Beer & Baseball

90 PERCENT BEER, 10 PERCENT BASEBALL

Head to downtown Durham before a Bulls game this summer and you’ll notice a lot more than a minor league baseball game.

Home plate of Durham Bulls Athletic Park lies at the intersection of Blackwell Street and Jackie Robinson Drive. Within a few miles radius of the ballpark embedded within the buildings, is a bustling community largely brought and held together by the craft beer craze fully entrenched in the Triangle.

For further proof, let’s talk ratio.

“For me, it’s maybe about 90 percent beer, 10 percent baseball,” said Durham resident and Duke graduate Rahul Shimpi, who can remember a time a few decades ago when the neighborhood was no place worth visiting for a transplant.

He and his friend, Andrew Wolf, another Duke graduate, were taking in the scene on a recent breezy and easygoing Friday at Te Bullpen, a taproom full of drinking options run by Bull Durham Beer Co., about 50 feet from the stadium’s left field.

It was about 20 minutes before the Bulls were set to take on the Lehigh Valley IronPigs; an unlikely scene when both were in school.

“Put it this way. We’re both Duke undergrads. We were in school here. Tere was nothing to do around here,” Wolf said. “Now we come down here any night of the week, hang out at these games, these bars. It’s a lot of fun.

“Before we didn’t come down here. You stayed in the walls of Duke, maybe went to Chapel Hill. Now you can come down downtown. Tere’s great food, beer. [Durham Performing Arts Center] is great.”

Tough Te Bullpen, an opensided bar with tables and games on the doorstep of the stadium — people can actually enter a few feet from the bar — is the staple, venture farther out and you’ll find the type of gems that make this the area pop.

In the American Tobacco Historic District, an enclave of old and renovated buildings to the direct left of the stadium, is Tyler’s Restaurant & Taproom. And about a mile’s walk from the baseball action is Rigsbee Avenue, a dense area of warehouses turned breweries like Fullsteam Brewing and entertainment venues like Motorco.

By Samuel Evers Photography by Alan Campbell

32 | Carolina Brew Scene | Summer 2018

Fullsteam, with a semi-conspicuous brick storefront, opens up to an airy inside of ping pong, a full bar with all of the latest craft beer, board games and other options. Also in the area are outdoor eating options, a coffee shop and barbeque restaurants.

All of those are a suffice way to spend time before a baseball game, all just about a 15-minute stroll through downtown from Durham Bulls Athletic Park, or an even shorter Uber ride away.

“My immediate thought was — I haven’t been to a minor league baseball since I was maybe 8 years old. Tis is the second one I’ve been to. I definitely don’t remember minor league stadiums being this awesome,” said Jason Kuehl, a baseball fan from Milwaukee who was in town for a wedding.

Kuehl was at Te Bullpen as well, with two other friends who recently moved to Chapel Hill. When they knew a friend would be in town, the first place to go was obvious.

“Tis is where we always suggest for people to go who visit us — Let’s go hang out at a Bulls game,” Bri Salmon said. “It’s a fun atmosphere.”

And how about her ratio?

“About 60-40, maybe 70-30,” she said, laughing. “I like watching the games, but I love the atmosphere.”

Summer 2018 | Carolina Brew Scene | 33