Holly Springs is getting its first rooftop bar this year. What we know.

There are only two places in downtown Holly Springs that stay open past 10 p.m.

For most residents, enjoying a night out on the town means traveling to nearby towns like Raleigh, Durham or Cary’s Fenton.

But, some residents are working to change that.

As the town is gearing up to draft a plan for the revitalization of the downtown district this year, the construction of a new rooftop bar in the heart of downtown in the backdrop.

The Nightingale Rooftop Restaurant & Bar will be built on the roof of The Block on Main in downtown Holly Springs’ village district.

‘High atop Holly Springs’

Nightingale Rooftop is owned by couple Christy and Matt Griffith, the current owners of the Pimento Tea Room, and Chris Harol, a real estate developer in town and a co-owner of The Block on Main.

The Pimento Tea Room is a restaurant serving lunch, dinner and brunch with an diverse tea and tea-based cocktail menu. The restaurant is located at 200 N. Main St. inside of a nearly 200-year-old house in downtown Holly Springs. The business opened in December 2020, at the beginning of the town’s revitalization plans.

The Griffiths said they saw a demand for cocktail lounges in the area. Most residents travel to Cary, Raleigh or Durham to find evening activities.

“We wanted to bring something exciting, a little upscale and build on the nightlife,” Matt Griffith said. “There’s a very small nightlife down here. There’s only two places open past 10 p.m.”

The Nightingale owners said they wanted to give Holly Springs residents and visitors a first-of-its-kind bar and expand the nightlife scene. The planning began a year ago.

“Well, Nightingale, obviously, you can picture flying in the sky. ‘We’re High Atop Holly Springs’ is one of the taglines that we’ll be using,” Christy Griffith said. “It kind of lends itself to not only like a more upscale place in the evenings but it also can be felt like a place that you could picture yourself having brunch as well, which we plan to introduce after we get our separate service up and running after a while.”

Nightingale will not just be a cocktail bar, she said, but will also serve small plates and globally-inspired small plates. It will serve as an option for future events and “date nights or girls night out.”

She will serve as the executive chef. The menu will change each season with an emphasis on fresh, local seasonal ingredients.

“I think it’s important for everyone, and you support the local farmers who are growing your food and you’re not contributing to the carbon footprint by having food shipped all over the world that you don’t need to. Food just tastes best when it’s in season,” she said.

About The Block on Main

Two years ago, Harol and a group of business owners opened The Block on Main.

The 52, 530-square-foot mixed-use building has nine tenants, including Mamma Mia Italian Bistro, JT’s Creamery, and Prana Yoga. The rooftop bar will bring the building to 100% completion, Harol said.

The Block on Main, other mixed-use development the Town Hall Commons and investments to parking and roads are three projects in town that have generated $49.7 million each year to the economy, according to the town of Holly Springs.

Over the next 20 years, the projects are projected to have a $1 billion impact to the town’s economy, the town reports.

Harol said the town’s plans to revamp the downtown district are integral to its future.

“But it’s a challenge in Holly Springs because we have so many private landowners kind of intermingled within everything downtown,” he said. “I think the best example of what we can hope for downtown Holly Springs to be as similar to what downtown Cary was like, where it’s a little bit more spread out and different cool, little places and projects are still very walkable — but not just on this one street.”

Harol said he sought out the Griffiths to operate the rooftop bar because he liked their business model for the Pimento Tea Room. The Block on Main building was created with the idea of having a rooftop bar.

“They were my number one choice, the one and only people that I reached out to,” Harol said. “The Pimento Tea Room is one of those places that when you go, you’re going to be talking about it the next day.”

The bar is set to open by the end of the year.