Photos by John Morris (Goodnight Raleigh)
A new bar called The Well has opened in the Five Points neighborhood on Glenwood Avenue. It replaced Fosters Gone Ugly which may have been the worst bar concept and name combination to spring up in the Raleigh area in recent years.
Let’s hope The Well is a bit more, shall we say, classy. Then again, anything is probably better than FGU.
Hours of operation:
Wed: 5pm-12am
Thurs-Sat: 5pm-2am
Sun: 5pm-12am
We walked by The Well on Friday after watching Capitalism @ Rialto. The bar looks to be a very nice addition to the neighborhood. A nice long wood bar with plenty of stools and plenty of tables. We had dinner plans out, so we didn’t stop in—maybe next weekend we’ll give it a shot.
Hopefully it won’t be overrun by the same contingent of obnoxious businessmen in their mid-30s that go to The Point to relive their long-past days of fraternity glory.
“Dude, you are SO DRUNK!! HIGH FUCKING FIVE, MAN!!”
It is the same owners (the Fosters guys), but they are attempting to make it more of a neighborhood bar. I like that they took out the frosted glass in the front so you can actually see inside. It takes away the seedy feel and makes it more welcoming.
Those “obnoxious businessmen” have brought the Point tons of revenue in these lean times. Perhaps you should try a different bar.
The Point was PACKED last night when I walked past. No question that it wasn’t my scene, but I am glad they are doing well in 5-Points!
Went there Friday night. Had a good time, nice patio. Less of the fratstar influence than the Point. Will go back.
Tony - Good to hear. What about the music?
Don’t worry, we took over the Point and we’ll take over The Well too, keep hating, our tabs are the ones keeping those places in business.
Well, at least it is keeping you all contained in one place, so there’s that.
For what it’s worth, as a fellow Raleigh businessman in his late-20s, I wanted to let you know that is is in fact possible to hang out at a bar without being a gigantic douchebag.
That was beautiful, Matt.
Who is the douchebag, some guys having a good time in a bar that you don’t even go to, or a guy who scowls at them from behind the frosted glass and complains about them on the web?
@smitty
The correct answer in any given “potential douchebag” scenario is always the drunken, obnoxious fratboy. Always.
This is like someone walking up to The Jackpot and complaining about the patronage being too “hip” or having too many tattoos.
If you’re looking for a place not overly run with “fratbourgeois”, just walk nextdoor to Churchill’s; it tends to be pretty quiet in there these days, given the mass exodus to Fosters y The Point.
I could understand fratboy backlash more if every bar in Raleigh was like that, but like Trevor said, at least you know ahead of time what you are going to get (Though I would disagree with Trevor and say that wanna be hipster urbanites who complain about everyone else, are even bigger douchebags). I see no problem in heading over to the point, putting wagon wheel on the jukebox, having a jaeger bomb and a bud light and getting a little rowdy. If don’t like it, you can always go to Busy Bee, Foundation and others where you can enjoy the quiet and complain about smokers, loud music, fun, and anything else that happens to be pissing you off that day. The best part about Raleigh’s growth is the choices that it has afforded everyone, if you don’t like one place, you don’t have to go there.
If you’d like to discuss further, I’ll be at the point all weekend, come in for a beer and a shot, who knows, you might just have fun.
you’d think since fratboys usually tend to have money, they’d drink better beer (if you can even call it that) than budlight…
I started the ‘I have a huge boner for bi-curious fratboys’ group on Facebook. You should join! It’s fun and much more constructive than bickering. Having a boner for bi-curious fratboys is something we can ALL agree on!
I like hunter s. thompson’s quote that is on Road Dog beer bottles…“Bad people drink bad beer. Next time you are in a bar, look around, only bad people drink shit beer.” Or something to that effect.
Genius.
yeah, if you’re gonna drink cheap beer, at least go for something with some kind of flavor since that is missing in BL.
[De gustibus non est disputandum] Why should we (?)care if the fratbourgeois drink shit beer. Simple economics suggests that if they drink the shit beer, that leaves more good beer for you to drink, while keeping the price of this good beer down. Or this just a point of saying “my taste is better than your taste?” Or perhaps, if they drink better beer they’ll be better people. Maybe that’s it (though sadly I don’t think it is).
Ok, these comments have been entertaining but there’s probably room enough for both fratboy’s and hipster’s in Raleigh! Can’t we all just get along?!
And a touche to Tony, I’m guessing you’re not from around these parts… 
Because an ironically-drank PBR is so much better than a Bud Light.
I’m just sayin’...
haha tony, that is awesome! i might just have to join that fb group
Everybody knows that frats are dens of masked gay behavior. Outwardly break your repression frat boys, and join us at Legends!
What about non-ironic PBR? It’s not a great beer, but it’s easily the best you can get for two bucks a pint.
Since every commenter here strives to be the smartest fucker in the room, may I suggest The Goat?
Cheap, and you’re virtually guaranteed to be the wittiest/most attractive person in the bar!
Tony - Nice job going through with your Friday promise…and he is from these parts…
Don’t hate on the Point. There is no better dance floor in town to showcase your moves and to make out with random strange
I don’t drink to taste my beer, I drink to get blackout. I don’t need some micro-brew triple hopped Belgian aged double stout lager fucking up my stomach in between jager bombs. Great call on the ironic PBR, whoever said that. The hipsters love their pints of micro-brews, but will still drink PBR, one of the shittiest beers on the market, just to be “ironic”. I’m guessing they do this because they can’t affordto pay for more than one of the $8.50 pints at Raleigh Times from their shitty salaries they have working as “graphic designers” downtown. You stay in your neck of the woods, I’ll stay in mine.
We don’t come to your bars and complain about beer, prices and choice of music. If all you do when you come to The Point is bitch about how frat dudes high five each other and are so drunk, then simply don’t come, it’s that simple. The only reason you even know about The Point is because when you walk out of your super hipster indy films at The Rialto, you look in the windows and think to yourself, “where did I go wrong in my life and why am I not cool.” Like WNF IV said, you stick to your bars and we’ll stick to ours.
“The only reason you even know about The Point is because when you walk out of your super hipster indy films at The Rialto, you look in the windows and think to yourself, ‘where did I go wrong in my life and why am I not cool.’”
———-
OK. Now that’s funny!
Oh Sally!
i’d rather not be cool than pay for friends and have to wear rainbow flipflops even in the winter. oh yeah, and the wearing of your little brothers shirt with the color popped up, not so cool.
color = collar. typo. dammit.
Oh the animosity.
Graphic designers can actually make a decent living.
Yeah, so can fuckin astronauts. But like astronauts, graphic design jobs aren’t always stable. Most designers work for a company or firm that does work for clients on a project to project basis. As soon as the economy tanks and people realize they can’t afford to pay someone to make their website pretty, bam, hipster graphic designer is out of a job. Just like when NASA ran out of money after they spent so much sending Tom Hanks and Kevin Bacon to space to film Apollo 13, they ran out of money and now we have to send unmanned spaceships out and crash them into the moon to find shit. It’s a vicious cycle.
Excuse any typos, this is written from my iPhone(yeah it’s a 3Gs).
@WNF IV
Your argument applies to a lot more industries than graphic design and is called a “reductio ad absurdum.” Look it up on your iPhone 3Gs.
Could we please, PLEASE get back on the topic of bi-curious frat boys?
i hate frat stars and hipster douches. i would tell you where i drink but i don’t want you idiots showing up.
Winfield Neiderman Frederick IV!!! Winny, old chap—is that really you? Greetings from a fellow Sigma Phi! Caitlyn-Lynn and I sincerely hope to see you soon at the CCC for a round of golf and toddys. Cheers!
Fine, Harry - We didn’t want to join you at the Ugly Monkey anyway
What about bi curious hipsters? Those skinny jeans and tight plaid shirts can be a bit suspect.
me not like hipster or fratboy,have both for lunch.stay out of forest or me stomp butt .me drink turtle pee wine and could care less about this subject.get a life,not in the forest.
Your argument applies to a lot more industries than graphic design and is called a “reductio ad absurdum.” Look it up on your iPhone 3Gs.
You can use your hocus pocus Harry Potter talk all you want, but the point is graphic designer hipsters aren’t nearly as well off as people like me, who work hard to inherit their money. Deal with it.
Rex - i was talking about the bar at applebees.
besides the ugly monkey is for ex-NBA, chauffer mudering a-holes, and i hate them too. see yall at applebees.
Shut up! Shut up! Stop it! My head hurts.
This is the best thread right here. I’m so proud of myself.
What Harry Seaward said.
wait a minute…..Tom Hanks and Kevin Bacon went to space…...and that is why frat boys drink Bud Light and Hipsters drink PBR, and BTW there is an old bar with a new name (the Well, remember?) at five points…..does that sum things up?
Fantabulous thread - ironic hipster douches and fratbourgeois all in one place but not enough hate for the Glenwood South dragon shirt crowd. That said at least the hipsters and dragon shirters didn’t have to pay for people to like them in college. Frat’s are to friendship as wives are to eastern European mail-order brides.
Country Clubs, frats, and sorostitutes. What a fabulous combination!!!
Cool, I learned a new word today, sorostitute!
Way better than Merriam’s word a day calendar…
This thread, hands down, is the best thing produced by Newraleigh in several years. Both groups are accurately burning the other.
Oh, and sasquatch is my favorite commenter. If I knew what forest you lived in, I’d leave food out for you.
I’ll gladly take full credit for that (along with Forrest). If you like this, you’ll love the ITB Insider. You have to Google it because it won’t allow me to post the link here.
I like the small airplane bottles that you get at the Point.
well I suggest a West Side Storyesque show down of the hipsters vs fratagonias…the place, the Well…this Friday 1100 pm…lets see who can take the neighborhood!
That’s shameless self promotion and I won’t have any of it. Fuck the Well, it was just an overrated hallway that became our temproray home until Felson’s was finished being remolded and adding on to their massive debt. Any hipster vs. frat star showdown should take place somewhere else, like Village Deli. VD would be the perfect spot since it already has a mix of the elite and wealthy (customers) that interact with hipsters (the people that work at VD). Now we just need to settle on a date and time.
I meant “remodled”.
this is not shameless self promotion, just thought the well would be an appropriate location given the de-evolution of this conversation…ironic though that the frat star used the VD acronym!
WNF IV… You’re a shit bag. Plain and simple. Please move to Planet Zebulon. Let’s meet in the parking lot after school for a tough guy fight. I’ll be carrying my pegasus Trapper Keeper.
Sasquatch is just copying the Bigfoot books. No originality there. Find some original material. Me no like you ripping off Graham Roumieu…
Wait. Did WNIFV just say “I work hard for the money I inherit?” AND accuse someone with a decent vocabulary of using “Harry Potter talk?” Yeah, shit bag.
So we can agree on this:
-Frat boys can have 5 points and Cameron.
-Indies can have downtown (The Rialto will be relocated, of course).
-Dragon Shirts/Gelheads get Glenwood.
-The “ethnic crowd” can have the warehouse district but will have to share Buckhead with the Gelheads and underage frat boys occasionally.
-Ugly Monkey and City Limits will have a train that ships in directly from Johnston County so that they may not ruin any of our nights.
Addendum #1: Crossing borders is acceptable after 1am when picking up a drunk girl for a sure thing booty call. Flying a white flag is encouraged.
Addendum #2: The 30+ crowd may eat dinner at any of these locations(prior to 8:45 pm)but when crossing boarders yield the right to complain about ANYTHING and must vacate the premises at the request of the locations patrons. The “patrons” being whomever is dressed in the popular dress of the given location…..you know you are already judging how tight/loose/khaki their pants are.
Addendum #3: No one from Johnston County may eat Inside the Beltline. Not even from hot dog vendors.
Regards,
BDC VI
Ok, I’m still a bit new to NC and all these archetypes! What up with Johnston county peeps? And how come they don’t get any love around here? Not even a hot dog? And what’s the “ethnic crowd”?
Addendum #4 : The R Line will be segregated and specific buses will only pick up riders based on their appearance. Text messages will have to be provided to drivers to confirm late night booty calls.
Addendum #5: Topics of discussions in each designated area must contain the following:
-5Points/CV. Feathered hair, tailgating, pearls, daddy’s money, sun dresses, anything ITB.
-Glenwood. House music in Jersey, graphic tees, gel, the gym, fighting everyone.
-Downtown. Obscure music, tattoos, Michael Moore, the two attractive girls in the bar.
-Warehouse. Med school, IT trends, potent smelling foods.
-UM/CL. Trucks, how thug it is to live in a trailer park, how hungry you are but aren’t being served food while ITB anymore.
I really need to get back to my graphic design job, while waiting for my trust fund check, so I can put big tires on my truck and blare some (enter obscure band name here).
Regards,
Tucker Vinny BillyBob OctopusProject Patel VII
ATTN BDC: stop boner-killing this post!
Addendum #6: Wearing shirts or tops that sparkle or glitter is only acceptable for females in all districts except Glenwood where it is not only acceptable for males but encouraged, especially if aforementioned bedazzled shirt bears the signature of Ed Hardy
Is “boner-killing” something like a fat girl wearing a short skirt while dancing on the bar at Ugly Monkey or City Limits? It’s cool, she is probably from Johnston County and according to Addendum #3, is no longer allowed to eat away her insecurities while ITB.
You’re welcome.
you’d almost believe they wrote it, though we all know they had nobody to copy. so - whoever is impersonating the frat bouys, great work.
well, done.
I think the posts here have gotten really off track. went to the Well last night for the 2nd time. It looks like things are picking up over there. Had a great time. Nice to have a new place to go. Getting tired of the downtown scene.
I wish The Well nothing but luck but it looks like a bar in the lobby of a Sheraton. I’m glad this discussion never mentions my favorite bars - it means you are all somewhere else.
I have to disagree with Bill. I think the interior is very nice. It’s sophisticated yet comfortable. And the patio is beautiful.
It is all of my girlfriends new favorite place to go.
I’ll avoid all this drama and continue frequenting that douchebag free zone next door to the cotillion club..uh, I mean Busy bee.
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