1. Dain’S Place
City: Durham, NC
Category: Nightlife
Telephone: (919) 416-8800
Address: 754 Ninth St.
Description: A laid-back pub where you can get together with pals to watch the game and drink beer or take the family for a burger-intensive dinner, Dain’s Place accommodates many needs. The beer list is extensive and the menu of cheese fries, steak sandwiches, burgers, and veggie burgers is consistently well-executed. On the college kids’ favorite, Ninth Street, it can get packed late nights.
2. The Green Room
City: Durham, NC
Category: Nightlife
Telephone: (919) 286-2359
Address: 1108 Broad St.
Description: The original incarnation of this longtime Bull City barroom served as the setting for the climactic scene in Bull Durham, where Tim Robbins’ Nuke tells Kevin Costner’s Crash that he’s “going to the show.” Nuke might have thought the place was a dump, but it’s a Durham institution that’s been pulling locals in for decades. A diverse crowd, from construction workers to Duke scientists, comes in to hone pool skills or just bend the bartender’s ear and throw back a few cold ones. If you don’t like pool, you can play shuffleboard, darts, or foosball. Dogs are welcome. It’s close to Durham’s East Campus.
3. The Pinhook
City: Durham, NC
Category: Nightlife
Telephone: (919) 667-1100
Address: 117 W. Main St.
Description: The Pinhook takes its name from a rough 19th-century Durham neighborhood where debauchery ruled. Opened in 2009, it embraces a basement-chic aesthetic, with exposed duct work, second-hand couches, and painted block walls hung with rotating displays of local artists’ work. Local bands and DJs provide the music by which hip kids play pool or retro arcades games like Galaga. Once a month, the chef cooks up a vegan Sunday brunch.
4. Whiskey
City: Durham, NC
Category: Nightlife
Telephone: (919) 682-6191
Address: 347 W. Main St.
Description: Dark wood paneling, tufted leather couches, softly glowing copper lamps, and Sinatra coming through the speakers make you feel like ordering a proper cocktail. The bartenders happily oblige with a list of classics and special creations made with top shelf liquor. Whiskey also offers a range of North Carolina beers on tap. It’s a comfortable place to have a well-made drink, especially if you go early in the evening. Late nights can get packed, so be prepared to elbow your way through the crowd.
5. Fullsteam Brewery
City: Durham, NC
Category: Nightlife
Address: 726 Rigsbee Ave.
Description: Fullsteam Brewery is the newest addition to the Triangle beer scene and aims to be its most inventive. The brewery features locally grown ingredients in its beers—sweet potato, scuppernong, Carolina grits, rhubarb, even kudzu—and brews a smoky beer called Hogwash specifically to go with North Carolina pulled-pork barbecue. Fullsteam also offers more common brews like India pale ale, stout, and the flagship Carolina Common. The on-site tavern, Fullsteam R&D, serves test batches and one-time-only incarnations along with the regular brews and bullies, which are small savory pies made with seasonal ingredients. The gathering space also features local music, really bad movies, and other community events. The brewery is in downtown Durham near Central Park.
6. The Sirens Lounge
City: Durham, NC
Category: Nightlife
Address: 1803 W. Markham Ave.
Description: Restored tin ceilings, an oak bar, a fireplace, and a centerpiece aquarium offer a swanky vibe to this hotspot on Ninth Street near Duke’s East campus. DJs spinning tunes on Friday and Saturday nights pack the kids onto the dance floor. Sip a martini made with seasonal fresh fruit infusions while relaxing on a plush couch between spins on the dance floor.
7. Club Steel Blue
City: Durham, NC
Category: Nightlife
Telephone: (919) 596-5876
Address: 1426 S. Miami Blvd., Suite A
Description: Club Steel Blue is one of the Triangle’s most popular gay and lesbian bars and also has some of the best DJs in the area. Set in an industrial area in southeast Durham, it is a big barn of a place with an expansive dance floor. Sleek touches like drop lights over the bar help lend a modern-loft feel. Events like women’s-only speed dating, American Idol–style drag singing contests, dancing, and an annual Toys for Tots fundraiser make it a popular LGBT meeting spot.
8. Devine’S Restaurant & Sports
City: Durham, NC
Category: Nightlife
Telephone: (919) 682-0228
Address: 904 W. Main St.
Description: A few blocks from Duke’s East Campus, Devine’s is a comfy old watering hole with 19 televisions that gets loud and rowdy on game days. It draws a loyal crowd especially on Duke basketball game days and after Bull Durham baseball wins. In the summer, the patio is a popular place for a pub fare and cold brews. Great onion wings, burgers, and a juicy chicken Parmesan sandwich are menu stand-outs. Beer specials include deals on Miller Light tall boys as well as discounts on the microbrews and specialty beers on tap.
9. Six Plates
City: Durham, NC
Category: Nightlife
Telephone: (919) 321-0203
Address: 2812 Erwin Rd., Suite 104
Description: Six Plates offers a daily menu of six half-size entrees, each paired with wine. The food is seasonally fresh, and the menu changes frequently, so that one day’s matching of North Carolina shrimp a la diabla with a Portuguese terras do sado is even more tempting since it won’t likely be there on your next visit. It’s a warm and cozy atmosphere, with comfy chairs arranged in conversation areas around tables, where entrée sharing inevitably takes place. Six Plates also has 150 wines by the bottle and 30 beers by the bottle.
10. The Carolina Theatre
City: Durham, NC
Category: Nightlife
Telephone: (919) 560-3030
Address: 309 W. Morgan St.
Description: A performance venue as well as a movie theater, the Carolina was built in 1926, making it the Triangle’s most historic setting for cinema. In downtown Durham, the theater screens art house fare and independent films and is a central venue for the annual Full Frame Film Festival.
11. St. Joseph’S Historic Foundation
City: Durham, NC
Category: Nightlife
Telephone: (919) 683-1709 ext. 3
Address: 804 Olde Fayetteville St.
Description: The foundation takes its name from the former church where it is housed. Built in 1891, the Victorian masterpiece was a crowning achievement of the prosperous, turn-of-the-20th-century African-American business community in Durham. The restored St. Joseph’s AME Church is now the home for the Hayti Heritage Center, which is named after the surrounding African-American community. The foundation sponsors several annual events aimed at preserving and furthering the area’s African-American cultural heritage. Among them are the Bull Durham Blues Festival, the Jambalaya Soul Slam poetry competition, and the Juneteenth Celebration and Unity March. Throughout the year, the foundation hosts plays, concerts, art exhibits, lectures, and educational and artistic programs for youth.
12. Little Green Pig Theatrical Concern
City: Durham, NC
Category: Nightlife
Telephone: (919) 286-0456
Address: 646 Lawndale Ave.
Description: Each season Little Green Pig stages four or five plays inspired by the culture of a different country. Some of the titles and playwrights may sound familiar, but the company sets them on their ear. That might mean an all-African-American cast for The Cherry Orchard during the Russia season or a staging of A Streetcar Named Desire set in a macabre fun house environment as part of the German season, for reasons untold. Puppets or nudity could be part of the show, and it’s seldom what you expect. Original works and premieres get attention as well as classics. Little Green Pig selects stages to suit its needs, whether that means the loft performance space of Golden Belt, a restored textiles warehouse in downtown Durham, or the stage of another company’s theater.
13. Manbites Dog Theater
City: Durham, NC
Category: Nightlife
Telephone: (919) 682-3343
Address: 703 Foster St.
Description: Manbites Dog’s mission is to provide an outlet for new works and fresh presentations of established plays. Founded more than 20 years ago, the company presents regional and state premieres and the occasional world debut and new plays created in-house. Topics of social and political relevance find a home here, and past memorable productions have included Edward Albee’s The Goat or Who Is Silvia? and Linda Griffith’s Age of Arousal. With its Other Voices series, Manbites co-hosts productions by other companies. Manbites’ venue is a 1920s-era printing factory in downtown Durham that the company bought and restored in the late 1990s. The theater seats between 80 and 120, and the configuration changes with each production.
14. Mallarmé Chamber Players
City: Durham, NC
Category: Nightlife
Telephone: (919) 560-2788
Address: 120 Morris St.
Description: The Mallarmé Chamber Players focus on seldom-performed works of traditional chamber music with an eye toward highlighting the compositions of African-American, Asian, Latino, Indian, Middle Eastern, and female artists. The group presents works of the masters and celebrates new music as well. It has commissioned more than 25 pieces from American composers. Grammy-nominated jazz singer Nnenna Freelon is among the 30 or so professional musicians who perform in the group. Mallarmé presents about half a dozen concerts in the Triangle each year and some in other parts of the state. The group also works with local schools and community groups on music education programs.
15. Durham Savoyards
City: Durham, NC
Category: Nightlife
Address: 108 Barenwood Circle
Description: For more than 45 years, this theater troupe has presented the works of Gilbert & Sullivan. With one or two productions per year, the group has staged every Gilbert & Sullivan operetta at least once. Charmed by the writing and composing duo’s wit and music, the Savoyards respect many traditions to honor Gilbert & Sullivan, including singing “God Save the Queen” at the start of each performance and “Hail Poetry” at the end of each. The operettas are staged in the Carolina Theatre in downtown Durham. The Savoyards’ enthusiasm for the work is infectious and the performances are consistently fun, as are the community sing-a-longs.