Glenwood South’s Southern Charred gets a classy revamp and a new name.
Take everything you knew about Southern Charred (BBQ, axe throwing, etc.) and swap it with scenes reminiscent of a boujee NYC hotel bar. Owner Matt Kenner and Bunch of Fives Hospitality Co. (the hospitality group behind the Glenwood South bar and restaurant, along with Milk Bar, MOFU Shoppe and Dogwood Bar & Eatery), recently completed a total revamp of the space and reopened it as Glenwood Social Club in October.
“We wanted to completely 360 from Southern Charred,” says Bunch of Fives Hospitality Co.’s Director of Marketing Madison Donnan.
The now-uber-upscale space delivers finesse with dark green walls, neon signage, leather couches and plush pink seating, marble tables, old-timey antiques, and tons of greenery. In fact, the new digs are almost unrecognizable from what they used to be. “We molded [Glenwood Social Club] to be more classy and hope it maintains that way,” says Donnan.
To wit, instead of BBQ, the menu at Glenwood Social Club—developed by the same chef from Southern Charred, Phil Gibbins—focuses on charcuterie and small plates (think Mexican corn dip, wings, Brussels sprouts and tuna ceviche), as well as pizza utilizing the built-in stone oven that Southern Charred had no use for. And, to wash it all down, handcrafted cocktails and local beers round out the menu.
So the next time you’re eager to go out and socialize over delish eats and drinks on Glenwood, you know exactly where to go. southern-charred.goto-restaurants.com
WEB EXCLUSIVE You can’t beat a classic G&T—and these Triangle bars are serving up some of the best in town.
Vodka drinkers step aside—this one’s for the gin lovers. Everyone loves a classic gin and tonic—they’re refreshing, light and full of flavor. Lucky for us, the Triangle is home to some amazing gin bars serving up tasty spins on G&Ts. Here, we round up some of our top spots to sip this perennial fave.
Barcelona Wine Bar is serving up not one, not two, but five different G&Ts to help you get your gin fix. In addition to Barcelona’s classic GinTonic (featuring grapefruit, lime and jasmine), the Warehouse District resto offers a fruit varietal with grapefruit, elderflower, strawberry, lemon and pink peppercorn; a leaf varietal with juniper berries, lemon and bay leaves; a flower varietal with elderflower, rosebud, lime and cucumber; and a root varietal with ginger beer, cardamom, ginger and lime. Oh, and did we mention they prepare your drinks tableside? We’ll see you there tonight…
Visit Glenwood South’s newest hangout for one of the most Insta-worthy drinks in all of Raleigh: the gin and tonic tree! Complete with five G&Ts, this is the perfect way to order a round for the table. Another honorable mention: Highgarden’s This Ain’t a Surfing Movie, a spin on a gin and tonic with Empress gin, strawberry gin, lime and tonic.
This hidden-in-plain-sight speakeasy offers up a crazy number of gin and tonic combos. With over 30 gins and 10 tonics, there are literally thousands of drink combinations at your fingertips. If that’s too overwhelming, test your luck by ordering the dealer’s choice G&T, which is guaranteed to be tasty and creative.
DTR’s resident gin bar is obviously a go-to when it comes to gin and tonics. The menu boasts 70-plus gins and eight diff tonics—no stress, everyone there is super-friendly and can help you find your best match. Plus there’s Bittersweet’s Gin and Jam (your choice of gin shaken up with a locally made jam) which technically isn’t a G&T, but is too good to pass up.
Durham Distillery’s bar is serving up Conniption gins—made in-house—with house-crafted tonic for the ultimate G&T during this boozy holiday. And Corpse Reviver’s winter G&T balances gin botanicals with seasonal fruits and herbs for the perf cool-weather sipper. Plus, nothing beats sipping a liquor in the distillery!
Chill vibes, found. Slushee season is upon us! Beyond your standard frosé (S/O Level7, Milk Bar and Anchor Bar for those), get sloppy—er, cool off—with these 7 spins on spiked slushees at spots around town.
Miami Vice Locals Oyster Bar It’s always island time when you’re seated at Locals’ coastal-themed bar top with the perf slurpable pairing—a spiked slushee in one hand and a locally sourced oyster in the other (there’s no need to wait until 5pm to crush this combo). The Transfer Co.-housed bar’s Miami Vice is a strawberry daiquiri meets Red Bull tropical pina colada, and—believe us when we say—it packs a punch. localsoysterbar.comGoku Tonbo Ramen Ramen and adult slushees—name a better combo, we’ll wait. Tonbo’s current slush flavors include Yuzu Ginger (yuzu sake, ginger simple syrup, rum, pineapple juice) and Goku (tequila, Midori, St. Germain, peach schnapps, sour mix, pineapple juice). Slurp and sip away in the upstairs Izakaya bar—Tonbo’s version of a Japanese speakeasy—for a night you may or may not forget. tonboramen.com Strawberry Frosé Trophy Brewing It’s chill time. Frosé all day strawberry-style at Trophy. Back by popular demand, the quintessential pizza pub is batching fresh frosé with NC strawberries and natural rosé—slushee style—while the taproom will have rotating slush flavors (including the strawberry frosé) on deck. So… who wants to go halvsies on a Daredevil pie and get a smidge sauced on adult slushees? Hey—where there’s a will, there’s frosé. trophybrewing.comMagnificent S.O.B Wye Hill Kitchen & Brewing Two slammable summer beverages collide in Wye Hill’s new slushes, which are made with the brewery’s locally famous brewed-in-house alcoholic seltzer base (Truly and White Claw, who?). Head brewer Greg Winget blends the base with fruit juices, purees and other flavorings for a frozen bev that we forecast will be your new fave go-to this season. We’re currently obsessed with the frozen Magnificent S.O.B (a blend of strawberry, blood orange, basil and hibiscus). wyehill.comThe Belafonte The Ark Royal Not sure what’s cooler—the new Ark Royal exotic Tiki lounge on Glenwood South (from the crafty creators of Watts & Ward) with its Palm Springs vibes or the dreamy island escape that is its signature frozen vodka-rum cocktail The Belafonte. Don’t mind us while we just keep on sippin’ until we decide—#TikiTimeout. thearkroyal.comWatermelon Sugar The Dogwood Bar & Eatery “Tastes like strawberries on a summer evenin’, and it sounds just like a song.” We’re pretty sure this is the “watermelon sugar high” Harry Styles has been croonin’ about. So if you’re cravin’ more berries and that summer feelin’, you’re gonna wanna sip summer in a glass at Dogwood with this Watermelon Sugar spiked slushee while you hum Harry’s tune, natch. dogwoodraleigh.comMango Dragonfruit Melt Barrel Culture Fun fact: Beer slushees (aka Melts) were born in Europe at OmniPollo. In NC, they were born at Barrel Culture. And you haven’t slushee’d until you’ve sipped one. Transport yourself to the tropics with this dragonfruit and fresh mango melt with a golden sour beer base, (plus mango nectar, passion fruit juice, and a touch of Meyer lemon for that purty pink hue). Flavors rotate weekly from 200-ish (!) recipes, so check Barrel Culture’s ’Gram for the latest sippable slush. Available Thu.–Sun., barrelculture.com
WEB EXCLUSIVE Who doesn’t love a good burger? Whether you’re a meat eater or a vegetarian (hello veggie burgers, black bean burgers and Impossible burgers!) a burger comes in clutch for takeout during the summertime, a cue that many local restaurants are taking when adapting their menus for pickup and delivery.
The newest Raleigh restaurant to jump on the burger bandwagon is Vidrio, which is starting a new “Burgers and Burgundy” concept this Friday, July 31. The concept will feature a menu of three different burgers, fries and boozy ice cream floats all available in Vidrio’s upstairs Fiera Lounge for dine-in or takeout.
Katsuji Tanabe, Vidrio’s current chef in residence, always liked the idea of doing a high-end burger concept in a fine dining restaurant, such as Vidrio, with wine and other drinks available for pairing.
“Burgers are very approachable,” Tanabe says. “We wanted to showcase high-end, amazing ingredients in an upscale location.”
Tanabe’s burger creations include the Black Label Burger topped with Emmental cheese, onion-bacon jam, garlic aioli and a demi-glace made from black truffles and foie gras; the Blue Label Burger—a traditional, LA-style gastropub burger, as Tanabe describes it—with arugula, onion-bacon jam and blue cheese on a brioche bun; and the Gold Label Burger, a simple burger topped with heirloom tomatoes from a local farmer, house made pickles, cheddar cheese and garlic aioli. All burger patties are made from a mix of chuck, brisket and short rib.
The burgers will be available a la carte, with the option to add standard salt and pepper fries or truffle parmesan fries on the side. For dessert, Tanabe has crafted a classic double chocolate brownie with ice cream and hot fudge and a variety of boozy ice cream floats.
Over in Durham, popular cocktail bar Kingfisher, which opened shortly before COVID-19 forced the owners to close its doors in early March, are working on a new backyard pop-up concept called QueenBurger, expected to open mid-August.
QueenBurger | Photo courtesy of Kingfisher
Owners Sean Umstead and his wife, Michelle Vanderwalker, are transforming Kingfisher’s parking lot and adjacent upper deck into a pop-up burger bar serving both beef and vegan “smash burgers” with griddled onions, hoop cheese, Duke’s mayo and pickles. Pre-bottled cocktails, wine and beer will also be available to enjoy at socially distanced high top tables.
While we’re all certainly sick and tired of the COVID-19 pandemic by now, if our “new normal” involves more burgers, we personally can’t complain.
My client wanted an intimate bar area with easy access for casual evenings with friends, so we created a space that felt collected and assembled from a mix of metals, woods, cultures and eras.
