Sauced

Bar Openings

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

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.

If construction moves along on schedule, the Phinney Market Pub will have a soft opening the first week in August, with the grand event planned for the following week.

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Tags: Happy Hour, Phinney Ridge, Bar Openings

Seattle Beer Week

Seattle Beer Week Essentials: Cider on Cap Hill, $3 Pints, Brouwer’s Taps Evil Twin

Rare deals and rarer taps on day five of SBW.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on May 21, 2011 at 10:21AM 0 Comments

And so we’ve come to the middle.

It’s day five of Seattle Beer Week, and the events continue to flow forward like a frothy, turbulent river current. Break out your metaphorical canoes and ride that rapid, people. Beer week comes but once a year.

Here’s what looks good for Monday, May 23.

CAPITOL HILL
Cider fans: Tonight Quinn’s is hosting an event in your honor. Pay $25 at the door to receive six different cider samplings paired with cheeses. This goes from 6 to 9pm—I suggest you call to see if there is still space. I’d do it for you right now but Quinn’s isn’t open yet.

FREMONT
Brouwer’s Cafe in Fremont has been touting the fact that tonight it will tap rare kegs from Evil Twin Brewing in Denmark.

WEST SEATTLE
If Beer Week, for you, is about sampling as many state-made brews as possible, head to Beveridge Place Pub in West Seattle. It has 24 Washington beers on tap, and is charging just $3 a pint.

Also, Tomme Arthur from Southern California’s Port Brewing Company will be at Super Deli Mart at 1pm. (At 7pm he heads to Hopvine on Capitol Hill. Don’t let any Cascadia brewers catch you chilling with one of the San Diego dudes.)

A trio of side notes:
1. Don’t forget we’ve got a guide to SBW beer week dinners over on Nosh.

2. All week The Dray on Phinney Ridge is dusting off bottles stored in its cellar and serving them up to you, fair customer. This is to honor its third birthday.

3. For a full list of events, turn to the SBW website.

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Tags: Capitol Hill, Fremont, West Seattle, Phinney Ridge, Seattle Beer Week,

Oeno Files

Wine Tasting Picks for Tonight: Thursday, February 25

Free Indian syrah at Vino Verite, Airfield Estates at Picnic, and five Australians plus snacks at Grand Cru.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Feb 25, 2010 at 01:44PM 0 Comments

So you’ve probably spent the afternoon thinking about how you haven’t ever tried a smoky syrah from India, right? Well tonight you can. Portland-based distributor Rupert Kanuri of Premium Vintage will be at Vino Verite on Capitol Hill pouring the Indian wine, plus an aged pinot noir from Oregon and a couple of other bottles (thanks for tip CHS). The tasting runs from 6 to 8pm and is free.

Picnic in Phinney Ridge is pouring wines from Airfield Estates—you are going to love the unoaked chardonnay. The tasting runs from 5:30 to 7:30pm, includes six wines plus snacks, and costs $8.

And in Bellevue, Grand Cru has a $15 tasting at the bar: try five Australians while you snack on truffled popcorn, cheese, bread, nuts, and olives.

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Tags: Bellevue, Capitol Hill, Phinney Ridge, Wine Tastings

Openings

In the Red Wine Bar Set to Open on Phinney Avenue

Welcome to the new generation of wine bar, where the food is cheap, the plates mismatched, and the owner knows your name.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Feb 03, 2010 at 12:00AM 0 Comments

Five dollar small plates, $5 wines by the glass, generous promotions, and plenty of vegan options: this is how Brian Folino and Chad Campbell will lure customers to In the Red, the cafe and wine bar that they plan to open in early March. Folino says the prices (and the name) are a response to the languid economy. With so many restaurants and bars offering happy hours to stay in business, he figured, why not offer happy hour prices all the time?

Folino has toiled at a long list of local restaurants (Volterra and The Brooklyn among them) but says he was most inspired by the new crop of small winebar/coffeeshop hybrids like Fonte downtown and Citizen on Queen Anne. But the business plan also calls to mind the approach of Greenwood’s Gainsbourg and Vermillion on Capitol Hill: tiny neighborhood places that break down the notion that a wine bar should feel slick and upwardly mobile. If Purple Cafe and Wine Bar is a metaphor for our city in its early-aught boom days, these are the wine bars of recession-era Seattle.

Folino envisions a mom-and-pop feel—the 50-seat space at 6510 Phinney Avenue North will be populated with eclectic furniture and mismatched dishes. The wine list will include 18 to 25 wines, most from Washington. On the small plate menu will be lentil salads, antipasti, bruschetta, and grilled vegetables, there will be shared platters for $8 and mac and cheese for the kids.

The owners are currently in negotiation with Fonte Roasters and Cafe Vita. Whichever coffee company ends up with the account, Folino (who got his barista training at Vivace), says espresso drinks will be priced at about a dollar below average and he’ll give out generous coffee-punch cards: buy five drinks and the sixth is free.

“‘One hundred percent more free coffee’ is one of our mottoes,” he says.

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Tags: Seattle Restaurant Openings, Wine, Phinney Ridge