Meet Michael Bell

Today we’d like to introduce you to Michael Bell.

Michael, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I’m a Raleigh native and a former journalist at multiple newspapers across the Southeast. After losing my reporting gig, I landed a part-time sales job at a record and smoke shop in Anniston, Ala and thought: Wow! This might work back in North Carolina. It did, and we are very fortunate.

We opened Hunky Dory on 9th Street in Durham (near Duke University) in the summer of 2010, evolving into what it is now as a craft beer-slinging record bar. And in 2020, we continued this model of beers and records to open our shop in Seaboard Station in August 2020.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
We planned to open the Raleigh shop in April, but then the pandemic hit. We were basically told that we had to pay rent regardless if we opened or not, so we opened in August and have been well-embraced by the fine folks in the City of Oaks.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
For the beer side of things, we strive to offer a wide variety of LOCAL craft beer and small-batch, self-distributing beer, the quality, exclusive, diggity dank stuff you don’t find in grocery stores and other shops that don’t have as much as a passion for high-quality IPAs.

For the records side of things, we pay customers up to 50 percent retail value for their collections, and we are happy to price the collection beforehand so there’s no guessing work as to what an album is worth. We are also proud to sell almost exclusively to LOCAL in-store customers instead of the internet.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.hunkydorydurham.com
• Instagram: @hunkydoryraleigh
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/raleighdankness