The Daily Triangle

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By Harold

If there’s any last indication that wine bars are sweeping the nation, there’s now one in downtown Durham.

West End Wine Bar, which opened in Chapel Hill in 1997 (which says something about the demographics in Chapel Hill), just opened a second location in Durham’s Warehouse District. In a somewhat ironic change, the abandoned tobacco factory has given way to an even older vice, alcohol. It would be interesting if an old beer manufacturing plant in Milwaukee is replaced by a cigar bar in 100 years, though I somehow doubt it.

If you ever want to avoid the college crowd in a college town, the wine bar is the way to go. It attracts a much more relaxed, sophisticated crowd, and it likely has ample, comfortable seating. While it has the same alcohol content as beer, either wine mellows people out or it doesn’t attract the rowdy crowd to begin with. No one ever gets in a fight at a wine bar.

So what’s the next big step in bars? If I had to guess, it would be a frozen mixed drink bar. I went to one in Memphis where they had a row of machines, like the Slurpee machines at 7-11, and each one had a different drink, which was great. Really, would you rather drink beer or a daiquiri? And even if you’d rather drink beer, shouldn’t other people at least have a choice? I’m all for wine bars, because at least it gives you more variety when you go out to a bar now, beyond what’s on tap.