The Mitch’s Tavern transfer is finalized. Here’s when the famous bar could reopen.

Mitch’s Tavern, one of Raleigh’s most historic bars, has changed hands, signaling the first steps toward reopening since the start of the COVID pandemic.

Longtime owner and namesake Mitch Hazouri has handed the iconic Hillsborough Street bar over to Van Alston and Chris Post, who will reopen and run Mitch’s as early as this spring.

Alston and Post have owned and operated a number of Raleigh bars, notably Slim’s on Wilmington Street and are co-owners in MoJoe’s Burger Joint.

Longtime admirers and patrons of Mitch’s, Alston and Post are now the stewards of arguably Raleigh’s most famous bar, an upstairs saloon made famous by the film “Bull Durham” and beloved by generations of NC State students.

“It’s really hard to overstate what Mitch’s has meant to us,” said Alston. “Not just Mitch’s but Mitch himself. Over the 40 years we’ve been in the bar business, he’s been a constant source of information.”

From Jolly Knave to ‘Bull Durham’

Hazouri took over the Jolly Knave on Hillsborough Street 50 years ago, and quickly turned it into Mitch’s Tavern, a bar meant to look like it had been there forever. Over the years he put pool tables on the dance floor, refreshed the jukebox and installed TVs, becoming an influential sports bar.

Alston said preserving Mitch’s meant preserving a piece of American bar history, not just in the realms of Raleigh and N.C. State.

“It’s such a landmark for not just Hillsborough Street, not just Raleigh, but the bar industry itself,” Alston said. “You look around and you see Two Guys is gone, Brother’s is gone, Barry’s (II) is gone. Not that there’s anything wrong with Chipotle or Target, but it doesn’t say ‘college strip.’”

A fictionalized version of Mitch’s Tavern was seen as a watering hole for the characters played by Kevin Costner, Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins in the baseball movie “Bull Durham.” Filming in Mitch’s, the movie tapped into the textures and tastes that have made the bar a legend. “Bull Durham” depicted the bar in any town where everyone wanted to be, with dancing, crisp clear beer served in mugs, open spaces and intimate nooks.

‘We don’t want to change Mitch’s’

The transfer of Mitch’s Tavern began with a chance encounter one morning in early November 2021, when Alston ran into Hazouri at Cup a Joe, the Hillsbrough Street coffee shop.

“Mitch was calling it a day,” Alston said. “He wasn’t going to reopen Mitch’s Tavern. I said, ‘What if Chris and I came in and managed it.’ And he thought about it and said, ‘Let’s talk.’”

Over the next few months, Hazouri, Alston and Post worked out a deal to get the new managers on the building’s lease and keep Mitch involved as a consultant on the quirks and culture of the bar.

“We need him there,” Alston said. “The bones of the building matter. The recipes, the vision, we need him because we don’t want to change Mitch’s. The reason we got it is because we don’t want it to go away.”

Alston has been running bars since the 1980s and said Mitch and Mitch’s Tavern were always inspirations.

“I really liked the way Mitch did things, he had no desire to be a billionaire,” Alston said. “He gave you good value for your money. It was a place where you could get some food for a decent price and some beer for a great price. It’s been a guidepost for how I run my businesses.”

Mitch’s Tavern will take at least a month to reopen, Alston said, but more realistically could take the rest of the spring.

The College Grill

Included in the transfer is the downstairs space known as the College Grill, a bar that’s been closed for 50 years that Hazouri paid the lease on and kept a liquor license active for its possible unveiling.

Now Alston and Post will take it on, using it as an events space with a bygone backdrop and opening it up to the public a dozen days a year.

“I’ve been trying to get Mitch to show me that space for 35 years,” Alston said. “It was always in my peripheral vision. I knew it was there and I wanted to see it. It is truly a time capsule, absolutely stunning and beautiful. ... It’s been closed for 50 years and looks 100 years old. It’s hard to use the word timeless, but it’s truly timeless.”