Berkeley Cafe to leave its ‘funky old building’ in Raleigh. A new chapter awaits nearby.

For more than 40 years, The Berkeley Cafe kept its funky watch in downtown Raleigh, offering refuge for the beer-deprived and cheeseburger-starved, providing off-kilter entertainment for a button-down town.

It occupied the same three-story brick tower off Nash Square, skinny as a milk carton, soaked in decades of Pabst Blue Ribbon, that had housed one Raleigh restaurant, cafe or another for more than a century.

And in its wilder, earlier years, when Raleigh’s downtown drew only a handful of determined night owls, you might find a wrestling tournament in the back room, in which the winner would bash his opponent over the head with a watermelon.

Then Raleigh got respectable, and real estate developers discovered its downtown crowds, and for the past year, the venerable cafe has lived under constant threat of an office tower planned for next door — a neighbor potentially rising 36 stories.

But on Thursday, the steadfast Berkeley announced it will start a new chapter downtown, occupying a building just around the corner, preserving its spunky presence downtown.

“Sad to see the iconic location go away,” wrote fan Kitty Kinnin on the Berk’s Facebook page, “but wherever the Berkeley lands the magic will happen and we’ll all gather!”

From Fiction Kitchen to Berkeley

On its Facebook page, the Berkeley said it will stay on Martin Street until October and then relocate to South Dawson Street, the longtime home of Fiction Kitchen, early in 2024. Fiction Kitchen will take its vegetarian and vegan cuisine to Gateway Plaza off Crabtree Boulevard.

The city, meanwhile, has already rezoned the Berkeley’s next-door lot allowing for up to 40 stories, and the mixed-use tower now being contemplated would rank among Raleigh’s tallest. The Berkeley was originally part of that rezoning, but outcry from its devoted followers got it pulled out of those plans, and developers gave the cafe an extension on its lease.

The Berk’s new digs around the corner will fit much better than the glass-and-steel superstructure likely to invade Nash Square.

“We are glad that our spot will still keep its uniqueness and individuality,” the Fiction Kitchen posted in response to the news. “Happy for y’all.”

Safe space for hipster misfits

Opening in 1980, the Berkeley meshed with a grittier Raleigh in its early decades, providing a safe space for hipster misfits and a form of entertainment that sometimes required a bib and safety goggles.

Its wrestling matches drew grapplers who climbed into the makeshift ring toting trash cans full of weapons, including umbrellas, plungers and a toaster — all of which figured into the competition.

The Berkeley opened its stage to amateur comedians with names like Slam N Sam, metal bands with names like Slugnut and blues musicians with names like Steady Rollin’ Bob Margolin’. In 2002, the Berk hosted a locally produced play: “Obsessions of a Pyromaniac Insurance Salesman.”

The Squirrel Nut Zippers played there on their rise to hot jazz fame. Rockabilly queen Wanda Jackson shook her hips there at age 73. Texas roadhouse legend Billy Joe Shaver once crooned to a beery crowd.

It endured Raleigh’s most unruly.

In 1995, a drunken patron calling himself Kenneth from Nashville loudly insisted he be allowed on stage to perform, and after hours of pestering the actual performers, got his wish. Once there, he announced he had only a week to live, had brought a knife and planned to kill the first three people he saw. Police arrived, cleared the room and listened while Kenneth from Nashville barricaded himself inside and serenaded them until they mercifully dragged him away.

It’s hard to picture that sort of scene happening so colorfully in the Raleigh of today — even on Glenwood South.

So I congratulate Raleigh’s enduring landmark and celebrate its new locale, which will no doubt play host to many more decades of Raleigh legend. Try as it might, the city can’t erase all of its character.