Coffee shop by day, bar by night: New East Durham gathering spot opens this summer
A new bar is opening in East Durham from the owners of a popular bookstore and cafe.
About a block away from their two-year old bookstore and coffee shop, Rofhiwa Book Cafe, owners Beverley Makhubule and Naledi Yaziyo plan to open Congress, a new breakfast spot and nighttime bar.
Congress will open at 491 S. Driver St. in East Durham on a recently renovated block known as the Garland Millwork building. The bar joins a recent commercial revival on Driver Street, largely driven by new Black-owned businesses. A couple doors down from Congress, Mike D’s BBQ is opening.
In shaping Congress, Makhubele said the bar aims to meet a need in the daily rhythms of East Durham neighbors, offering quick bites on the way to work and a place to wind down at night.
“We’ll have easy stuff to pick up on their way to work, there’s really a dearth of morning options as you’re coming in from (Highway) 147 or leaving,” Makhubele said.
From 7 to 11 a.m. look for grab and go breakfast items like tacos and burritos and drip coffee. Congress will shut down in the middle of the day and reopen around 3 or 4 p.m. as a neighborhood bar, serving beer, wine and classic cocktails like simple and solid margaritas and old fashioneds. There will be eight beer taps and look for Black-owned Spaceway Brewing to feature prominently, the owners said.
‘Gathering and conviviality’ in East Durham
Congress draws its name from many places, the owners said. It references the South African liberation movement party the African National Congress, the U.S. Congress and the joining of people in a space, Yaziyo said.
“It signifies a number of things on a number of levels,” Yaziyo said. “We’re thinking about gathering and conviviality....It’s on various levels; This idea of a gathering place, a Black gathering place for Black conviviality and Black place making.”
The Garland Millwork building is owned by Durham architect John Warasila and its several spaces have recently been remodeled and rehabbed. Behind the building will be a shared courtyard, Makhubele said.
“What’s really unique about the building and the way it’s set up, there’s this shared facility in the back with a shared hallway,” Makhubele said. “It feels like being in a big building with your friends.”
Rofhiwa Cafe opened in 2021 in the former East Durham Bake Shop space. The bookstore specializes in Black literature and organizes a calendar of readings and events in the space, as well as operates as the neighborhood’s only coffee shop.
The owners said Congress looks to expand that role.
“We’re the community’s living room,” Yaziyo said of Rofhiwa. “I think (Congress) is a natural extension as we continue to investigate what it means for Black people to gather and have a good time. Books and cocktails feel to us like an extension. The question we’re preoccupied with is what do Black people look like when they’re being convivial and not in a cumbersome political space.”
Late last year Makhubele and Yaziyo began talking about second concepts, they said, and were drawn to a space that had recently been taken over by a new ownership group.
The narrow space is currently being built into a bar, with a new bartop added this week, built from wood reclaimed from a downtown Durham redevelopment, Makhubele said.
Congress looks to open this summer, eyeing June 17 as a possible date.
“The thing that’s interesting to us, that was a surprise for us, is Rofhiwa became kind of a destination when young Black travelers are passing through,” Yaziyo said. “We’ve cultivated a strong social media presence and people let us know how far away they came from. Someone today is coming in from New York and said she had us bookmarked for two years. That sort of thing happens all the time.”
With Congress, Yaziyo and Makhubele hope for something similar.
“Part of what makes Rofhiwa is our our robust programming,” Makhubele said. “At Congress we’re going to continue that tradition. We’re working on live music and comedy and working with the local drag community.”
This story was originally published May 9, 2023 at 2:15 PM with the headline "Coffee shop by day, bar by night: New East Durham gathering spot opens this summer."
