Wilmington’s newest bar is anything but a traditional Friday night out on the town. 

“Once you cross the threshold, you will be transported into the classic era of exploration,” states a press release from the Wheatley brothers, co-founders of The Sorrow Drowner on the northeast corner of Dock and 10th streets.

The tiki bar fills a two-year void for patrons who grew accustomed to going out for drinks and live entertainment at TheatreNOW, which occupied the same building for seven years before it closed in 2019, due in part to financial difficulties caused by Hurricane Florence.

That’s when Alfred Brian Wheatley, who was working as a special effects artist in Los Angeles at the time, and his younger brother David decided to turn their 14-year dream of opening a tiki bar into a reality. But back in 2008, when they first thought of building a bar in Raleigh’s Glenwood South district, the older Wheatley had not yet worked in the film industry – and his passion for adventure films hadn't blossomed into what it is today.

“That was before the big West Coast resurgence of craft-style tiki bars,” Wheatley said. “I think it would’ve been too early. It just would’ve been a traditional, old-school '60s-style tiki bar. It wouldn’t be what we made.”

Wheatley purchased the building from TheatreNOW’s former owner, Alisa Harris, for $1.25 million in early 2020, according to New Hanover County property records.

Wheatley, who once worked for the Walt Disney Company as a creative costume designer, said the bar’s '20s-to-'40s theme – what he called the peak of the exploration era – was designed by former Disney Imagineer Brandon Kleyla, known by his nickname, Brandon Trader. They met while both worked in Orlando. 

Kleyla designed Disney World’s Trader Sam’s Grog Grotto in Orlando and Disneyland’s Trader Sam’s Enchanted Tiki Bar in Anaheim. 

“People love being able to escape, to get lost in an experience, and that’s what we’re doing here,” Kleyla said. “We’re stepping out of the framework of a traditional tiki bar and delivering a much larger experience, set in the golden age of adventure. The age of [Amelia] Earhart, [Hiram] Bingham, [Howard] Carter and [Isabella] Bird.”

Wheatley said reservations for the bar’s official opening last Saturday were completely booked within 30 minutes. 

“People really enjoyed the environment last weekend,” Wheatley said. “They enjoyed the story we presented them with. I think the variety show was something that people weren't really sure what they were going to get, and that was something people seemed to say, ‘Wow, This is great.’”

Patrons expecting something similar to TheatreNOW, however, will be surprised.

“What we're doing is significantly different from TheaterNOW, which was a dinner theater; we are basically a nightclub. We're like a traditional old-school supper club, where you come in and you have a little bite to eat, you have a drink, and there's something going on on-stage,” Wheatley said.

The bar does not serve dinner but serves island-favorites like pupu platters, along with “a large menu of classic craft cocktails” with international flair, according to its website. 

Fridays and Saturdays will highlight “Vaudeville Style Revue featuring a variety of acts” – including comedy, music and burlesque – and an “interactive cast of wandering comedic characters.”

The Sorrow Drowner is open five nights a week, from Thursday to Monday, 5 p.m. to midnight. Reservations are required for the variety shows, which start at 7 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.