Another Door Opens Downtown: L’Levation Bar and Lounge

Rocky Mount continues to build out its entertainment spaces downtown, welcoming people that have different expectations and are a range of ages.

109 Tarboro Street is another new business I was introduced to on my recent tour with Tanika Bryant, Downtown Business Director. A ‘way cool’ addition in a historic commercial building with a repurposed life.

Lyrexx Lewis owns L’Levation Bar and Lounge, an upscale lounge. Reservations are required. Guests must be 25 and older. A strict dress code.

But, a Main Street area is not simply something to be filled, it is something to be cared for. The uses we invite shape how the street feels, who it welcomes, and when.

Safety at all hours is a significant piece of the entertainment scene.

The bar and lounge is mostly young black men and women who want a safe nightlife, but up beat and fun.

I want you to appreciate the modest building the Bar and Lounge now occupies. A narrow space that doesn’t call attention to itself.

There, above the storefront, is a large arched composition, still intact, still holding its place. Once, that arch framed a full window, a generous opening to light the upper floor. Today, it has been closed in, reduced, altered. And yet, the intention remains.

The building itself dates to around 1920, possibly earlier at its core, built as a two-story commercial structure during the years when Tarboro Street carried the steady rhythm of daily business. Like many buildings of its kind, no architect’s name survives. This was not a showpiece. It was a working building, designed to serve.

Over time, changes came. The original storefront was altered. The façade simplified. What had once been more detailed was made practical, modernized, brought in line with another era’s idea of improvement.

And still, the building holds.

The directories do not reveal past tenants. Whatever businesses passed through this address did their work and moved on, leaving little behind but the structure itself. That, too, is part of the story. Not every building carries a written record. Some carry only their form.

Good things are happening one new open door after another.

Inside, the story continues in a different language, one of atmosphere, expectation, and a standard that asks something of those who enter. It is a kind of reuse that does not try to erase the past, but instead places something distinct within it.

In the life of a street, these are the moments that matter. One door reopening. One business taking hold. One building, still standing, still useful, still capable of embracing what comes next.

Here in Rocky Mount, we are learning how much the future depends on what we choose to keep, 109 Tarboro Street offers a great reminder.

Operating Hours
Monday CLOSED
Tues.-Thurs. 7 pm – 1 am
​​Fri. -Sat. 8 pm – 2 am
​Sunday: 5 pm – 12 am

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