How Raleigh’s Bartenders Built the City’s Bar Scene

10 things you didn’t know about the people who helped build Raleigh’s bar scene.

Raleigh’s bar scene isn’t an accident. And it isn’t some hodgepodge of trendy TikTok moments or kitschy concepts. It’s core Raleigh—and it’s built on the backs of its (best) bartenders.

As the brains behind some of Raleigh’s best bars, RM’s Bartender of the Year nominees share more than great concepts—they share a school of hard knocks forged in Raleigh’s unofficial training grounds.

Trace their years behind the stick and you’ll find familiar names, places and faces—and a shared ethos: What’s in your glass matters a whole lot less than how you feel drinking it. Call it six degrees of separation: From accidental first shifts and storied watering holes to career-making mentors, cocktail obsessions and one very committed Keg Master, here’s the spirited lore behind the people who helped build Raleigh’s bar scene.

178 YEARS & COUNTING 

… combined behind the stick—shaking, stirring and slinging for upward of two decades each.

TRAINING GROUNDS

Foundation, Fox Liquor Bar or C. Grace served as Raleigh’s unofficial bartending schools for Kevin Barrett, Matt Bettinger, Matt Coleman, Kyle Hankin & Lewis Norton.

BOTTOMS UP

Servers, barbacks, restaurant gigs: Six—including Hankin, Coleman, Lily Ballance, Josh Gagne, Katie O’Kane & Zack Medford—earned their way behind the stick before calling the shots at bars of their own. 

CHEAP THRILLS

Before craft ’tails, Ballance, “Keg Master” Medford & Marshall Davis cut their teeth slinging cheap beer—from Buds to $1 drafts and keg-party pours.

DOUBLE SOMM

Barrett & O’Kane are both certified sommeliers—bringing some serious wine cred to Raleigh’s cocktail crowd.

HOSPITALITY > HOOCH

Ten bartenders, one house rule: Make people feel good first. Make a great drink second.

HAPPY ACCIDENTS

Four (Ballance, Coleman, Gagne & Medford) fell into bartending almost by accident—from fill-in shifts and callouts to simply being in the right place at the right time.

PARTY PEOPLE

Bettinger, Coleman & Medford each describe the job the same way: A certain type of person gets excited to throw a party for a living—and all 10 happen to be really good at it.

NEXT ROUND

Raleigh’s bar family tree keeps branching: Before Jordan Joseph was Crawford Hospitality Beverage Director, Davis hired him to take over Gallo Pelón. Barrett and Gagne made the rounds with longtime local bartender extraordinaire Alex Flynn. Foundation’s founders handed Hankin the keys. 

POUR ONE OUT

Twenty+ dearly departed Raleigh bars live on across these résumés. RIP to some real ones like the OG Five Star, Fox, C. Grace, White Collar Crime, Zinda and beyond.