After five: Statesboro's downtown resurgence

Eden Hodges

 Georgia Southern students call the first week back to class ‘sylly week’. Freshmen scramble to find ID’s and every bar is packed.

After 4 years of it, I’m starting to feel too old. Blue Room, Southern Social, even Gnat’s feels like I haven’t moved on with my life yet.

I was on the hunt for a place that grown people gather, ones with real jobs and real bedtimes.

“Downtown does seem to be having a bit of a resurgence lately,” said Layne Phillips, Statesboro’s public affairs officer.

Phillips tells me the downtown area hasn’t had a lot going on in the nightlife department for several years. She says it’s something they’re trying to change, by bringing in more businesses that are open after 5 o’clock.

Since their Blue Mile initiative, two bars have come into the main streets and the Downtown Live concert series has doubled this year.

“The feedback was overwhelmingly positive,” said Phillips.” People told us, 'we love going downtown, coming together as a community.' It’s something new and fun that we haven’t had downtown.”

With all the talk, I had to try things out for myself. I grabbed a friend and we started at Pour House Pub.

They’ve been open just a few months, but it seemed to me like some locals had already made it their favorite spot. It’s an Irish pub style with a Cheers, ‘Everybody knows your name,’ type of feel.

One look down the bar and we knew we had to grab a couple drafts to fit in. My friend Luis got a mango habanero cider and I got a SweetWater IPA. Then we settled in.

From what I’ve heard about the place, they have live music or karaoke often, with a dedicated stage right up front. The crowd seemed like a good mix of young people and middle-aged to older.

Friday’s artist was just a young troubadour, singing folk and country hits along to the strum of guitar strings. The music was perfectly loud enough to have drunken conversations all night without having to yell. To me, it’s all about the little things.

They have a pretty impressive draft list there, if you’re into that. You would never know because they’re not listed anywhere, since they rotate so often. From what the bartender rattled off to us, it was a long and pretty diverse list.

Luis and I enjoyed the place. We agreed we could definitely see ourselves coming by after work to throw back a few. It’s super casual and lowkey. This wouldn’t be the place I’d take anyone to ‘wow’ them.

Pretty soon, our time was up. We had a top secret reservation to maintain at the City’s newest speak easy. We finished our brews and headed out. The bill wasn’t too bad.

Aura, shrouded in mystery. Giving away the location felt like ruining the fun. Just know, not all of the businesses going down the Blue Mile are quite what they seem. No signage, no advertising, no way to even know this place was here, unless you know.

It’s the seeming exclusivity that gives it such charm. After running into the owner while I was there, I know that was definitely the intention.

“It’s been a little hard getting people in here just because we don’t advertise,” said Kaleo Lyles, one of the owners of Aura – along with Gnat’s Landing, Blue Room and Del Sur.

He told me they opened up in January. Since then, it seemed to me, the place was starting to catch on. There aren’t any barriers to entry other than not having a reservation, which could be placed online - or even at the door using a QR code. A few hours out from your reservation, they send you a location and a door code.

Much better than the cover charges I was used to paying in the college bars, it cost nothing to get in, but I still felt like I was in a VIP lounge. If you’re a Statesboro barbecue lover, you might think the place looks a little familiar. I was impressed to see how suave they had made the place.

It took a little longer than we liked to get our first drinks, but that seemed to be the only hiccup of the night. I started with this week’s special, The Stork. They told me the owners just had a baby. It was a deliciously light sour cherry. Luis started with a very traditional Moscow Mule.

“You can judge a place based on their mule,” Luis told me. It was funnier at the time that I wrote it down. The beers at Pour House had us feeling good.

We decided we would eat here. At one of our fellow patron’s suggestions, we tried the feta dip.

These seemed like the safest choices on the menu and the most like bar food – elevated. Our waitress was super attentive and pretty soon she was asking for our next drink order. The next round was an espresso martini for me and a Black Sand Beach for Luis.

One sip and I started thinking it may be the best espresso martini I’ve had yet. Then the aftertaste gave it away, Cool Beanz espresso. It’s my favorite local coffee shop, so I may have been biased.

That same friendly patron recommended the Black Sand Beach. It’s one of their most popular drinks, made with Guava and coconut. It was creamy with just a gentle sweetness.

“They either mix the drinks very dangerously, or very lightly,” Luis said after his first sip.

We can tell you now, there were no watered-down drinks in our midst. Just the classy ones, with subtle aromas and flavors, no sour mix, no sugary hangover.

We felt classy. It was outdoors, but it’s really hard to tell when you’re inside. We had one more bar on our list, Vino 1910, but it seemed like the energy in Aura had just started to electrify.

We couldn’t leave our fun new bar to go to what we thought of as a stuffy wine lounge. Since they were closing at 11:30, we skipped it. We agreed we felt wine was more of an at-home thing. We could see it from across the street at Pour House and it did seem popular.

Looking back at the pictures I took I remembered that after this decision I got another drink, this time called The Outsider.

If you like old fashioned’s or Manhattans, you’d like this one. I can’t do the dark liquor. I’ve had some bad experiences in the past, if you get me. Time for the check.

Nine drinks and two appetizers across the two bars, we spent about $100 altogether. After going to Savannah bars more recently, the Statesboro prices were refreshing.

It’s official, I’ve found my new spot in Statesboro, so forgive me for not telling you where it is. Some things you just have to keep for yourself.

Looking forward, the City of Statesboro is looking to add more nightlife scenes to their Blue Mile and downtown. Phillips tells me there may be a piano bar on the way.