Conniption Bar & Lounge - Formerly known as Corpse Reviver Bar & Lounge — Restaurant in Durham

Really wanted to love this place. It’s been years since I’ve been able to enjoy alcohol after being diagnosed with a GI disease and multiple pregnancies, but before that I loved gin. Now that my health is better, I decided to test the waters.

The aesthetic is great, outside is inviting and inside is like a speakeasy. Ordered an old favorite gin of mine, rocks on the side. Tried to take it neat, couldn’t do it. Tried it with rocks, couldn’t do it. I had to admit defeat and go with something that would burn less, so I asked them to make my gin into one of their specialty cocktails on their menu. The server said “oh those are all pre batched, so we can only make classic cocktails. I said “you prebatch all of your specialty drinks with the alcohol already in them?” She said yes. Very surprising for this type of establishment. Oh, here is where I should mention that I have worked in fine dining for over 10 years, serving, bartending, and managing. I know many nice establishments that prebatch if they are having a large event or something, but they don’t do it other than that and none of them prebatch with the alcohol in them. The only places I have known to do that are dive bars where they use well liquor and sell those drinks for $5 Karaoke Tuesday specials. But okay… so what can I make with gin? A Tom Collins… except I can’t take the citrus. So I shamefully had to ask them to turn my $15 gin into a cosmo. I was disappointed enough without needing the server to say “a cosmo??” with an incredulous look on her face.

This is where the real issue came up. She brought me my cosmo and it was ridiculously frothy. I wanted to make sure that I was certain before saying anything, so I waited a few minutes to see if this froth could just be bubbles, though I knew it wasn’t, and it was not. So I asked the server “I’m guessing y’all use egg whites in your sour mix?” And she said, I’m sorry what? I said “egg whites, that’s why it’s frothy”. She said “no… I can’t imagine that the bartender would put an… egg… in your drink” with a look that said “wtf kind of question is this”. She said it was only like that because the bartender was strong and shook it hard.

Why did I care? Well at this point I cared bc she or the bartender (who called out that she laughingly did not put egg whites in my drink) obviously didn’t have true professional bartending experience since they don’t know that this is common practice in many high end bars. But initially I was asking because well… I am allergic to eggs. This is a GI disease allergy (EoE), very little solid understanding of it in the medical community, so I took the chance to drink it anyway bc maybe I’m not allergic to egg whites, just the yokes. Who knows. Luckily I was fine… but we left right after we finished our drinks and went next door to the bbq place instead. And guess what? I ordered a gin cosmo there and surprise, no froth.

Oh and I happened to be facing the bar, so I saw the bartender remake the drink after our back-and-forth and bring it out back. Well, the doorway is a curtain so I could see everyone trying the drink with straws. Then the bartender came back out, grabbed the cranberry juice, opened it and smelled it. As if they were all realizing that maybe there was something in the drink making it frothy. (Maybe ask your batch maker)

I’m being a bit extra with this review just because…idk, theatrics… but for real, why is a maybe 50 person capacity “upscale” bar batching cocktails anyway? And why on earth would they prebatch with liquor in it? And why would the staff talk condescendingly to their guests? And how on earth can they not know a very well known and commonly used frothing technique? Anyway, I added a picture of my drink when it was finished, 15+ minutes after it was served, still frothy.

If you’re just looking for a bar, here ya go. If you’re looking for a knowledgeable, upscale cocktail lounge,...

Walked up the side of the durham distillery to find this gem of a coktail bar. It's named after probably the most forgotten classic of all time(next to the 20 century) the decore was seasonal for sure. A Christmas tree, poinsettias, string lights and wrapped presents. There was even a projector displaying snowfall to add to the asthetics. There were many people packed inside and on their insulted outdoor patio. Unfortunately I did wait 30 minutes for somone to take my drink order. One bartender cannot handle the volume you will need more staff to keep somone sitting for 30 minutes without taking the order is ridiculous. Is my time not worth anything to you? That's how the guest feels when they come to your bar. Prices are fair. Very dissapointing experience to say the least. There are way too many great bars in Durham to get stuck here. All in all I could only recomend this bar to immortals with infinite time and people who love to wait a long time for service. I ordered the psl milk punch. It was okay but def not worth the 30 minute wait. I'll have to come back on a much slower night and give it another shot all the waiting agitated me to the point where I'm not able to give a truly objective review. 1 round 1 hour and 30 dollars later what a total bummer. The bathrooms were decently clean and the bar does have purse hooks. The music is light and indie alternative/edm rock to encourage conversation. There's no real place to escape so probably not a good first or blind date spot. However if you know the person or group well you'll have a blast. I repeat 30 minutes to order and 20 minutes for the first drink. I never thought I would actually waste an hour of my life waiting for a cocktail. I did wait after I let one of the staff know it took me an hour to get the first drink he comped the bill and brought me a second one on the house. Obviously I was a bit upset at the wait sonI can't give them 5 stars. The cocktails are good tho so it's probably still worth the trip. I really do like this bar I just can't give ot 5 stars since I had to wait that long for service. When I come back on a slower night I'll try and update this review hopefully it's less than an hour next time. Great bar but def a bad night. The food is really good too. It's small and more of a bites menu than...

It comes as no surprise that Durham Distillery's cocktail bar is just as wonderful as Durham Distillery's spirits. My husband and I were so lucky to be able to get a reservation for the patio for Sunday afternoon of their opening weekend, and we will most certainly be back (again and again). The cocktails were delicious - we tried the Coffee Kissed Negroni, Corpse Reviver #2 (duh!), Grand Marnier Slushie, and Martinez. Even if you don't think gin is your thing, they had a great selection of craft cocktails that weren't gin heavy or even had gin in them (though I highly recommend you try their gin if you haven't yet). We also tried the candied nut mix, which was sweet and a little spicy. A great bar snack! We could have spent our whole afternoon there, but we will have to settle for going back another day.

We instantly felt welcomed by the staff, and we really thought they did a wonderful job of checking in with us often, but not too often. Everyone we interacted with was friendly and fun. They have assembled a great crew!

We were also very impressed with the safety precautions they had in place to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. We felt perfectly safe enjoying our drinks on the patio, and honestly we were able to forget for a bit and have a little normalcy...