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Work Begins On Downtown Yacht Club
Seaboard Wine Summer Series
City Seeks Design Services for Craig’s Building
Goodwill Building Sold
An update on Ironworks
Cape Fear Seafood Opening This Week
Wye Hill Kitchen and Brewing Opens This Week
Purchase tickets to the Women’s ICC held August 15th and 18th at WakeMed Soccer Park
Donate to the Me Fine Cares campaign and help raise $25,000
Work Begins On Downtown Yacht Club
Work has begun on a new Yacht Club in downtown Raleigh, which brings good news and bad news. The bad news, this has nothing to do with a downtown canal.
The good news, a new two-story restaurant and bar is coming to the former home of Office Tavern at 710 W. Johnson.
A pair of permits issued last week to CHC Builders described the work as a renovation of the 2,698 square-foot first floor and an addition of a 608 square-foot second floor. The existing building is single-story.
It’s worth noting that the original site plans had called for 1,451 square-feet of space on the first floor, 2,296 square feet on the second floor, and 781 square-feet of outdoor dining space, of which 402 square-feet would be covered.
We’re not sure if there will be additional permits adding the remainder of the planned square footage, or if the owners have just scaled back the overall size. We’re hoping they’ll at least keep the plan to offer outdoor dining. And hopefully, the Raleigh City Council won’t ban Yacht Rock from being played outdoors.
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Seaboard Wine Summer Series
Seaboard Wine, which brilliantly decided to move from Seaboard Station to a new location in High Park Village last year, is ready to take you on some virtual wine tours of Europe’s hidden gems. Their summer series focuses on “off the beaten path” wine regions and unique grape varietals. These are seated, guided tastings with eight wines, light snacks, interesting discussions of the wines, and lots of fun.
Thursday, June 20th from 7:15-8:30pm: “Czech This Out” with Jenn King
Sample some truly unique grape varietals from Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia and the Czech Republic, and hear Jenn recap her travel exploits with Arielle, Jim, and Jared all while managing to stay out of jail and not breaking the internet.
Thursday July 25th from 7:15-8:30: “Obscure Loire” with Susan Slosman
Susan’s love of the Loire Valley and extensive wine knowledge will help you discover some of the more obscure Loire wine regions like Coteaux du Giennois, Savennières, Quincy, Coteaux du Layon and Reuilly. These are expressive and refreshing wines for the hot weather ahead.
Thursday, August 22nd from 7:15-8:30pm: “Sunny Sicily” with Doug Diesing
Aside from eating his body weight in octopus and raw shellfish while in Sicily, Doug also sampled some of the finest Italian wines in his career. “Varietals like Nerello Mascalese, Catarratto, Grillo, Frappato and Zibibbo have forever changed my wine preferences, and I believe they may change yours as well.” said Diesing.
You can sign up for individual classes or a package of all three. Classes are $39 each or a package of all three for $99. They start promptly at 7:15 and end at 8:30. Get your tickets here.
Renovating Craig’s Building
Downtown Raleigh’s Craig’s Building is probably best known today as nothing more than a pass-through from South Wilmington Street to the newly-refurbished Moore Square Transit Station.
But the building has a long and rich history, from its humble roots as a grocery store to the countless businesses it has been home to. Update: we relied on a report from the Library of Congress when originally covering this story, which stated that the building was originally constructed in 1884. Thankfully, Ian F.G. Dunn pointed out that the Craig’s Building was not built in 1884, it was built in 1916-17. The building that dates to 1884 was torn down in early 1916 because it was condemned. The 1884 building is on the far left (the one with the Chero-Cola mural) in this picture.
The City acquired the Craig’s building with the plan to develop what was being called at the time the “Moore Square West Transit Block.” The facility was again renovated as part of the overall Moore Square Transit Station renovation in 2016.
The City is once again on the hunt for an architect to help fix up the second floor of the building. A specific use for the space has not been identified, but may include “office, either occupied by City staff or leased, a conference area, or temporary space to house contractors.” Proposals are due to the City by July 9.
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Goodwill Hunting
The Board of Directors of Goodwill Community Foundation (GCF) and Goodwill Industries of Eastern North Carolina, Inc. announced last month the sale of the property located at 321 West Hargett St. in downtown Raleigh.
“The sale of the property will create a number of new opportunities for GCF and those they serve around the world,” said Rev. Dennis McLain, president, GCF®.
The property housed a donation center and store and was home to the award-winning free international online learning program, GCFLearnFree. That program has been relocated to Durham. The store shut its doors for good on June 1.
While the press release didn’t include any details on the sale – and it doesn’t appear that the sale has been registered with the County yet either – we do know that its total assessed value was around $2.4 million.
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Me Fine Foundation
A message from our friends at the Me Fine Foundation:
Parents often make incredible sacrifices when a child is undergoing treatment for a life-threatening medical condition. At Me Fine Foundation, we do what we can to give caregivers what they need to take care of themselves, their family, and of course, their sick child. Please support our #MeFineCares campaign, running through Father’s Day, to do just that.
Ironworks Updates
Raleigh Ironworks, a mixed-use project from Grubb Ventures, will be seeking approval from the Board of Adjustment this week. The variance itself isn’t that interesting, but the case did shine a little more light on the future of this project.
The variance request included some updated numbers for the project: 150,000 square feet of office space, a 220 unit apartment building including 30,000 square feet of retail space, 20,000 square feet of restaurant space, and a 660 space parking deck. Compared to plans filed in October 2017, they’ve increased the amount of residential and retail, and slightly decreased the office space.
It doesn’t look like staffers took much of an issue with the request, and we can’t imagine it will be denied, allowing the project to move one step closer to construction. We wouldn’t be surprised to see permits issued by the end of the summer.
Cape Fear Seafood Opening
The Cape Fear Seafood Restaurant will be opening its first Raleigh location next week, taking over the space previously held by Lucky 32 at 832 Spring Forest Road.
This location is the first of three coming to the Raleigh area over the next three years. As the name implies, the main focus of the menu is seafood, although they do offer a variety of other options, including ground-chuck burgers and buffalo chicken sandwiches.
Wye Hill Kitchen and Brewing Opening
Wye Hill Kitchen will hold their grand opening on June 12 in the former home of the Boylan Bridge Brewpub at 201 S. Boylan Avenue.
In addition to being able to claim the “greatest view in the City” title, Wye Hill will be offering customers “rigorously good chef-driven bar food.”
Some examples of these dishes have been posted on the restaurant’s Instagram page, and include a unique spin on Shrimp + Grits and a “Cool Name” burger that’s made up of “a blend of Chuck and short rib, topped with our house made pub cheese, fried pickled okra, and bacon.”
Despite how many times Boylan Bridge Brewpub has shut down and reopened over the past few years, this is the first time it’s done so under a totally new brand and management team, and we’re excited to see what the future holds for this picturesque location.
