Pink champagne and dancing are at the heart of Bar Virgile’s new sister bar, Annexe
The days of the quiet, contemplative cocktail will never be over, but the owner of Bar Virgile is ready to turn up the volume.
Bar Virgile owner Daniel Sartain is opening a new basement bar in Durham, under his six-year old, often-packed cocktail joint.
The bar will be named Annexe, moving into the underground space at 105 S. Mangum Street, beneath Bar Virgile. Sartain is joined in the project by business partner and friend Nellie Vail, with the pair describing Annexe as a colorful space to cut loose.
“Bar Virgile is a pretty masculine place,” Sartain said. “There’s exposed brick and leather. Nellie thought it was time to celebrate the feminine side of things.”
‘Fem, funky and fun’
Vail’s background is in finance, and Annexe is her first jump into restaurants.
“I spend a lot of time in downtown Durham, and there’s not a place to really let loose and have fun,” Vail said. “You go to bars these days, and many are very industrial and masculine. We wanted to kind of flip that on its head and be a little more fem, funky and fun.”
Sartain opened Bar Virgile in 2014 with Scott Howell, building the cozy Mangum Street space around cocktails, with a few thoughtful snacks. Today, it’s as much a restaurant as a bar, with a beloved burger and extensive food menu. On weekend nights it’s often packed and turning away would-be drinkers. Last year, Sartain became sole owner of Bar Virgile, after buying out Howell.
“To be successful, you have to be willing to listen to people,” Sartain said. “We started out with a few small plates, a pretzel and some sausages. But people said we want to have full-on dinner here. ... We used to do 25 percent food to booze but now we’re 50-50.”
Annexe will still be a cocktail bar, with a menu of the Champagne-based cocktail the French 75, plus breathing new life into some of the maligned and forgotten classics of a previous drinking era, like the curacao-stained Blue Hawaiian, the Singapore Sling and the Appletini.
Pink Champagne on tap
There will always be pink Champagne on tap, Sartain said, and Annexe will have a more basic, but elegant menu of snacks, including potato chips with creme fraiche and caviar.
“Just some snacks, a little nosh to get people through the night,” Sartain said.
Turntables will be built into the bar itself, Sartain said, with bartenders flipping records on quiet nights and DJs setting up on weekends. There will be a dance floor and disco ball and many ornate details, Vail said, with careful design going into the fixtures and wallpaper of the bathrooms, including a pattern of big cats.
“We wanted it to be for everybody, with nice things, pretty things,” Vail said. “A lot of pink, green and coral. ... The trend of the last 10 years has been more masculine, with clean lines. I think we’re coming out of that trend and people are able to do something that’s more themselves. This is an extension of that. In some ways that’s a little bit of a risk, to do something that’s a bit different.”
At 1,300 square feet, Annexe is actually larger than Bar Virgile. Vail and Sartain have had control of the space since last summer, but construction didn’t get going until December. Now as it’s wrapping up, Annexe looks to open in March.
To follow Annexe, look for them on Instagram at instagram.com/annexedurham.
