If you read Eater or the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, you’ve heard that the location for Smuggler’s Cove has been revealed: It’s the current Jade Bar space on Gough and McAllister streets. Even though he was trying to keep it mum for the purposes of his ongoing puzzle contest, Smuggler’s Cove owner Martin Cate said he wasn’t that surprised the information came out. “I’m not in any position to tell the ABC ‘don’t post it online, I’m in the middle of a puzzle,’” he said on the phone from Houston, where he was en route to visit the Ron Zacapa rum distillery in Guatemala. “I’m a little disappointed but it’s OK. I knew it would happen.”
The location reveal won’t affect the contest, Cate said. People still have to solve the online clues in order to win. He said about 200 people are playing, of whom 100 or so are up to date with the clues. The next one drops tomorrow. In the higher stages of the puzzle, the first 60 people are asked to leave their names. “Typically those first 60 come in before an hour,” Cate said. He wouldn’t give up details about his plans for the new space, but said “you can expect a significant change in appearance. Mostly cosmetic, but it’s going to be dramatically re-themed.”
[Photo: Via Jade Bar]
