Downtown gets another bar

The owner of Sambuca says she is being financially squeezed out of her prime location on the corner of Front and Chestnut.

In addition to limited parking and fewer shoppers downtown, Kristen Myers says safety is a major issue.

Councilman Kevin O’Grady is a part of a task force working to clean up downtown and put a cap on the bars.

But downtown will be welcoming a new bar very soon.

One of the owners of Bottega will open a second bar. They will rent the space where East Coast Opera House used to be.

Some retail owners are feeling a strain from the downtown nightlife.

“There’s just not the retail dollars here so it was a choice I had to make,” said Sambuca owner Kristen Myers.

“Either stick it out and run the chance of going out of business or moving while I can,” she said. “There’s just not the balance of having the retail and it being a full-on downtown, where people can come during the day and come out at night.”

Sambuca is moving to 3304 Wrightsville Avenue at the end of this month.