VOWL

VOWL changes character partway through the night: the cocktail list keeps pouring, but the room turns over to whoever is behind the decks. It shares the 1920s Tyler Building at 61 1/2 North Lexington Avenue with parent brewery DSSOLVR next door, pouring the brewery’s natural wine and cider alongside its own program. The front is hot-pink brick, black brick beside it, VOWL running up in tall white letters over a single bulb above the steel door. Inside, two wall-sized portraits — one pink, one blue, both signed ACHE — hang under strung lights, and a mural of soft florals in salmon and olive climbs the stairwell; even the walk-in cooler out back is painted, a pyramid eye and a skull over stacked barrels. Wednesdays currently belong to PSK, a queer and trans dance night that relaunched here this summer. Most other nights turn over with a different named DJ almost every week — house, techno, UK garage, the occasional trance set — 21 and up, usually no cover. The plants ringing the DJ booth come from avlgreenroom. Ask what VOWL is and the honest answer depends on the night. Hackett — from Lexington, Kentucky, DJing since 1998 on the Midwest rave circuit, in western North Carolina since 2016, out in Asheville since 2023 — played a night called A Journey into Sound here in May. When DSSOLVR’s patio parties get rained out, this room is where they move.