News Press

BY LAURA OLENIACZ

loleniacz@heraldsun.com; 419-6636

DURHAM — The inside of the downtown Main Street whiskey bar, which is aptly named Whiskey, looks like it’s been there for a long time, and that’s the way business partners and married couple Heather Garrett and Rhys Botica planned it.

Garrett is a 39-year-old Durham interior designer, and Botica is a partner in several pubs that have opened in Durham. The two teamed up to design the look and feel of the 1930s-style private club Whiskey, which was Botica’s first business venture on his own.

Now the two are working together on the design of another business, a bar on Rigsbee Avenue. It is planned to be located in an area of Durham near the old Durham Athletic Park that’s seen significant revitalization, from the opening of Fullsteam Brewery, to the music venue Motorco Music Hall, to the less than 1-year-old restaurant Geer Street Garden.

“This is like this really special city that’s waking up in a way that I want to be a part of,” said Garrett, who has operated a retail shop on Main Street for three years, although she’s planning to close that shop and move the offices of her interior design businesses elsewhere downtown.

The new bar is expected to open later this year at 703 Rigsbee Ave. in a now-vacant commercial building built in 1958 that used to house a temporary employment agency, Botica said.

He plans to call the bar the Kotuku Surf Club, named in recognition of a favorite meeting place of his in New Zealand, which is where he’s originally from. He said the bar’s namesake, the Kotuku Life Saving Club, is 15 yards from the beach, and was a favorite hangout for his rugby team.

Garrett said the design of the new business is inspired by a bar that the two visited in New York City called Schiller’s. Botica said he plans to serve craft beer there and to keep the atmosphere simple. He said he was drawn to the modern look of the Rigsbee Avenue building, which Garrett described as having simple, clean lines.

The area where it’s slated to open is in an area of natural expansion for Durham, Botica said. Recent redevelopment there has included the opening of Fullsteam, Motorco, Geer Street Garden, and other businesses like those in the Trotter Building on Geer Street such as SeeSaw Studio, the swing dance Hot Club of Durham, and a yoga studio. Gyrotonics of Durham is another business running across the street from King’s, which serves hot dogs and breakfast food.

Botica said he plans to eventually put a kitchen in Kotuku to serve food, but until then, he said the area has been a draw for mobile food truck operators.

“It’s a food truck oasis right now,” he said.

This is the fourth business that he’s either partnered to open, or has launched on his own. The first was The Federal. Botica said he saved money to invest in the pub after working for more than three years at James Joyce, an Irish pub in Durham.

Botica said he was able to save money since he worked there seven days a week, and rarely left the five block area of downtown near the pub.

He said The Federal launched on a shoestring budget. As money came in, it was reinvested in the business. He later partnered to open Bull McCabe’s, a pub whose day-to-day operations are now run by another of the three original partners, and he later started Whiskey when he said he wanted a business of his own.

Botica started the bar with an ambition to offer the largest selection of whiskeys in the state. He bought the 27-foot, narrow wooden bar that’s downstairs in the club on eBay, and he drove up to Queens in New York City to remove it himself. He said he bought the bar before he had a space to put it in.

“If it had been me doing what I know, it would have been more of a saloon,” he said, explaining that he worked with Garrett to try to cultivate an atmosphere of luxury and warmth in the bar through its interior design.

As for the new venue on Rigsbee Avenue, Botica said he believes the venue will succeed as long as it’s unique. He said he expects to work at the bar there initially, as he said he did for the first few months at Whiskey.

“I think people will like it, but who knows,” he said. “The name is going to confuse everyone.”