Downtown restaurant adds on a new bar
By Ethan Smith
Published in News on March 3, 2015 1:46 PM
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
JoJo Morris, center, opens a gift from her friend Sandy Phipps, right, to celebrate the opening of JoJo's Bar, an expansion of her already existing restaurant, Saturday night. Also pictured, from left, Veronica Hunt and Neal Borgersrode.
There's a new spot in town to grab a mean martini and a cold beer after a long day of work.
The owner's name -- JoJo -- is splashed across the back of the bar in all capital block letters.
A restaurant that has become a favorite of many local residents is amping up its menu, its seating and everything else it has to offer.
An idea to add more seating to JoJo's Tea and Coffee at 120 E. Mulberry St. turned into a project to add a full-service bar to the English-style bistro.
Renovations for the project began in December, and in only two months, Jo Morris and her staff readied the bar and held a soft opening Saturday evening.
The bar will officially open today.
The cafe will close from 3 to 5 p.m. during the days it is open for business to prepare for the evening ahead, and the regular menu will continue to be served well into the night.
"We'll probably close it at 10 p.m. during the week, but stay open later until people leave on Thursday, Friday and Saturday," Ms. Morris said. "We won't open up one side without opening up the other."
The bar itself is made of wooden slats that are more than 100 years old, which came from the portion of the wall that was knocked out to combine Ms. Morris' existing location with the building directly beside it.
Ms. Morris' brother, Phillip, built the bar.
"We originally bought the new building for extra seating for the existing part of the shop, but we felt we could do more business by having a bar and serving dinner," Ms. Morris said.
The bar will have a full beer, wine and liquor menu, and will allow for twice as much seating and twice as much room.
The purchase of the building was made possible by a $20,000 loan from the Downtown Goldsboro Development Corp.'s revolving loan fund.
"(The soft opening) went really, really well," Ms. Morris said. "We were very busy and people loved it. I don't think it could have gone any better, really. We sold a lot of martinis and cocktails and people seemed to really enjoy themselves."