Dram & Draught raises the bar (and tells you how tipsy you’ll be) by adding ABV to its menu.
We’ve all been there… mixed drinks, as delicious as they are, can catch up with us pretty quickly (here’s looking at you, hangovers). But what if we told you that you could choose the perfect cocktail based on your evening plans—be it casual drinks with your boss and colleagues or thirsty Thursday with your squad?
Enter Dram & Draught. While Raleighites already know it for its selection of whiskeys, wines, handcrafted cocktails and draught beer, it’s now become the bar in town that also lists the ABV (alcohol by volume) of each drink on its menu (!). This means customers can better pace themselves throughout the evening (or, let’s be honest, have an idea of how quickly they’ll start feeling tipsy).
“I spoke to a friend of mine about it before we did it… and she was like, ‘I would love to know that because sometimes I go out and have three drinks, and I’m fine, and sometimes I go out and have three drinks, and I can barely stand up. And I don’t know why,’” says Dram & Draught founder and co-owner Kevin Barrett.
As far as Barrett is aware, Dram & Draught is Raleigh’s only bar that includes ABVs on its menu. But it is starting to become a trend around the U.S.
Barrett and co-owner Drew Schenck got the idea from Sother Teague’s podcast, The Speakeasy, where they learned Teague, who is also an author and the beverage director of New York’s Amor Y Amargo cocktail bars (as well as the founder of BATCH, a new app for spirits professionals and enthusiasts), includes drinks’ ABVs on his menus.
“I know a good idea when I hear one,” says Barrett. “You can have an Old-Fashioned or a Manhattan or something boozy, then have a couple lower-alcohol drinks, then go back to the Manhattan… and that way you can just extend your night.”
Oh, and for those of you looking for vegan-friendly drink options (since some cocktails include egg whites), you no longer have to question the bartender. Dram & Draught also started adding a (V) next to all vegan-friendly bevs on its menu—and let’s just say we’re very spirited about it.
Bold Batch Creamery is serving up one-of-a-kind ice cream flavors.
We know you’re busy, so we’ll get straight to the pint. You’re gonna wanna set a recurring alarm for 11:58am on (most) Fridays to hop online and head to Bold Batch Creamery’s website—because once noon rolls around, you’ll be competing with a slew of others to secure a pint of this local scoop shop’s limited batches of super-premium artisan ice cream (think bold flavors like coffee lemonade and ube cheesecake).
“That’s been the culture of our ice cream from the first week,” says owner Maura McCarthy.
McCarthy started experimenting with this creamy treat at home as a creative outlet during the pandemic, making most of her bases and mix-ins from scratch. Once people outside her friend group started making requests and raving about the unique flavors, she secured a space at Raleigh’s Kitchen Archive in August 2020, naming her business 12 Paws—but rebranded to Bold Batch this year to avoid being confused with pet desserts. (Guilty.)
More than once, her weekly batches of 200 to 400 pints have sold out in under two minutes. As in 120 seconds! Um, holy cow (had to). And as far as getting the pints in hand, customers can choose from a list of pickup times and locations throughout the Triangle when placing their online orders.
So while at the moment you have to scream (internally) for ice cream via the internet, McCarthy says a more physical location is on the horizon—adding, “We’re working on something creative!” We’ll let you know when we get the scoop.boldbatchcreamery.com
Two Raleighites grow their living room-launched custom hat company into a 20,000-customer business.
Whether it’s part of your signature look or just a way for you to hide your day-three hair (we’ve all been there), hats are as much an expression of your personal style as the clothes you wear. But for Raleighites Brian Cox and Scott Alexander, they’ve taken this accessory and turned it into a thriving career, producing 1.5 million hats since launching Custom Patch Hats in 2018. It’s cap-tivating, really…
“This was supposed to be a side hustle… maybe some extra beer money,” says Alexander. “We decided to take the biggest bite we could, and we’ve never stopped doing that.”
Before we get too far ahead (get it), a little backstory. Prior, Cox was a freelance designer working on a Georgia brewery’s branding who needed hats. After getting a steep quote from an embroiderer, he decided to take matters into his own hands, borrowing a sewing machine and stitching designed patches onto hats. Following that successful sale, he took the idea to Alexander, who was, at that time in 2018, managing The Bison Bar.
“Scott and I bootstrapped this from our living rooms with $500 in our bank account,” says Cox, noting that they now have a team of over 70 people, 20,000 customers worldwide, a Downtown office on Harrington Street—plus a production warehouse on Capital Boulevard. Additionally, a new, larger production warehouse is currently under construction.
The company’s success can be traced back to the fact that it prioritizes building personal relationships with customers who work back-and-forth with just one of Custom Patch Hats’ designers throughout the entire process on a custom-made patch (be it embroidered, woven, leather, etc.), style of hat (Richardson is its main supplier), quantity—and voila, it’s hats in hand in nine weeks or less.
From local businesses like Sir Walter Coffee to huge companies like Amazon, Alexander says they’ve gotten great feedback from their customers. “What people really kind of harp on… is that human touch,” he says. “It’s something we really stress from the very beginning.”
And that human touch is arguably a Midas touch as the brand’s popularity has no doubt proven… “Walking through the airport in any random city, you see something that came through our door,” says Cox.
That positive response of seeing people wear their product everywhere will only grow, as they have no plans to slow down production anytime soon. “I’ve actually lied to my wife about having to be here early just because I enjoy coming here,” jokes Alexander. “I love this. I love this job.” Hats off to them! custompatchhats.com
Traditional and crafty coffee concoctions await at Raleigh’s new Fiction Coffee shop.
This isn’t a piece of fiction… Raleigh’s newest coffee shop, Fiction Kitchen, has landed in Northwest Raleigh (!) at Crabtree Terrace. (Pause for OTB-ers to applause.) And if you haven’t bean yet, you’re gonna wanna put down that Starbucks and head over for a hot cuppa joe stat.
Bathed in natural light and adorned with soft green and blue accents, Fiction’s atmosphere is attractive for everyone from the java junkie seekin’ their next fix to the WFH-er looking for a place to land to the corporate clientele seeking a space to energize and chat business.
“We aren’t just shooting for one general dynamic group of people,” says Fiction Coffee Director of Food & Beverage Spencer Fox. “We want to be a coffee shop that’s welcoming to anyone and everyone and all types, and with that, stripping pretentiousness away from coffee.”
To avoid this sort of haughty, exclusive vibe, Fiction prides itself in hiring people who care about others while maintaining a welcoming, friendly atmosphere—and making each customer’s experience a conversation, rather than a transaction (or as Fox describes it, “kind of like that cocktail experience,” where the bartender helps you choose a drink after you’ve had time to chat). “That is, at our heart, what we always try to capture, which is genuine conversation and experience when you walk into Fiction,” adds Fox.
And furthering its mission to “develop a Southern charm for the coffee palette,” Fiction Coffee offers a selection of traditional espresso drinks (made with Counter Culture Coffee beans), fan favorites (see: the vanilla latte), and must-try bevs off the “fictional” (aka seasonal) section of the menu. Using syrups made in-house, baristas serve up brew-tiful concoctions like the Szechuan honey mocha and the Junie B (cold brew, oat milk and juniper syrup chilled into a slush, which will appear on the menu when the weather warms up)—and we cannot espresso our excitement enough.
And since you’re bound to become a regular, we’ll let you in on a little secret. If you frequent the place, you’ll get a nickname. “We like to call some of our regulars ‘escape artists,’” says Fox. “That’s kind of the fun internal word we use, and basically, an escape artist is anyone who comes more than five times a week.” Challenge accepted. fictioncoffee.com
Locals are advocating for a temporary skate park at the proposed Devereux Meadow Park.
Rumblings of transforming 14 acres of city-owned polluted dead space into a dedicated DTR park have droned on for more than a decade to no avail. But, alas, inklings of a Devereux Meadow Park project vision are finally being set into motion. And, in the meantime, one young Raleighite is vying for it to become a temporary skate park.
While still in the conceptual design phase, the proposed urban park situated between Capital Boulevard and Peace Street—slated to become a natural, passive park including two plazas, a wetlands system, walking paths, areas for public art and more—has garnered a lot of public attention over the years, both in terms of what it could become and what the space could be used for in the process.
But before we roll ahead, let’s get up to speed on the so-far dormant park’s status. Last year, the City of Raleigh developed three distinct designs for the park, which were reviewed by a project stakeholder committee and then presented to the public in the form of an open house. A survey was then administered to the public during spring/summer 2021 for input on preferred design—and suggestions for elements that should be added—which the city’s design team used, in conjunction with other data, to develop its current draft concept plan late last fall.
In the city’s continued efforts to include the community in the park’s planning, another survey for public comment on the latest draft proposal was recently open from Feb. 7–March 9.
Meanwhile, the park’s interim potential has sparked its own conversation. “With any park project, especially of this type … this is something that the taxpayers—the citizens of Raleigh—are paying for, so it’s very important for us in any park planning and early design process to actively engage the public as much as possible,” says Raleigh Capital Projects Manager Gary Claiborne.
And actively engaged Raleigh’s citizens are—specifically 16-year-old skateboarder Adrian Mangano, a sophomore at Enloe Magnet High School who is spearheading the charge. While plans for an interim public use of the site are currently undetermined, Mangano, alongside a few other locals, is calling for the space to be used as a temporary skate park where area youth and adults can skateboard, scooter or BMX (bicycle motocross). They’ve even developed a website to gain support and public interest (skateraleigh.com)—though, like the park, it’s in its nascent stages.
For those in the know, images of other mini-metropolises with recognized skate parks roll to mind—like Burnside in Portland or Skate Lab in Atlantic Beach, Florida. These havens are proven to provide area youth—and adults alike—safe spaces to ride while also keeping them off streets and city properties (e.g. government building stairs…).
For BMX’ers and boarders looking for a place to land—or flip and fly as the case may be—a temporary skate park in Raleigh would provide an easily accessible space where teens like Mangano (and people of all ages) could gather to simply do what they love.
Right now, Marsh Creek Park on New Hope Road features the only skate park in town… and it has its limitations. For one, kids and (most) teens can’t drive—so what would only be a 15-minute commute from Downtown becomes a less appealing—if not altogether unappealing—two-hour-plus walk.
Mangano also notes that that particular skate park lacks variety in its setup—designed for transition skating (think skating bowls) rather than street skating, which focuses more on rails and other urban obstacles.
Without another alternative, Mangano and his friends have—like most wheel enthusiasts in town—turned to skating along Fayetteville Street and in other areas Downtown. “That also brings limitations, though, with people not wanting us to skate Downtown,” he says. Precisely what a dedicated skate park, temporary or not, could alleviate.
Adds Mangano’s father, Stephen Mangano, who supports the addition of a temporary skate park, “Where Devereux Park is proposed, it may take several years, but if we can activate that [space now] with something interesting… it’s a good kind of test case. Will kids use [the temporary skate park], and how much demand can we create?”
Another resident pushing for the temporary skate park is Raleigh Sister Cities President Cody Charland, also a marketer, skateboarder and father to an 8-month-old whom he can’t wait to teach to skate.
“We’re just at half a million people [in Raleigh]. One skate park for half a million people is not enough,” says Charland. “We’re growing in so many different ways, and look at the year that we’re in. … We’ve got to think about how these public spaces and park spaces can be transformed to be useful spaces.”
So what’s the likelihood of Raleigh’s long-awaited park project answering the call? That’s up in the air. “The project design team will review the comments received during the public engagement process to work on finalizing the concept plan by May 2022,” says Claiborne, adding: “Future phases of the project—including advanced design, permitting and construction—are currently not funded, but the project has been considered by City Council for possible inclusion in a future parks bond package.”
And we should note, pitching the park as a recreational sports space, however temporary, goes beyond a place to ramp up passionate riders. It’s also a nod to Raleigh’s history, as the land was once the site of the Devereux Meadow minor league baseball stadium (hence the park name), where teams like the Raleigh Capitals and Raleigh Pirates played. (Let us please pause for a moment of silence for a time when Raleigh had its own DTR baseball team…)
Post-defunct-team and the demo of the stadium in 1979, the now-dilapidated land has mostly served as a city-owned maintenance facility. The new park—and what that land becomes in the interim, in any iteration—undeniably breathes life into Downtown.
“One of the best parts (about skateboarding) is really just the community,” says the younger Mangano. “Because when you’re skating with your friends, you just motivate each other to do better.” See you on the halfpipe? skateraleigh.com
