Yes, Scott Crawford’s forthcoming Raleigh cocktail bar will be located in a basement, and yes, it will require a physical key for entry, but no, it won’t be a speakeasy—if it were, Crawford tells me, I wouldn’t have gotten a press release about it.
“We want it to feel a little bit secretive,” Crawford says. “But also, obviously we want people to know it’s there.”
Sous Terre, which means subterranean in French, will open at 620 North Person Street in February. Secrecy as an atmosphere, not a practice, makes sense for a bar that comes right out and tells you that it’s underground.
Sous Terre will occupy the space directly beneath Crawford’s French bistro, Jolie, that has been housing a bar called The Atlantic Lounge. Per the press release, Atlantic Lounge is closing at the end of the month so that owner Jason Howard can focus on expanding his Clayton taco joint, Lil Hombre, to locations in Raleigh and Wake Forest.
Unlike Atlantic Lounge, which actually did identify as a speakeasy, Sous Terre will be more of a private club: intimate and members-only but not gatekept, per se. Its age limit will be 21 and up, not 25 and up, like its predecessor. Sous Terre wants to be a popular hidden gem, Crawford says, a secret that everyone’s in on.
At the time Atlantic Lounge opened, in 2019, North Carolina had not yet gotten rid of an archaic law requiring drinks-only bars to charge membership fees. Many area bars took a path of least resistance in complying with the law, pricing membership fees at less than a dollar—some, cheekily, charged just 1 cent—and more than a few establishments straight up ignored it. Atlantic Lounge took a different approach, asking patrons to purchase a $40 key that unlocked the front door during business hours.
The keys, while a pricier form of access, have proven to come with a truly lifetime membership, one that transcends the space’s ownership: Crawford is keeping the key model and when he gives Atlantic Lounge a soft renovation, come January, he won’t be changing the locks.
“I didn’t want to change it out of respect for those who are currently members,” he says. “And, I think it’s kind of cool.”
Crawford, who may raise the key cost slightly when he opens Sous Terre but hasn’t yet worked out the numbers, doesn’t see the membership requirement as exclusionary.
The membership makes visits more intentional, he says. It may filter out people who are doing casual downtown Raleigh bar-hopping—but then again, not every establishment is intended for casual bar-hopping.
Sous Terre is Crawford’s first drinks-only concept. Its menu, which will include both alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages, is still in the works.
“I had questions from people after the press release came out as to whether or not we would be doing spirit-free cocktails,” Crawford says. “I kind of thought it was a given, being who I am: I’m sober for 19 years. We take spirit-free cocktails very seriously.”
The bar’s cocktail program will be led by Jordan Joseph, a four-year veteran of Crawford’s flagship restaurant, Crawford & Son. Joseph is poised to take over as beverage director for not just Sous Terre but Crawford’s entire restaurant group, Crawford Hospitality, which will expand significantly this year with Brodeto opening at Raleigh Iron Works, Crawford’s Genuine opening at RDU, and Crawford Brothers Steakhouse opening at Fenton in Cary.
“A lot of people, I think, think I’m going to be spread too thin,” Crawford says. “This is something the general public probably doesn’t know, but during COVID, I never stopped planning. For my own mental health, I stayed in my home office and planned how we could reopen strong and grow after the pandemic. It really helped me to see past what was happening day to day. So we have the infrastructure. I made a plan, and now we’ve started to execute it.”
Building that infrastructure—expansive, but sturdy—included hiring directors away from eminent restaurateurs Danny Meyer and Thomas Keller. “Those were the moves you could make during COVID,” Crawford says.
Compared to Crawford’s other three upcoming restaurants, which occupy spaces in large complexes, Sous Terre will be a breeze to get ready, Crawford says. The bones of the bar are already there. And the location is homey to the point where it might as well be called Crawford Corner: the door to Sous Terre is located inside Jolie, and Jolie is adjacent to Crawford & Son.
Jolie and Crawford & Son will keep a supply of keys on hand for customers who’d like to grab a drink downstairs before dinner. It’s something Crawford has done while Atlantic Lounge has been open, too.
“We don’t have any waiting space in Crawford & Son or Jolie,” Crawford says. “Sometimes, when people are waiting, it’s on us: they have a reservation, they’re there on time, but maybe the guests at their table haven’t left yet. So for a while now, we’ve been offering them a drink downstairs, or next door at Willco, which is another great bar.”
“We have great bars around us,” he says. “But now we’ll own one.”
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