New business renovates old New Bern jewelry store into a bar

NEW BERN, N.C. (WITN) - What was once Baxter’s Jewelry store in downtown New Bern, built back in the late 19th century is now a New York-style bar called Baxter’s 1892.

The vision came from two Eastern Carolina natives and long-time performing artists Von Lewis and Tyler Griffin.

The bar has been open for just six weeks and includes several lounging areas with various themes throughout the building.

While mixing in some of the new atmosphere, the owners both felt it was important to maintain some of the nostalgia of the original building.

“When you go into a project in a building like this in a town like this I mean you have to let history guide you and it’s the whole reason why we left a lot of things the way they were in this building,” said co-owner, Von Lewis.

“10 minutes of walking into the building we knew the stages would be over there. We knew we’d have the balcony we knew we would have all of that being able to keep the history of this building while doing it has been really important to us as well like the cabinets behind me these are the original cabinets over 100 years old,” said co-owner Tyler Griffin.

Lewis and Griffin refurbished the shell of a petite baby grand piano for their house piano, and have a house drum set made from similar mahogany to match the nostalgic look of the large mahogany cabinets.

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