The Nissen Building on West Fourth Street opened in 1927 as a wagon-works factory. For most of the twentieth century it sat largely ignored, a relic from a manufacturing era the city had moved past. What most people don’t realize is that its basement now operates as one of the more serious cocktail bars in North Carolina — and it keeps irregular hours by design.
Single Brothers Speakeasy occupies the lower level of what is now a residential conversion. The space doesn’t announce itself. Street-level signage is minimal, the entrance is a stairwell off the sidewalk, and the room itself has the low ceilings and exposed brick you’d expect from a building of that age and origin. The lighting runs toward amber. The bar itself is long and well-stocked, tended by people who can explain what they’re doing without lecturing about it.
The cocktail program is the reason to come. The menu rotates seasonally and leans on house-made syrups, bitters, and infusions — some of which reference Moravian history, others that simply reflect the bartender’s current obsession. A recent menu featured a rye drink built around a smoked honey syrup that had been in production for three weeks before service. That kind of investment shows up in the glass. Pricing runs $13 to $17 per drink, which is high for Winston-Salem but reasonable relative to what’s being made.
On a Thursday evening the room fills slowly, mostly with people who have been before. There’s a regulars’ dynamic here — not exclusive, but not the place you end up after a game. Conversations at the bar tend to run long. The music is kept at a volume that allows that. Tables in the back sit four comfortably and six in a pinch, and the staff doesn’t rush anyone.
The food menu is short — charcuterie, a few composed small plates, nothing that competes with the drinks for attention. It exists to extend the visit, not to anchor it. Ordering the charcuterie board around the second round is the standard move among people who know the room.
Hours are the thing to check before going. The speakeasy opens Thursday through Saturday, typically at 5 p.m., and closes when it closes — sometimes 11, sometimes later, depending on the night. There’s no reservations system. Groups larger than six tend to find the space awkward. Two to four people is the ideal configuration.
The Nissen Building’s other tenant businesses — studios, apartments, a small coffee operation at street level — give the block an active feel during the day. By night it quiets considerably, which makes the stairwell descent into the bar feel more deliberate than it might elsewhere. The surrounding West Fourth corridor has changed steadily over the past decade, with the speakeasy predating most of the newer bars in the immediate area.
What holds up after multiple visits is the consistency. The drinks are made the same way every time, the pacing is unhurried, and the room doesn’t try to be more than it is. For a city that sometimes undersells its own range, this particular basement makes a confident case.
