Isaac Hunter's Returns to Downtown Raleigh

Isaac Hunter’s Oak City Tavern is returning to downtown Raleigh.

Zack Medford said Monday that Isaac Hunter’s Oak City Tavern will open at 5 p.m. Friday in the former Common 414 bar at 414 Fayetteville St. Common 414, a craft cocktail bar, has been closed for two weeks and undergoing renovations.

Medford and his business partners opened Isaac Hunter’s Tavern at 112 Fayetteville St. in 2009 but closed it in 2014. They moved on to other projects, including Paddy O’Beers, Coglin’s and Common 414.

After Tir na nOg closed last year, Medford said he and his partners felt they should bring Issac Hunter’s Tavern back. (The bar is named for the original Isaac Hunter’s Tavern, where the state legislature is said to have selected Raleigh as the site of North Carolina’s capital in 1787.) “Downtown needs a good neighborhood bar,” Medford said.

Fans of Medford’s previous Isaac Hunter’s Tavern will recognize the new 3,000-square-foot space, outfitted with old wood timbers from a barn outside Waynesboro and filled with games, like shuffleboard, darts and table games. The bar will have a extensive bourbon selection as well as other liquors, craft beer and wine.

The bar will host a grand opening on April 1 — two years from when the former tavern closed — and the space will be in transition as renovations continue. But Medford said they wanted to open sooner rather than later. “Over the next few weeks, it will get better and better,” Medford said.

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