Seattle

A new bar is opening up next to the 5th Ave Theatre this month. From the Puget Sound Business Journal:

A trek to about 300 bars coast-to-coast in search of inspiration for a new club
Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle) – September 29, 2006
by Jeanne Lang Jones
Staff Writer

It takes a lot of work to start a business. Still, some might envy the research Clark Niemeyer and Coleman Johnson have literally poured into planning Vessel, their new bar next to the Fifth Avenue Theatre in downtown Seattle.

Niemeyer and Johnson prepped for their business venture with months of coast-to-coast barhopping. They visited about 300 bars across the country, checking out everything from point-of-sale equipment to uniforms to ice cubes.

They admit they raised a few eyebrows when they’d lean over the bar to see how drink equipment was organized, or ask servers whether their shoes were comfortable. But they were men on a mission.

“Coleman and I have been friends for years and we travel a lot,” Niemeyer said. “New York and Los Angeles have these beautiful, grown-up bars. We wanted something like that in Seattle.”

One result of their research: Vessel will chill certain drinks, such as a premium single malt Scotch, with a ball of glaciated ice. The ice, which is frozen and refrozen, melts more slowly than regular ice, so it chills the drink without diluting it.

Niemeyer and Johnson’s prior business experience includes operating retail stores as well as marketing and communications. While Vessel is the first bar Johnson has undertaken, Niemeyer has previously owned and managed both a nightclub and a cafe. Most recently, he owned the design store Mondeo on Western Avenue in Seattle, before closing it in 2004 to pursue Vessel and other ventures.

Besides cocktails, Vessel will offer boxed lunches from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. and small plates of appetizers and entrees from 3 p.m. until closing at 2 a.m. Vessel also has an upstairs room that can be set aside for private functions.

The two men are hoping to attract office workers, theatergoers and the swelling number of downtown residents from nearby condominium projects and the newly renovated Cobb Building apartments.

Besides all that research time, the two also faced a challenge in forging a unified retail space out of the assemblage of long-vacant storefronts they have leased in the historic Skinner Building.

Just refurbishing the 2,400-square-foot interior required hauling away nearly 60 tons of prior renovations, from carpeting to clay tiles. It took almost three weeks to remove 18 coats of paint from the original mahogany window sashes.

I thought with a name like that maybe O’Asian would be an Irish/Japanese fusion place, with things like corned beef gyoza and cabbage-wrapped sushi rolls, but apparently it is “upscale Chinese.” They have dim sum!

I am very sad to announce that the Jade Pagoda is closing its doors on August 31 after 63 years of business on Capitol Hill. My first apartment in Seattle was a block east of the Jade and this dingy, (formerly smoky) dive bar in the back of a Chinese restaurant was my first regular hangout. I marked several birthdays and countless blurry first dates in a corner booth, and I always made sure to have a dollar or two on hand for the excellent jukebox. Just a couple weeks ago at the Jade a handful of friends and I toasted my dearly departed cat who I had to put to sleep after a long illness. Once I even dared to eat some food there—potstickers. Their back patio was once of the Hill’s best-kept-secret outdoor drinking spots, with its cute vinyl-clothed plastic tables and festive tiki torches. However, it felt to me like things were markedly going downhill lately—the patio opened late the last two summers and the torches were not always lit; and the health code violations seemed to be increasing. Someone told me Jimmy Woo’s son had taken over operations but wasn’t that interested in running a restaurant, and things were kind of falling apart. I had a feeling that this establishment with one foot already in the grave was now just marking time. Oh, Jade Pagoda! You will surely be missed.

I heard Barbacoa closed on Friday. I never got to go!

BOKA Kitchen + Bar is a new lounge that opened yesterday in Madison Tower. Madison Tower is a luxury high rise condominium/hotel tower located at First and Madison—the hotel is called Hotel 1000. BOKA stands for “Boldly Original Kitchen Artistry” and claims to serve “urban American food.” The chef worked at Spago’s in LA and Bada Lounge here. It sounds a little dorky but bars are a bit sparse downtown so I’d check it out.

A new Rudy’s Barbershop is going to open up on Ballard Ave and it will be connected via an inside doorway with King’s, a “casual bar/restaurant with an outdoor deck and fireplace.” Jeff Ofelt and Linda Derschang are opening King’s and partnering with the usual suspects for the Rudy’s part.

The building where the two businesses will be located used to house Ballard Hardware and Supply before it moved a few years ago. It is an 1890 two-story brick building that is part of Ballard Ave’s Landmark District. The partners will recycle many of the building’s old fixtures in an effort to both retain the character of the old building and implement green building practices.

Both places are scheduled to be open in August.

Everyone makes fun of me for reading the Daily Journal of Commerce everyday but look at what I get to find out! :)

Rumor has it that Fork on Capitol Hill is closing on Friday! Apparently the owner has some health problems. That’s too bad. I went there for the first time last Friday and it was pretty good. The cheesecake was excellent, and I love the tiny little biscuits they served before the meal. Is this the first departure for our group? Sad. Here’s what the P-I says:

Fork, one of the bright new lights in Seattle’s dining world, will close its doors Friday. Chef/owner Scott Simpson, who opened the Capitol Hill restaurant in January to universally appreciative reviews, is dealing with health problems. He hopes to be back in the future, he said.

Fork, at 806 E. Roy St., offered a humming mix of gourmet creativity and unpretentiousness. A highlight was how Simpson religiously shared credit with his staff, such as chefs Jared Stoneberg and Tyler Moritz.

Moritz will be the new sous chef at Union, where he previously had worked as a line cook. Negotiations are under way for another restaurant to take Fork’s place, so some other staffers may stay on.

After working at Bellevue’s now-defunct 22 Fountains, Simpson and then-partner Susan Jenson made their mark in Seattle in 2001 with the Blue Onion Bistro in the University District. Advertising “affordable addiction,” Blue Onion won fans for dressed-up comfort food and irreverent attitude. Simpson sold the Blue Onion in 2004.

With Fork, he was aiming for “a cool gourmet place for everyone” with no-rules cooking. Behind the scenes, he experimented with cutting-edge techniques and toys, such as cooking fish and meats “sous vide,” that is, vacuum packing and simmering at low heat.

Simpson said his health has to be a priority, but he hopes to return to the restaurant trade.

“I’ve always wanted to do a Philly cheese steak place,” he said Monday. “I’m a blue-collar kind of guy.”

Havana is a soon-to-be opened bar that I’m excited to check out. It’s on Pike between 10th and 11th and is scheduled to open in mid-June.