to Glenwood Avenue.” Retweet. 

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