The hopeful return of a beloved Raleigh icon likely won’t happen this year
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- Our plan is to reopen 42nd Street, but timeline is still up in the air.
- Correll said the 39-year-old building needs structural repairs.
- Correll said reopening in 2026 would likely be a stretch.
The planned revival of Raleigh’s iconic 42nd Street Oyster Bar likely won’t happen this year.
Longtime 42nd Street Oyster Bar general manager Hunter Correll said the storied restaurant needs significant repairs, but that his team plans to reopen in the future.
“Our plan is to reopen 42nd St., but timeline is still up in the air,” Correll told The N&O this week. “Once repairs are complete we should have a much better idea of a timeline.”
Last spring, 42nd Street Oyster Bar, one of Raleigh’s most storied restaurants, closed its doors after various iterations over nearly a century. Shortly after Correll and landlord John Holmes began planning a possible return.
Currently, there are no building permits on file for 42nd Street’s repairs. Correll said the needed repairs are “structural” on the 39-year-old building. Given those repairs, Correll isn’t optimistic the beloved bar and restaurant will return in 2026.
“The likelihood of a reopening in 2026 would be a stretch,” he said.
The 42nd Street Oyster Bar, as most people remember it, opened in 1987 when Angus Barn co-founder Thad Eure set out to honor a memory he had of his father taking him to his first restaurant. That restaurant was an earlier ramshackle iteration of 42nd Street, as a beer joint and oyster bar dating back to 1927.
The restaurant Eure brought to life burst with Art Deco glam, neon signs, cocktails and seafood, with a long winding bar that politicians and constructions workers alike found inviting.
Following Eure’s death in 1988, 42nd Street Oyster Bar was operated and later owned by longtime restaurant managers Brad Hurley and John Vick. The pair closed the restaurant for good March 30, 2025 and retired.
A few months later, there were rumors of a return for 42nd Street, as property owner Holmes set up a new LLC named after the restaurant. Holmes has said he has little involvement in the project beyond being the landlord, but that he’s supportive and hopeful of a reopening.
“I’m not personally involved in anything,” Holmes said last year. “Hobby Family owns the building and we’d love to see 42nd Street return. ... I ate there with my grandfather and father, we had great family times there, as did half of Raleigh.”
The city’s affection for 42nd Street was evident when the restaurant announced it would close, kicking off weeks of diners lining up at the door before the restaurant opened each night, hopeful for one last meal.
Since then, little has happened at the 508 W. Jones St., property, but when 42nd Street reopens, it looks like a fanbase is eager for a meal.
“We’re very fortunate to have so much support; it’s a big family,” Correll said last year of reopening the restaurant. “We’re hoping to get the family back together.”
