The George plus The Mint equals CREAM

January, 16, 2008 , by Jedidiah

The song starts like this: Cash, Rules, Everything, Around, Me, C.R.E.A.M. get the money dollar, dollar bill y’all. From my understanding, rappers Raekwon the Chef and Method Man from The Wu Tang Clan weren’t referring to Raleigh in the y’all part of that lyric. But, looking at the names of a few new restaurants and bars in downtown, you’d assume that cash did rule everything around here.

Name isn’t everything, but it does set the tone for the atmosphere and client base. The folks at RDUWTF have thoroughly posted about The Mint’s lavish environment and use of taxpayer money. The restaurant’s name refers to the fact that the restaurant goer must walk through a vault door before entering the money-laced space. While there is nothing wrong with throwing money at interior design of a downtown restaurant, there is a conflict of public interest with the pretentious nature of the name. Wouldn’t a bar named The Mint be better suited in a city like Denver, San Francisco or Philadelphia, places where the nation’s coins are actually produced. To my knowledge, Raleigh was never the location of a national mint. Also, how can a brand new restaurant on “Raleigh’s Main Street” not be open for lunch?

From the production of coins to the dollar bill. April and George on Glenwood South has closed and a new bar will open soon. April has been dropped but The George remains. The logo is a dollar bill and while the graphic does attempt to have a post-punk, 90s-decon edge to it, the use of money again isn’t relative to the city, but to the love of the green back. The video aspect of the bar also attempts to add an edge to the bar (something not currently available in any Raleigh bar). But, with a Martini stacked drink list, it could be any bar on Glenwood, with a different name. And George? What about Sir Walter. Remember him?

Who are we, Charlotte? Maybe Raleigh’s downtown is becoming just as ritzy, or attempting to be such. As soon as the RBC tower is complete, the three tallest towers in downtown will be occupied by Wachovia, BB&T and

~~RBC Centura~~

RBC Bank. The bank industry will be controlling a large percentage of the jobs and economy in downtown soon. Banks are needed, but references to them in our cultural nightlife isn’t.

Raleigh’s bars and restaurants could have more relative names to the identity of the city and its past, like Trainspotting, The Sir Walter, or to be a bit cliché, anything with Oak in it. Branding of a bar is essential to its future. There’s something about the use of money in a bar’s name that sets a tone for a future that isn’t inclusive. Imperial exclusivity becomes evident and although taxpayer money was used to create The Mint, that doesn’t mean cash needs to be the theme.

Life as a Raleighite shouldn’t be so rough. Dollar, Dollar Bill Y’all!