Sauced

Two Newly Announced Bar Projects (Including a Brouwer’s Sibling)

Twilight Exit, Brouwer’s Cafe owners plotting new drinking establishments.

Posted by: Allecia Vermillion on Nov 02, 2011 at 02:30PM 0 Comments

Former tequila spot Bandolero is making way for beer. Photo: Bandolero.

Reports of notable new bars are flying fast and furious this week. Seattle Beer News delivers some details on a tantalizing rumor circulating of late: The owners of beer destinations Brouwer’s Cafe and Bottleworks have taken over the former Bandolero space in Tangletown. According to Geoff Kaiser, plans are in the works for a bar called The Publican, slated to open in late December. The space will have 22 taps, he reports, and focus on American microbrews.

Meanwhile, the owners of the Central District’s most excellent Twilight Exit have a new bar in the works in what used to be Thompson’s Point of View near 23rd and Union. Central District News says the place will be called The Neighbor Lady and be vegetarian focused. One can’t help but be intrigued by a place described by owner Stephan Mollmann as “urban brothel, but not too westerny.”

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Tags: Bar Openings, The Publican, The Neighbor Lady

Opening Date for University Village Location of The Local Vine

Lucid retail got you down? Soon, sober shopping will be a thing of the past at Seattle’s favorite outdoor mall.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Oct 04, 2011 at 09:13AM 0 Comments

The Local Vine’s U-Village location

Photo: Local Vine via Facebook

Word comes today from the people behind the Local Vine that the wine bar’s newest location—at University Village—will open on October 13. That’s next Thursday.

As was first reported right here on Sauced, the new location will be the site of plenty of tasting events, and there are some holiday-related activities on the agenda as well. A typical tasting costs $5; you can get the full rundown on the Local Vine’s website.

Just to keep things clear, a little history: As you may recall, the original Local Vine, a wine bar and retailer that first opened in Belltown, moved to Capitol Hill’s 12th Avenue in 2010 after the building that housed its original location was condemned. The U-Village location will be the wine bar’s third iteration, but one of only two currently in operation.

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Tags: Wine, Wine Bars, Bar Openings, University Village

Booze News Roundup: Infusions Okay in California, a Ginger Beer Take Over at the Buck

Poppy’s popular tender moves on, Utah says no more chubbies….

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Sep 22, 2011 at 11:49AM 0 Comments

Rachel’s Ginger Beer owner Rachel Marshall will make her spicy brew in the space behind the Buck, currently being converted into a dive bar called Montana.

Photo: Rachel’s Ginger Beer via Facebook

Lots of booze-related news both national and local. Let’s get to it.

NATIONAL
We begin in California where, about two years ago, the ABC started enforcing the state’s ban on spirits infusions as more and more of these started showing up in cocktail bars. Now, however, tenders are free to infuse away, SFist reports.

Meanwhile, Utah moves in the opposite direction, tightening its already-tough alcohol rules. USA Today reports a one-year freeze on hard-liquor licenses for Utah restaurants, and a ban on the mini kegs known as chubbies (full-size kegs were already verboten). Side note: I am now totally obsessed with the term “Zion curtain.”

LOCAL
On Slog, Seattle Nightlife and Music Association president and Red Door owner Peter Hanning makes the case for liquor privatization initiative 1183. Earlier this week Publicola reported that funds raised for and against the initiative, which will be on the ballot this November, already add up to $11.1 million.

In August, Eater Seattle’s Allecia Vermillion, noting that the Triple Door was the latest in a slew of Seattle restaurants to introduce a custom-beer collaboration, asked if a trend was not afoot. Glenn Drosendahl at the Puget Sound Business Journal took that idea and ran with it this week.

Also, big bar news for Capitol Hill: CHS blog got the scoop on Montana, the new bar that will replace the Buck on Olive Way. A partner in the project is Rachel Marshall of Rachel’s Ginger Beer, a soda that has sent a number of local food writers into a fizzy ginger-induced tizzy.

Meanwhile, Poppy’s beloved cocktail mixer Veronika Groth told Sauced that she is moving on to Chino’s, a new bar/casual eats destination taking over the space that once housed Oasis Cafe.

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Tags: Bar Openings, Liquor Laws, Booze in the News

The Return of Vessel: Folks, We Have a Location

“We’re going to do things no one’s ever done before,” says bar manager and owner Jim Romdall.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Sep 01, 2011 at 03:49PM 4 Comments

Vessel’s new home

Photo: Google Maps

UPDATE: Okay, here’s another piece. Old Vessel owner Clark Niemeyer, who stayed aboard after co-owner Coleman Johnson quit dramatically in 2008, is returning as a partner, and will design the Olive Way space. Romdall still isn’t naming any bartenders.

When Vessel closed in December of last year, bar manager Jim Romdall was clear in his intentions to reinvent the fancy cocktail lounge at a new Seattle location.

It’s happening. In a phone call today, Romdall told me that a lease has been signed for 624 Olive Way (at Seventh Avenue) in the space that previously housed a Red Balloon Company store. The location has a storied past: It was home to the original El Gaucho—“part speakeasy and part…breakfast club,” according to El Gaucho’s website—first opened in 1953.

Romdall says the new Vessel has about twice the square footage as the old 1512 Fifth Avenue space, and will include a private dining room. Vessel’s much-remarked-upon austere interior will not be recreated at the new digs. The new bar will be “warmer,” says Romdall, “with a lot more wood and metal.”

The emphasis will remain on cocktails but there will be a “vastly expanded food program” that includes lunch. And Romdall has big promises: “We’re going to do things no one’s ever done before. When we opened five years ago we raised the bar in Seattle. We want to do that again.”

What are they going to do, exactly, that’s never been done before? Romdall, who is an owner and will manage the bar, won’t say yet. He also won’t name any partner(s), but promises he/she/they is (are) integral to the project’s originality.

Romdall is one of the first bartenders to make use of the Perlini Cocktail Carbonation System. Invented by Seattleite Evan Wallace and launched at Tales of the Cocktail this year, the Perlini system carbonates cocktails without diluting them.

Romdall says new Vessel will be open before the end of the year.

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Tags: Downtown, Bar Openings, Scoops and Exclusives

First Look at Canon

Jamie Boudreau’s Capitol Hill bar takes shape.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Aug 31, 2011 at 09:15AM 1 Comments

When will Canon open? Nobody knows. But soon!

Photo: Canon via Facebook.

On Tuesday night I (along with some other media and a few contest winners) had the chance to check out Canon, Jamie Boudreau’s new bar in the former Licorous space on 12th Avenue East. The place has been transformed to pleasing effect: there’s antique-looking wallpaper with a silvery shimmer and dark, manly blinds where once hung gauzy curtains. The wall behind the banquette has been painted a chocolatey hue, and Boudreau is planning to decorate it with framed newspaper clippings from the day Prohibition was repealed.

Some things you will see at Canon when it opens: an old-timey cash register where you might except a computer, an alembic still posing like a reclining nude atop a shelf behind the bar, and a gramophone. Also: Book-length cocktail menus stored in menu cozies under the tables, aged cocktails that may come presented in a glass flask or some lovely piece of glassware amassed over Boudreau’s five years of collecting, and lots and lots and lots of bottles of booze. In fact, Boudreau says he wants Canon customers “to feel ensconced in booze.”

Shimmery wallpaper, manly blinds.

Photo: Canon via Facebook

People you will see at Canon: Boudreau, of course. And Nathan Weber—the one-time Tavern Law tender is leaving his post at Mistralkitchen to join Boudreau behind the bar (he’ll still work some shifts at Rob Roy). Boudreau told me last night that Weber was the very first bartender who expressed interest in Canon, back when the bar was still just an idea.

As previously reported, the chef is Melinda Bradley, a NYC transport who has toiled at lofty establishments owned by Marcus Samuelsson and Daniel Boulud. Last night she prepared some steamed buns stuffed with saucy pork belly, but Boudreau cautioned that this dish should not inspire us to make generalizations regarding the fare on hand. The menu will change at his whim. His nobody-puts-baby-in-a-corner philosophy applies to the entire place—Boudreau called Canon “a bar of change,” and said we should expect it to “evolve constantly.”

Coasters for your cocktails.

Photo: Canon via Facebook.

Things you may see at Canon down the road: A Fernet Branca tap (yup), cocktails on tap, and customers who have cartoon bubbles floating over their head to indicate the effects of alcohol consumption. (I should mention, not everyone has the special powers required to see that last thing. Also customers are not things, they are people.)

A date at which you can go check out Canon your own self: I don’t have one. But it will open soon, possibly even this weekend and definitely within the next couple of weeks.

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Tags: Capitol Hill, Jamie Boudreau, Bar Openings

Even More Details on Canon Seattle

Jamie Boudreau describes the food concept at his new bar.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Aug 09, 2011 at 07:57AM 1 Comments

The way in at Canon Seattle.

Photo: Canon via Facebook

But wait, there’s more! I asked Jamie Boudreau for some follow-up details on the food menu at Canon Seattle, his new bar on 12th Avenue East slated to open later this summer.

He said the menu will change at Chef Melinda Bradley’s whim, “weekly, monthly, whatever, not just with the seasons.” It will consist of about 12 dishes (compare that to the cocktail menu, which will requires customers to choose from 100 distinct concoctions).

“Everything is meant to be shared, which means that a) you should be able to do so without picking up a knife and b) items will be portioned in even numbers. Nothing will be too fussy or precious. No style of food is off limits. My direction to her was that when you ate, you had to know that there was something in your mouth (nothing too subtle), when you finished you had to feel it in your belly, and when you shared you had to do so with ease. Everything had to be of good value and the food was allowed to be pretty as long as it wasn’t precious.”

Boudreau says he met Bradley years ago through a friend and that the two reconnected again at another friend’s wedding. “She’s young,” he says, “but has had some great experience at some great NY restaurants.” Those restaurants include, according to Canon press materials, Bar Boulud and Marcus Samuelsson’s Aquavit.

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Tags: Capitol Hill, Jamie Boudreau, Bar Openings, Menu Descriptions, Seattle Chefs, New Cocktail Menus, Canon Seattle

Details on Canon Seattle Emerge

And here they are.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Aug 08, 2011 at 10:08PM 0 Comments

Canon opens later this summer at 928 12th Avenue E.

Photo: Canon Seattle via Facebook

So it was only last week I was pestering Nathan Weber for confirmation on his move to Mistralkitchen. And now it seems the intrepid barman is moving on to Canon, Jamie Boudreau’s new cocktail emporium that’s set to open later this summer in the former Licorous space on 12th Avenue East. No word from Weber yet on whether or not he plans to stay on at Mistral and Rob Roy, though working behind three bars seems like a rather challenging proposition.

Canon broke the news in a press release on Monday night, announcing also that one Melinda Bradley would be the chef at the new cocktail bar. Bradley’s LinkedIn page says she last worked as a cook and baker at Lisa Dupar Catering, and before that was in the employ of Daniel Boulud’s Dinex Group in New York City. According to Canon press materials, she also worked at Marcus Samuelsson’s Aquavit, also in New York. None of this has yet been independently confirmed. (What? Some of us are still a little shell-shocked following the Daniel Jeffers fiasco. Also, update: I received confirmation from Aquavit, she definitely worked there. ) The press release says that the menu will be made up of shareable plates focused on local ingredients. Boudreau envisions guests combining the dishes to create “multi-course meals.”

Other things we’ve learned about Canon: Its “Angostura bitters-stained mahogany and birch bar,” built and designed by Boudreau, will seat 12, with 36 more seats scattered around the space. The drinks menu is huge, boasting “more than 100 cocktails.” Canon will be open every day from 5pm to 2am and will serve food until 1:30am.

I’ve got queries and confirmation requests in. I’ll update as soon as I know more things.

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Tags: Capitol Hill, Seattle Bartenders, Jamie Boudreau, Bar Openings, Seattle Bar News, Canon Seattle

New Bar Alert: The Shop Agora

The gourmet food store is serving up more than just olive oil and hummus to go, and Capitol Hill appears enthusiastic.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Aug 08, 2011 at 09:35AM 2 Comments

The bar at the new Shop Agora on 15th Avenue East.

Photo: Jessica Voelker

After learning from Phinneywood that the Capitol Hill location of The Shop Agora opened late last week on 15th Avenue, I popped in on Saturday to see what was what.

The front of the new shop is divided into two sections. On one side are the gourmet food items, mostly focused on Northern Mediterranean imports: balsamic vinegars of Modena, olive oils, sea salts, dried pasta, truffle honey. There’s also an olive-oil-and-bread-tasting table. On the same side, closer to the back, are a rack of Macrina Bakery offerings, a popcorn machine, and a cooler with to-go items like hummus, olives, and eggplant spreads, plus deli meats and cheeses.

The other side of the shop includes a wine section made up of bottles from Greek, Italy, and Spain.

All this probably sounds familiar to anyone who has visited the original emporium on Phinney Ridge. But what distinguishes the new Shop Agora is what sits behind the wine racks. And that, dear friends, is a bar. This bar is open from 10am to 10pm, (the same hours as the shop), part-owner Nikos Spiliopoulos says it’s designed to “compliment the retail space.” Early in the day, customers can stop by for snacks, sandwiches, and soup; two soups are offered daily, Spiliopoulos was particularly psyched about the decadent-sounding French onion made with duck stock.

Later in the evening, the bar offers up small plates (French cheeses, prosciutto-wrapped figs) to be eaten alongside a glass of wine or beer. The current beverage list includes selections from—this shouldn’t surprise—Greek, Spain, and Italy (with a couple of French beers), but Spiliopoulos hopes to eventually include wines from around the globe. And down the road he plans to use the bar to host tastings with winemakers, wine dinners, and other events.

That road may be a long one, however. Spiliopoulos said the bar was overwhelmed on its first Friday night in business, selling out of some items early in the evening. He appeared enthusiastic on Saturday but also slightly shell-shocked, and told me he plans to expand his menus slowly as he and partner Alexis Saloutos adjust to the demands of the neighborhood. Meantime: French onion soup made with duck stock.

The new Shop Agora is located at 346 15th Avenue E, next to Palermo.

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Tags: Capitol Hill, Wine Bars, Bar Openings, Seattle Specialty Food Shops

A Second Location of the Local Vine Coming to U Village This Fall

Tastings and other events are already being planned for the new wine bar.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Jul 18, 2011 at 02:30PM 0 Comments

The Local Vine’s second location opens this fall.

Photo: gotime.com

“It’s tiny,” says part-owner Sarah Munson, speaking of the second location of the Local Vine, currently under construction at 524 University Terrace.

Munson and her partner Allison Nelson have dispatched local architects Graham Baba to design the wee wine bar. (They did Staple and Fancy and Revel; check out this profile from The Seattle Times’s Nancy Leson to learn more.) Though wine will be the specialty of the house, Local Vine 2 will be open to people of all ages—smart move considering the stroller-happy situation at the upscale outdoor mall.

Guaranteed street traffic was a natural draw, of course, but Munson also noted that there wasn’t currently a spot at U Village where shoppers could pop in for a bottle to go or linger over a glass, and that the new LV would remedy that. She also hopes to host a lot of tastings beginning with some holiday-related happenings this fall. Look for a schedule on the Local Vine website within the next month.

The first Local Vine—a hybrid wine bar and retailer—was in Belltown, but Munson and Nelson were forced to move when their building was condemned. They opened a new location on Capitol Hill last August. That space is currently 21 and over, but Munson says she and Nelson are considering installing a barrier that would allow it to be all ages as well.

The Local Vine’s University Village location should be open my mid-fall.

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Tags: Capitol Hill, Wine Bars, Bar Openings, University Village

New Bar: Phinney Market Pub and Eatery

Opening late this summer, the neighborhood hangout will offer morning-to-night service and a kid corral.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Jul 13, 2011 at 10:39AM 9 Comments

Phinney Market Pub and Eatery will open in August.

Photo: Phinney Market Pub via Facebook

Named for the shuttered market that formerly occupied the same space at 5918 Phinney Ave N, the Phinney Market Pub and Eatery (first mentioned on the Phinneywood blog in March) will open late this summer. It’s the first restaurant project from Phinney residents Caleb and Jaimee Papineau, according to Mercia Sheets, the pub’s chef.

The plan is to create a neighborhood hangout with a play section for the kiddies—young folk being so abundant in Phinney Ridge—but with upscale offerings too: On top of burgers and steaks, the dinner menu includes dishes like pea shoot risotto with chicken, an almond-crusted salmon with honey-lavender beurre blanc, and grilled balsamic tofu with grilled veggies and quinoa. A daily specials board will focus on local ingredients and give Sheets the chance to dabble and experiment.

Sheets moved to Seattle for the gig—she has toiled in a number of Spokane kitchens. Among them: Madeleine’s, Palm Court in the Daveport Hotel, and Luna Restaurant. Sheets says the pub will be open seven days a week, with espresso and pastries in the morning, lunch and dinner services, and a bar menu available from 3 to 5pm and 10 to close daily. When it opens, the Phinney Market Pub will offer beer and wine only: 10 taps and an “extensive” wine lists with Northwest and old world bottles. Down the road, Sheets says, the bar program will include spirits and cocktails as well.

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Tags: Happy Hour, Phinney Ridge, Bar Openings

Daniel Jeffers Promises Abundence and Excellence at Ba Bar

A look inside the cocktail plan at the new noodle bar.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Jul 05, 2011 at 04:12PM 4 Comments

The “temple of alcohol” at Ba Bar during the construction stage.

Photo: Facebook

The bar at Ba Bar, the new noodle joint from Eric Banh (Monsoon, Monsoon East, Baguette Box) will be abundant, to say the least. “We have 175 types of bourbon alone,” said Daniel Jeffers, the guy in charge of cocktails. Early on Jeffers had a notion of keeping things small and simple, but when he walked into the space and eyed the big, beautiful bar—“a temple of alcohol,” as he put it—he knew he’d have to go big or go back to San Francisco.

Jeffers moved to Seattle to work for Banh, before that he was employed in San Francisco. He says rum will be prominent on the 16-drink cocktail menu at Ba Bar, which will include two lists—one of original drinks, another of classic cocktails. But there will also be lots of gin, a carefully picked coterie of vodkas, and, well, a whole hell of a lot of whiskey.

The original drinks will compliment the Vietnamese noodle dishes on offer—not by using Asian ingredients, Jeffers said, but by considering the flavors—savory, brothy, with French influences—and making drinks that compliment those flavors. An example: a cocktail under the working name “Cordial Water” that combines cognac, gin, an extract made with a celery-like seed, fresh lime, and, finally, a gomme Jeffers creates by cooking peach and apricot pits for five days at 250 degrees. The cocktail is “balanced and complex. That’s always the hardest thing to do.” If all this sounds a little intimidating, fear not: Jeffers promised that no drink order will be greeted with an upturned nose. “It’s when people feel comfortable that they are willing to try new things,” he said.

Jeffers characterizes Ba Bar as a “no compromise kind of place,” a fact demonstrated by the food menu. At around $9 an entree, the dishes are considerably cheaper than those at Monsoon and its Bellevue outpost, but Banh is sourcing ingredients just as he does at the pricier restaurants. Food costs will be high. So while the onus is often on the bar to keep a restaurant in the black, that’s especially true in this case.

Two hours before the doors opened on the restaurant’s first friends and family service, the guy behind the bar at Ba Bar seemed up to the task.

Ba Bar starts serving to the public this Thursday, July 7 at 550 12th Avenue. Confidential to Eastsiders: Jeffers has been working with the staff at Monsoon East to update its cocktail menu as well, you might want to check in on that very soon.

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Tags: Bar Openings

Jamie Boudreau Says New Bar, Canon, Should be Open by Late Summer

Here’s what we know about it.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Jun 21, 2011 at 07:46AM 9 Comments

Jamie Boudreau hopes to open Canon by late summer.

Photo Courtesy: canonseattle.wordpress.com

Update 2: Boudreau confirms that Canon will move into the current home of Licorous at 928 12th Avenue.

Update: A liquor license app indicates that Canon is taking over the Licorous space on Capitol Hill. I will now try to confirm.

Bartender Jamie Boudreau’s goal of opening a bar in Seattle, years in the planning, may be reached by late summer. Boudreau first came to Seattle from Vancouver to open Vessel; he left the now-shuttered cocktail lounge and spent time behind the stick at local bars Tini Bigs and the Knee High Stocking Club Co. Currently he bartends at Rob Roy in Belltown and travels as a brand ambassador.

But Boudreau has been working to raise funds for his own place for some time now, and he sent word Monday evening that he is very close to finalizing a lease on a space, though he did not reveal the location.

He confirmed only that the bar would be called Canon, but “whiskey and bitters emporium,” indicates a focus on brown, bitter, and stirred. Clearly, more questions than answers at this point, but you can follow Boudreau’s progress on Twitter and Canon Seattle’s website. And check back here too—I’ll be digging for details, you can believe that.

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Tags: Seattle Bartenders, Jamie Boudreau, Bar Openings, Canon Seattle