Booze You Can Use

Plum Bar to Open November 11 [Updated]

A sneak peek of one of the many walls of poetry in Plum Bar.
A sneak peek of one of the many walls of poetry in Plum Bar.

We’ve been hearing about it and waiting for it most of this year, and now the long-awaited next-door Plum Bar at Oakland’s Plum is set to open on November 11.* The bar will be tended by bar star Scott Beattie (Cyrus, Spoonbar) and cocktail aficionado Michael Lazar (Left Coast Libations), and the drinks will feature a lot of Beattie’s signatures — unique herb and fruit combinations, hyper-fresh ingredients, and intricate garnishes. The walls of the place, meanwhile, have been hand-papered with about 10,000 pages of American poetry by the likes of William Carlos Williams, T.S. Eliot, and Frank O’Hara — owner Daniel Patterson did a fair bit of this painstaking work himself.

A sneak peek of one of the many walls of poetry in Plum Bar.

Much like Patterson is concerned with creating an American cuisine, unique in its indigenous ingredients, this bar will clearly have similar ambitions — alluding to the distinctly American poetic voice pasted up everywhere you look. The design for the space, which also includes a handsome reclaimed-wood bar and a huge, illuminated glass terrarium for fresh herbs and flowers, was done by Patterson fave Scott Kester. Below, another sneak peek.

Note that the bar will also serve a small food menu, similar to Plum’s late-night menu.

A press preview is happening in the middle of next week, with an official public opening to follow either next weekend, or early the following week. Stay tuned for an exact time and day. Following shortly thereafter, in December (if all goes well), will be the debut of Haven, up the road at Jack London Square.

Update:
The Scoop brings word that Daniel Patterson is taking inspiration from a project he’s working on with Plum Bar designer Scott Kester in New York (Elevens, which we talked about earlier) in which they’re offering an investment opportunity for regular customers who want to become “seatholders.” $500 gets you 20% off your drinks for life, as well as priority reservations at Plum and table reservations at Plum Bar. Could come in handy if and when this place becomes super popular! Especially on concert nights at the nearby Fox.

Plum Bar - 2214 Broadway, Oakland - Opening on November 11.

*This post has been updated to show that the opening date has been announced as November 11.

Plum Bar to Open November 11 [Updated]