"If someone stops in for 90 minutes, they'll hear two records in their entirety, there will be conversation pieces, some deep tracks, some dead air," Daniel Sartain told The News & Observer before opening Saint Mars below Bar Virgile in downtown Durham. "We need to rethink this whole instant gratification thing."
He was describing one bar. The line also fits the larger group of rooms that opened in Durham between August and October 2026. A vinyl listening room, a brewery taproom that now includes a 100-seat theater, a cocktail lounge you enter by dialing a code, and a gallery in a century-old house all ask guests to arrive and stay. With shorter days ahead, those are the openings worth planning an evening around.
Ninety minutes below Bar Virgile
Saint Mars replaced Annexe, the pink-neon tiki bar that held the space for six years. The changeover took about five weeks. Co-owner and design lead Nellie Vail based the room on a library. "The whole pink and green neonish vibe of the 90s and late 80s is gone," Sartain told the N&O. "It had its time, but now it's sapele wood and black walnut."
Every design choice in the room serves the listening. The floor is carpeted, and sound panels and clouds cover the ceiling and walls. Only vinyl plays, drawn from Sartain's collection of about 1,000 records, and the range runs from jazz to old-school hip hop to indie rock and electronica. Seating is limited to five tables, a row of barstools and a lounge of plush couches and swivel chairs. Instead of Annexe's tiki menu, the bar serves stiff sippers like a Black Manhattan and a Martini served with olives, almonds and giardiniera. Bar Virgile supplies the snacks.
Saint Mars is at 105 S. Mangum St. and opened in late August, according to the NC Triangle Dining opening tracker. Its Instagram account is the place to check before heading over.
Fullsteam came back with a theater instead of a brewhouse
Fullsteam's new home makes the same bet on a bigger scale. Sean Lilly Wilson opened the brewery at 726 Rigsbee Ave. in 2011. In the summer of 2024 he announced that the flagship taproom would close on Halloween of that year. As WRAL reported, the brewery had run out of production space, and his announcement listed HVAC, parking, kitchen, private party space and outdoor seating among the problems a new taproom would solve.
That new taproom opened Sept. 29, 2026, with kitchen service starting the next day, in the old American Tobacco Campus power plant between the water tower and the smokestack. Hey Durham reported that the new space does no brewing on site. Fullsteam now has its beer contract-brewed in Rocky Mount and at the NoDa brewery in Charlotte. The square footage that once went to tanks now goes to things that hold people: a restaurant, Lucky's Lounge with its low ceilings and neon lightning bolts, an events space, and the 100-seat theater that Duke's Center for Documentary Studies used to run. "I want it to be an only-in-Durham type place," Wilson told Hey Durham.
Chef and baker Phoebe Lawless leads food, beverage and hospitality. The current menu on Fullsteam's ATC page includes pork schnitzel, fried trout, a crispy chicken leg, chicken-liver pâté, four-onion dip, a Carolina hot dog, a collard melt, pub-house burgers and an apple-muscadine pie. The posted hours are worth knowing before you go because the bar and the kitchen keep different schedules:
- Bar: Monday through Saturday, noon to 11 p.m.; Sunday, noon to 10 p.m.
- Kitchen: cooler only on Monday; Tuesday through Friday, 4 to 9 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, noon to 9 p.m.
Fullsteam announced watch parties, cultural events and movie nights for the theater. So far its November calendar lists Astronomy on Tap and weekly Trivia with Arturo, and the December calendar lists the weekly trivia. Film programming will likely show up on those pages first.
Two rooms with a threshold
Saint Mars and Fullsteam use sound and seating to hold guests. Two other new rooms start the evening at the door.
At Red Phone Booth, 125 W. Orange St., a restored London phone booth is the entrance. Owners Ralph Mensah and Michael Thomas opened the Prohibition-style cocktail lounge on Aug. 14, and it also serves Neapolitan pizza. Entry works like this:
- Get the nightly code before you arrive.
- Step into the red phone booth and dial it.
- Every guest needs the code, whether or not they are a member.
Membership is optional. According to Red Phone Booth's Durham page, members get VIP benefits such as priority seating and private tastings.
Boardinghouse Arts, at 703 W. Trinity Ave., works more like a house than a lounge. Laura Ritchie and Shirlette Ammons turned a century-old pink building into a gallery with a basement recording studio and creative workspaces. They held an open house in September before opening to the public. Its two current exhibitions relate to the building itself. Art Lives Here draws on the owners' own art collection, and BEFORE shows architect Morgan Strider Haynes's photographs of the building before its renovation. Axios Raleigh reported gallery hours of 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Friday and 2 to 5 p.m. on Saturday, with appointments also available. Hey Durham noted that the gallery is still setting its regular hours.
The gallery is also a place for evening events. Its happenings calendar lists Sound Healing Temple sessions into December, the kind of event that only works if people stay put for its full length.
Where the evening starts
Several quicker new spots fit before a slow room on the same night.
Melao Colombian Bistro, 810 N. Mangum St., opened Oct. 15, according to NC Triangle Dining's tracker. Hey Durham reported that childhood friends Sebastian Salinas, Miguel Cantor and Diego Baron planned a menu of arepas, empanadas, Colombian ceviche and house cocktails. From there, Saint Mars on S. Mangum St. is a straight line south.
Old North Bar, 316 W. Geer St., Unit C, a beer-and-cocktail bar, opened Sept. 12.
Boxyard RTP, 900 Park Offices Drive, added three tenants over the past few months. Top Chef alum Katsuji Tanabe's KatSushi Bar opened in August with $8 Japanese hand rolls, plus rice bowls at $19. Pen Pals, a stationery shop run by co-owners Marta Mickelson and Lauren Ng, scheduled its grand opening for Oct. 3. It stocks journals, stickers, Sanrio items and goods from small artists. The Pudding Man scheduled its opening celebration for Oct. 2.
Makeshift Collective at ReCity, 112 Broadway St., is a temporary craft makerspace testing a shared fiber-arts studio through January 2027. It has sewing machines, 3D printers, looms and Cricut machines. Like the slow rooms, it is meant for an afternoon, not a quick errand.
Dates to put on the calendar
Here is the November and December schedule for these rooms, in order:
- Every week through December: Trivia with Arturo at Fullsteam ATC. Astronomy on Tap is also on the November calendar.
- Nov. 11 and Nov. 18: Sound Healing Temple at Boardinghouse Arts.
- Nov. 22: the last date listed for Art Lives Here and BEFORE on Boardinghouse's events calendar. Boardinghouse's gallery page shows Art Lives Here running through the end of 2026, so check with the gallery before a visit after Nov. 22.
- Dec. 6 and Dec. 20: Sound Healing Temple returns to Boardinghouse Arts.
- Through January 2027: the Makeshift Collective trial at ReCity.
On weeknights, the Saint Mars approach also works at home. Two full albums, played start to finish, take about 90 minutes.
If friends or family are visiting Durham this winter and you'd like ideas for an evening beyond the usual dinner reservation, Margaret Sophie is glad to share what she knows about the Triangle's newest rooms. Schedule a Consultation, and we'll talk about the places, and the neighborhoods around them, that suit the way you like to spend an evening.
