The Brewerrrryyyyyy’s run as the best live music venue in the NCSU area will come to an end on Friday with Embracing Goodbye. The building has been bought, and it, Time Out, Katmandu, and the Farmhouse will all be torn town and replaced with part of the planned Valentine Commons, a mixed-use development. The latest information on the city’ website deals with the zoning change, and it is case Z-012-11 (.pdf). Not many details are included in the document or are anywhere else, but it appears that a building of 3-5 stories in height will go in with street-level retail (rumored to be a Kerr Drugs) with office units above.

There are many, many good memories of The Brewerrrryyyyyy (said in a monster truck-type voice). My first visit to the space was to see the Sex Police, a fantastic live band. They played The Lorax from a film projector on a movie screen behind them, which made the whole performance kind of artsy. Next was Detroit’s “Rhythm Corps” (in the Fall of ‘88 ) whose sound was eerily echoed later by a Seattle band named Pearl Jam. Earlier that week, if I recall, a woman named Melissa Etheridge apparently blew the roof off the joint. (back then she played rock music and was extremely energetic). The venue also played host to Jane’s Addiction, Black Flag, and many other big acts, however my occasional drop-ins were just to see great regional acts like Johnny Quest, Hootie and the Blowfish (gawd – did they play The Brewery every other Friday or what? It’s a tossup between them and Jennyanykind), Pipe, Mr. Potatohead, Follow For Now, Southern Culture on the Skids, Dillon Fence, and a few others.

What I loved about The Brewerrryyyy was the layout. The room was square with the band playing on a triangular stage in the corner, so sitelines were great, even after they bumped out the back. It was always scary-packed in there, too, and getting a beer from the likes of Nikki Coury was always kind of a mosh act (her father, an OBGYN, delivered me). Glenn Mitchener and Randy Richardson worked the door, so it was always fun to catch up with those guys when I went in.

Since those days, however, the billing has been decidedly metal, the barking dog variety, and I haven’t been back. I’ll miss my days there, but to be honest, they were gone long before the news hit Twitter on Saturday.

Times at The Brewweerrryyyyy were actually not my fondest in that block, however. The little place to the left of the The Breweerrryyyyy was once Mr. Ribs, a fabulous rib joint in the ‘70s. While those same ribs are now served at Crowley’s, Mr. Ribs was special. It was a dark restaurant with captain’s chairs and 4-tops throughout. However it wasn’t dark enough for me to recognize State’s tallest student, Junior Tommy Burleson. I was so excited to see one of my heroes that I squealed to my family that “Montie Towe” was sitting two tables away, which Burleson easily heard and responded with a laugh. (I say the opposite of what I mean sometimes when I get tired or overly excited).

The Cantina was also one of the most fun bars in the State ‘hood. The real deal there was a bucket of Rolling Rocks, which was pretty cheap (but not like the $3 pitchers at Trolls in Chapel Hill). They also were one of the first places in Raleigh to serve soft flour tacos, which weren’t bad.

While those memories live on, I have to say that this development can be a real seed to improvement through a section of Hillsborough street that needs some redevelopment. Hopefully it will be the first step toward a small, walkable urban village where students can afford to rent an apartment as well as a place to continue finding good “wholesome” entertainment.

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