This weekend marked the opening of two new places for promising drinks and bar food. Hooray.

The first is Grim’s, a lounge on Capitol Hill whose build-out benefited from the considerable expertise of architect Chris Pardo (PB Elemental).

He and Grim’s owner Laura Olson (Po Dog, Autobattery) created the space using lots of repurposed wood to beautiful effect. The lounge had its official opening Sunday (with a well-attended preview on Saturday), and is hosting a grand opening celebration this Thursday, December 9 with food and drink specials. Grim’s took over the 11th Avenue space formerly inhabited by Gray Gallery.

The Barge Bar is part of Madison Park Conservatory, a new restaurant from Cormac Mahoney and Bryan Jarr—the guys who owned Tako Truk—in the erstwhile Sostanza space along Madison Park’s restaurant row (Zoi Antonitsas is chef de cuisine). A separate bar menu will include deviled eggs, pate, and a nut mix featuring sultanas (good raisins) and fried garbanzos. I have full faith that Barge will put out smart, fairly priced cocktails as well.

Welcome both.