At a bar in a college town, it’s not unusual for the person pouring your drinks to also have a Ph.D. As academia overflows with aspiring professors, many turn to lower paying jobs as adjunct instructors, and they often work side gigs to get by. For some, it’s bartending. 

A new bar in Durham, North Carolina is trying to bring those two worlds — of bars and college — together.

Early on a Wednesday evening, customers trickle through the backdoor of a speakeasy. 

They grab a Oaxacan old fashioned or gin and tonic at the bar, then travel with their highball glasses to the informal classroom next door. There are vintage lockers on the wall, next to a poster of the periodic table. Bar owner Lindsey Andrews is there teaching a class on art and labor. 

Students sip their cocktails and get into a heady debate about art in the age of late capitalism. This is what Andrews had in mind when she first envisioned this business Night School Bar — cocktails alongside college-level classes in art, film and literature. 

“I really just combined the two things I was doing already,” she said. “I worked in restaurants for forever, and I’ve been in school for forever.”

Andrews used to teach English classes as an adjunct instructor at North Carolina State University by day and bartend at night. While she poured drinks, customers sometimes asked about her classes.

“I would say, ‘Oh, I’m teaching a class on science fiction, but we’re reading all women writers, it’s all feminist sci fi,’ and they’ll be like, ‘Whoa, I never had a class like that,’ or ‘That sounds really awesome,’”  Andrews recalled. “And I would think, ‘This would be really, really fun to talk about with you — the person who’s here in front of me.’”

She had a hunch that more people would feel that way. Maybe they’d even be willing to pay for classes and drinks at the same time. Turns out she was onto something.

“I didn’t realize until after college how unique those spaces are,” said Night School Bar regular Sebastian Ellios. “That kind of stimulation and conversation is really enjoyable to me, and I’ve missed it a lot since then.” 

At Night School Bar, there are no grades and no credit. Classes are pay-as-you-can. The listed cost is $320 per class, but students can pay as little as $10.

Luke VanderHart is a manager in tech who’s enrolled in the art and labor class. He paid full price, but said he likes that it’s an affordable way for anyone to learn about Marxism and art in a social setting.

“It’s basically a Venn diagram of a bar and a class, and you get kind of the best of each,” VanderHart said. “At the end of the day, it’s an interesting, intellectual way to spend an evening.”

For Andrews, it’s important that the instructors who lead those evenings are well-compensated.

“When I was an adjunct, every single other adjunct professor that I talked to had a second job. Mine just happened to be bartending,” Andrews said.

Night School Bar is a second job for some instructors, but Andrews says the wage is higher than what adjuncts typically earn per hour. Plus, there are no papers to grade, and instructors can teach the classes they want. 

“We’re trying to create jobs that are living wage, sustainable and feel meaningful for people,” she said.

But Night School Bar also has to be a sustainable business. Andrews said the pay-as-you-can enrollment model is not quite cutting it.

“So this means we’re pretty constantly doing fundraising to try to make up for it, but we’re also hoping that the bar will stabilize us — so drinks are not pay what you can,” she said with a grin. 

Crowd-funding isn’t covering the bottom line — yet — but she’s hopeful that every Oaxacan old fashioned her bartender pours will help keep Night School Bar afloat.