With design evoking a southern gothic, country noir feel, designer Heather Garrett, and her husband, Rhys Botica, opened the downtown Durham Main Street Bar, Whiskey.  The North Carolina private club has a 1930’s style to it, a 27-foot, narrow wooden bar. Botica, the sole proprietor, started the bar with the intention to offer the largest selection of whiskeys in the state, and now has the largest selection in the South, at over 400 labels.  Botica and Garrett used antique gymnasium doors for wall panels and the 100-yr old building has its original tin ceiling and oak flooring. Live jazz is played on Thursday and Saturday nights.  The custom cocktail list is a research project on Pre-Prohibition Era Cocktails and they are served in vintage glasses. There is a second floor lounge, with its own private entrance, boasting another Art Deco bar, private humidors for its members to store their high-end cigars, antique rugs, and a small library.

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From The Herald Sun:
Kotuku Surf Club opens: A new bar, the Kotuku Surf Club, has opened at 703 Rigsbee Ave. in downtown Durham in an area that has seen the rise of other entertainment, food and drink venues such as Fullsteam Brewery, Motorco Music Hall, and the nearby Geer Street Garden.

The owner of Kotuku Surf Club is Rhys Botica, who also is the owner of Whiskey, a private club downtown on Main Street, and a partner in several other Durham bars including The Federal and Bull McCabe’s.

He named the new bar in recognition of the Kotuku Life Saving Club, a favorite hangout place of his rugby team when he lived in New Zealand.

Heather Garrett, an interior designer, partnered to design the interiors of both Whiskey and the Kotuku Surf Club.

“The idea, I guess, is that it’s supposed to be a bar for every man, capital ‘e,’ ” Garrett said of Kotuku Surf Club. “It’s really clean, and simple.”

Garrett said the space where the bar is now located is a space they’ve leased since March. It previously housed a temporary employment agency.

She said they used white vintage subway tiles to line the walls, and removed the drop ceiling to expose the corrugated metal roof, and pulled up the carpet to reveal the concrete flooring.

The bar where drinks are served was relocated from another bar in Chicago, which was something that Botica also did for the opening of Whiskey – he removed and restored an old bar out of a venue in Queens, N.Y.

The Kotuku Surf Club will be open from 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. Tuesday through Saturday. The drink menu includes beer, liquor, and wine sold by the glass for $3. For more information, call (919) 294-9661.

“It’s just a no-frills bar,” Botica said. “No cocktails, no mixed drinks. It’ll be straight forward.”

Read more: The Herald-Sun

After 7 years working as an interior designer with a showroom in Durham NC, Heather opened a retail design store selling everything from candles and jewelry, to lamps and designer furnishings. Currently, she launched a companion “online interior design” service called hgY (in homage to Do It Yourself-ers).  She feels that those who shop online are savvy bargain hunters, and the proliferation of DIY blogs makes an online design process a natural step. She has recently formed an ongoing dealer relationship with flash sale darling One Kings Lane, offering her most unusual pieces to their members during periodic timed sales. Her online store and design service can be found at hgHOMEdurham.com, and the website showcasing her portfolio and traditional design services is heathergarrettdesign.com.

Where are you from?

St. Louis, MO. Everybody give it up for the Cardinals.

What do you do?

Sometimes I think all I do is send emails.  When I’m not emailing, I’m drawing room concepts or sewing doll clothes with my daughter on her super cool bright yellow sewing machine.

How long have you been an interior designer?

My mother is a decorator, so I grew up with our home interior undergoing constant creative change.  I loved it.  Unofficially, I’ve been redecorating my surroundings since I can remember – but officially, I’ve been working as an interior designer for 11 years.

What is your concept behind hgY and why is this needed in today’s market?  

It’s no secret that the economy (for the worse) and the internet (for the better) have radically changed the business of interior decorating and design during the last several years.  The cache, practical appeal, and resources for aspiring DIY’ers have all skyrocketed, yet people – though highly motivated to tackle projects alone – still need advice more customized than a generic “design tips” column can offer.  With hgY, we offer a custom design plan based on the input of our online client…they submit home photos, measurements, and inspirational images of their dream room.  My team creates a design plan and correlating shopping list, then sets the client free to complete the look with all the DIY zeal they wish to channel.  I’m like a DIY sherpa.

What would you have been doing if not this?  

Sitting at a potter’s wheel.  It’s a neglected love with whom I fully intend to unite one day!

Who are your clients? Demographic?

I tend to attract clients a lot like myself, I guess…families with young kids or messy grownups, looking for a sophisticated interior which is somehow human-proof (peanut butter? Snap!  Dog hair?  No prob!  Red wine?  I got it).

How many projects do you have on the boards?

We’re hustling. My third restaurant/bar is set to open in 4 weeks, a 9,000 square foot beach house at the NC beach in underway, I’m headed to Naples FL next week to get started on a bungalow remodel, and we’re completing a 1950’s icon overhaul in town. Up next, a tapas restaurant (yum, fun, giddyup).

Dream project?

A hotel, where we could put all kinds of theater to work…dramatic dining, sexy rooming, all things sparkly and comfy.  There.

Your confession?

I never brush my hair.  Ever.

Conversation, rare: Heather Garrett

Interior designer, Heather Garrett, and her husband, Rhys Botica, opened the downtown NC Main Street Bar, Whiskey.  The private club has a 1930’s style to it, a 27-foot, narrow wooden bar.  Botica, the sole proprietor, started the bar with the intention to offer the largest selection of whiskeys in the state, and now has the largest selection in the South, at over 400 labels.  Garrett used antique gymnasium doors for wall panels, and the 100-yr old building has its original tin ceiling and oak flooring. Live jazz is played on Thursday and Saturday nights.  The custom cocktail list is a research project on Pre-Prohibition Era Cocktails and they are served in vintage glasses collected by Botica.  There is a second floor lounge, with its own private entrance, boasting another Art Deco bar, private humidors for its members to store their high-end cigars, antique rugs, and a small library. The innovative couple is currently working on their second design of another business, on Rigsbee Avenue, an area of town that has seen significant revitalization.  “This is a really special city that’s waking up in a way that I want to be a part of,” says Garrett.

Where did the concept for Whiskey come from?

Since the owner, Rhys Botica, had successfully launched several pubs with a grittier, edgier feel, we decided it would be nice to create a place which would inspire people to dress up and make a night of it. He knew alot about whiskey, and had extensively researched the subject of Pre-Prohibition drinks, so Whiskey seemed a natural name.

How did you decide to design it the way you did? 

Rhys fell in love with an antique 27’ bar even before he had a location or much of a concept in mind (he drove to Queens and pulled it out of its original storefront himself), so we used that piece as our jumping off point for design.  The space we found was long and narrow, and that defined a lot about how we approached the plan. Rhys loves to say that if he’d had his way, Whiskey would look a lot more like a saloon than the Oak-Room-With-A-Twist style which emerged. We talked a lot about the vibe he hoped to achieve, and I began sketching the design…a mix of vintage and modern for the lighting and leather furnishings, with texture being the important detail…Venetian plaster walls, onyx candle fixtures, antique brass trim on the leather club chairs.  Very sophisticated.

How long did the project take for you to finish?

About 9 months, start to finish.

Do you cook yourself?

I love to cook, especially for my children. Cooking wasn’t much of a ritual in our home while I was growing up; in my early twenties, as I was living alone in NYC, I decided to learn how to create that certain comfort which comes from the work of cooking good food.

Have you designed any other restaurants? Do you plan to?

I completed Giorgio, a huge local 6700 s/f project with a modern Mediterranean flavor – both in food and design – in 2009. Rhys and I have teamed up again for our second project together, Kotuku Surf Club, a restaurant/bar which recalls elements of post-Rugby gatherings with friends in his native New Zealand. Slated to open late October 2011.

How long have you been designing?

After attending Parsons in NYC, I began working for a French designer there (Robert Couturier) in 2000.  I opened my own firm, Heather Garrett Design, Inc when I relocated to NC in 2002.

Favorite thing on the Whiskey menu?

The French 75 cocktail!

When did the restaurant/bar launch?

The main level lounge opened July 2009, and we opened a second private members-only lounge (with its own antique Deco bar) upstairs in March of this year.

Some interesting facts about the space- what was it before, etc?

We found an available space on Durham’s historic “Five Points” corner, which was once the center of the world’s tobacco trade  (Lucky Strike, American Tobacco, Ligett & Meyers cigarettes were all produced here). The 100-yr old building has its original tin ceiling and oak flooring. We used solid oak antique gymnasium doors as wall panels, and installed pendant lights from a mid-Century renovation of a Philadelphia convention hall.

What projects are you currently working on?

We’re incredibly busy. Right now, in addition to Kotuku and two large residential remodels in Naples FL and Chapel Hill NC, we’ve just launched an online, professional approach to DIY interior decorating and design! www.hgHOMEdurham.com.  Oh, and we’re moving our design studio into a historic former service station in September.

The couple wanted to change the look of the house without any interior renovation. Garrett implemented an open floor plan in the living area, combining dining and living spaces so that no single room was designated for one purpose. By using iconic mid-century pieces and softer accents, Garrett successfully blended the two looks into a place the couple could call home.

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Read more: The Herald-Sun – Whiskey doesn t want to sour