Apollo Exos, hub for brews and tunes, will expand
Published 1:30 am Tuesday, March 10, 2026
EVERETT — When Sotirios Rebelos started collecting records again, he couldn’t stop himself.
As a kid, vinyl was an integral part of his life. But when he got busier as an adult and slowed down his record buying, he realized he missed that aspect of his life — something he said kept him in focus.
The next thing he knew, he was scrolling through online forums and buying entire collections from people as he built up a massive catalog of records on his own.
“I couldn’t stop,” Rebelos said. “And I’m like, might as well open up a record store.”
Since it opened in August 2024, his shop, Apollo Exos Records — a beer bar and record shop in Everett’s downtown core — has become a hub for brews and tunes.
Rebelos, who goes by Soto, said the name for the shop came from his Greek heritage. Apollo is the son of Zeus, representing music and the arts, and Exos is an Americanized version of ixos, the Greek word for sound, he said.
“I feel like it adds a sense of community,” said Sidney Penlord, a bartender at Apollo Exos who had been coming to the shop since it opened. “A lot of the same people come here, and when you walk in here as a new person, there’s something about the space and the shared interest of the vinyl.”
But Rebelos had always wanted a larger space. Now, nearly two years after the store first opened, he has the chance to finally realize his original vision for the store.
Within the next year, Rebelos hopes to open a newly expanded Apollo Exos location next door to its current space in downtown Everett, bringing the smaller store into a 5,000-square-foot hub for music and brews.
The new location will feature a listening lounge for music lovers to test out records and a small stage for bands to perform, Rebelos said. The existing location will become a separate bar with a focus on whiskey.
“It’s great, it’s phenomenal,” he said. “I feel like I’m a kid building the ultimate playground.”
The shop offers music from all genres, but has a particular focus on punk, metal and hardcore music.
Rebelos, who grew up in Seattle but spent time as a teen living in Everett, was raised on those genres. As a kid, he played in multiple bands and spent hours perusing Fallout Records and Skateboards on Capitol Hill. As an adult, he spent time running a “myriad of businesses,” he said, including a Seattle-based car service in the days before Uber and Lyft. With Apollo, he wanted to share his love of music — particularly vinyl records — with a younger generation while contributing to the nightlife of a city he said has a lot of potential.
“Music is the most powerful thing,” he said. “It can really pull ourselves out of a bad situation, or put us in a positive mental state and know we’re not helpless. Metal and punk is undoubtedly a huge contribution to that. That subculture will change young lives.”
Contact Herald writer Will Geschke at 425-339-3443; william.geschke@heraldnet.com; X: @willgeschke.
IF YOU GO
Apollo Exos Records
1717 Hewitt Ave., Everett
Apollo Exos is open daily from noon to midnight. The record store also participates in events as part of Late Shift Everett, an initiative from the city and a number of businesses to boost Everett’s nightlife activity: lateshifteverett.com.
This story originally appeared in Sound & Summit magazine, The Daily Herald’s quarterly publication. Explore Snohomish and Island counties with each issue. Subscribe and receive four issues for $18. Call 425-339-3200 or go to soundsummitmagazine.com
