I wanted to share some exciting news, both for Bremertonians and beer lovers. According to the Bremelog, a new blog about Bremerton, the owner of the former Heads Up Brewing in Silverdale is mulling the possibility of opening a “Heads Up Bier Bistro” near Evergreen Rotary Park. The place would offer high-end pub food and feature a massive beer selection. (You can read more about it and other recent Bremerton beer news here)
The spot was home once to Cafe Destino’s, then Augustino’s, (which later closed, but Chef Chris Bortisser later opened August Wynn in Manette, which, by the way, has a two-for one dinner special from now through Friday) and briefly was opened as the Second Park Lounge.
The building is set in a gorgeous area, though it has little nearby foot or car traffic, which may be what doomed some of the previous ventures there. I lived in the apartments next door to the building for about a year and watched with glee as the Kruvers transform the old boat repair shop into this chic little hangout. But when I moved away, I nearly forgot it was there.
Upstairs tables have a view of the park and the water. The only thing really missing is a water-side deck or patio. (This is hoping the Heads Up folks read this and get sold on the idea).
It would be a complimentary addition to the West side’s only other place with decent beer: Fritz European Fry House.
I’ll have a hand on a pint glass ready and waiting to cheer on more good brew news Bremerton.
When Heads Up was still in business, most of the tap beers sold at Fritz were from there.
The Super Bowl event drew a large and loyal Heads Up crowd, and this could be the one chance for the old Cafe Destino spot to really thrive. Residents can walk to the nearby bistro and grab outstanding beer and eats, boaters at the launch would have a place to quench their thirst, park goers can play with the kids and wrap up with a casual meal, and the possibilities are endless once the boardwalk is complete. The outdoor space would be the perfect beer garden or spot for the regular entertainment Heads Up was known for providing. Kyle and Cynthia Kruver were on to a good thing when the wall was painted to facilitate the showing of movies.
One thing Heads Up Bier & Café – or whatever Ted and Rod decide to call it – will not want for is customers. If all parties can come to an agreement this could be quite the win-win.
Bremerton really needs a ‘massive beer selection’ pub, especially next to Evergreen Park where the kids play. Gosh, can’t wait!
Sharon O’Hara
Every beer drinker is not a drunk or criminal waiting to happen.
Of course not.
But why place a bar next to a children’s playground? You might as well place it next to a school… why not? What are you people thinking!
OR…place this bar where Bremerton has already broken their own rule of no alcoholic beverages in their parks… out on the Bremerton park where the soccer players can’t play without beer and wine and the public won’t watch soccer games without the beer and wine sold there.
Is Bremerton the only town in Kitsap with a propensity to place inappropriate businesses next to or in their parks where children play?
Sharon O’Hara
“If all parties can come to an agreement this could be quite the win-win.”
Except for the children, but they don’t seem to count.
Sharon O’Hara
Evergreen Park is not simply a children’s playground. It is a public park for all who choose to patronise it. Your claim that it is synonymous with placing it near a school is both alarmist and specious.
I can’t speak for other people, but I’ll tell you what I’m thinking.
I’m thinking people have the right to be who they truly are versus some lazily applied broad stroke based upon fear. I’m thinking society is best served when it provides education towards critical thinking and discernment regarding matters such as smoking, drinking, drugs, contraception, and more – versus a reactionary police state induced by citizens who would instead mandate, isolate, and provide misinformation towards a fear-based agenda. What would have happened to you during your 40 years of smoking had others pushed for this nasty habit perpetrated around children?
CJ’s General Store is nearby and probably sells or serves beer and wine. Does that mean the neighbourhood has gone to hell in a hand basket and children are in imminent danger? Were they endangered by Cafe Destino, Augustino’s and the business which currently resides there now — all of whom served alcoholic beverages with food? Do you know anything about Heads Up, Ted Farmer, or the loyal group which congregated there and considered one another family…protecting one another’s children and socialising outside of that venue?
Don’t ask me or anyone else to speak to your narrow views of Bremerton. And don’t presume to tell me how I view children given valid and informed commentary regarding a win-win. If you have concerns and wish to have an intelligent dialogue about ‘vices’ and the statistical relationship to crime I am all for it, but it is absurd to ignore the flip side of the same coin and malign a tastefully planned bier cafe as inappropriate when there are restaurants serving food and alcohol in the county, state, nation and world without a causal link to harming or endangering children.
It sounds great. Let up know when it opens to the public. I can’t wait to check it out.
I do have a ‘narrow view’ of placing a bar next to or on a place most children play.
I equate public parks to schools because children are even more susceptible in parks than they are in most schools with ‘closed campus’.
If there is good reason not to allow bars next to schools, there should be equal reason to keep them away from public parks filled with children.
Of course, other people use the parks. Other people work in the schools too, yet bars aren’t allowed next to a school.
Schools have administration, teachers, librarians, staff … not a much different ratio than children to adults in parks it seems to me.
Why not place this bar downtown next to the other bars or any number of other places in Bremerton?
If the beer and food is really as good as you say, people will support it… just not next to the parks. Please.
In my opinion,
Sharon O’Hara
I don’t think I have a problem with this. There is a bit of a difference, from what I understand, between this and your regular bar like the ones downtown. The selection is larger and is a bit more high-brow so it caters to connoisseurs and not roudy drunks. From the description, it’s not a place to go and get completely sloshed. So it’s not as likely to have a negative impact on the quality of life in the surrounding area. Fritz Fry House near the waterfront park seems to be an apt comparison.
Also, it should be noted that Red Robin in Silverdale, a family restaurant with kids IN IT, serves alcohol. Not children near it, children in it. No outrage whatsoever.
I guess what I’m getting at is the nature of the establishment should be taken into account before writing it off as “just another sleazy bar.” (If it does become/turn-out-to-be a sleazy bar, and I doubt this outcome, it will likely get forced out because of the location.) Innocent until proven guilty.
Sharon:
False
Evidence
Appearing
Real
Neither the proposed business owners nor anyone else should conform to this.
Children IN a restaurant serving alcohol are usually there for a short time for a family meal and supervised by adults.
Again, it is my opinion that parks should offer the same protection for the children as that provided to the children in school.
If bars are not allowed within a certain distance from schools, they should not be allowed next to public parks. The children’s parents should have a reasonable expectation of safety for their children while they play in a tax supported public park.
How many bar owners can guarantee none of their patrons will drink enough to lose good judgment and use behavior that might place children playing in the park at risk?
“One 12-ounce beer has about the same amount of alcohol as one 5-ounce glass of wine, or 1.5-ounce shot of liquor. It is the amount of ethanol consumed that affects a person most, not the type of alcoholic drink.”
and
“According to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans,1 drinking in moderation is defined as having no more than 1 drink per day for women and no more than 2 drinks per day for men. This definition is referring to the amount consumed on any single day”
http://www.cdc.gov/alcohol/faqs.htm
In my opinion, high scale, low scale and no scale bars should not be placed next to public parks where children play.
Sharon O’Hara
You may repeat your opinion as often as you like. Until it is better informed, however, it has no bearing – nor should it or will it – on the reality of the venture under discussion.
Better informed?
Do you have a financial interest?
Better informed about the nature of the business and persons involved, the distinction between a raucous bar and a tasteful cafe with high end Belgian bier, the difference between connoisseurs and drunks, and the relationship between consumption and becoming a threat to children in a park.
Rather than trying to defame this business or its owners without even knowing them (or my comments by presuming there must be financial interest because I’m not concurring with your knee jerk reactions), dispense with blanket unfounded assumptions and make the effort towards a better understanding of the realities involved.
There is opinion, and informed opinion. I am referring to the latter.
If your OPINION was informed, you would make sense. Check your FACTS.
As it is, you seem to have no concern beyond this business going in…and now claiming the only folks to visit this bar are ‘connoisseurs’ – none, apparently, drink too much.
I have not and will not make comments about this business in particular … all my comments relate to not wanting a bar next to a public park. In this case, Evergreen Park.
If the law does not allow a bar close to a school… that same law should apply to the public parks where children play.
If you are so certain a bar next to a public park where children play is not a safety issue to the children, you can offer total responsibility for the safety of the children from any patron of the bar.
Put your money where your mouth is.
Sharon O’Hara
It is you who should check your facts.
This location has housed Cafe Destino, Augustino’s, and now Second Park Lounge. Each business has been a dining establishment which also offered beer, wine, and other alcoholic beverages. The subject business of this blog will be no different. The only exception is the Belgian bier collection, which you’ve decided converts this establishment into a bar. None of these are bars, and neither is the one planned. And yes, I do speak of the patrons because unlike you, I know them and have been there on many occasions. For many years, children were allowed and on the premises.
But just for the sake of argument, since you claim to have facts on your side, there an Old Town Wine Bar and Bistro in Silverdale near the waterfront park as well as Old Town Pub & Eatery. There was once a tavern on Silverdale Way (now a dance school) not far from Central Kitsap schools and near Martha and Mary preschool. Breezy Hill Bistro on Bucklin Hill is across the street from the schools. There are a series of restaurants which serve alcohol near Liberty Bay in Poulsbo, and restaurants along Winslow Way near the waterfront park and near Madrona School on Bainbridge. Kingston has restaurants and pubs serving alcohol near its waterfront park area.
If there is anyone with a lack of concern here, it is you. For the facts. You have a cause against “bars” and are willing to distort real issues and promote Gestapo tactics to achieve your goals. Your broad brushing will simply not apply here. What’s next…..will you outlaw hotels, residential homes, grocery stores?
I won’t bother asking you to supply facts relating to ‘drunks’ from prior Evergreen Park restaurants in that space where ‘they’ve patronised them, then created a safety issue to children playing nearby. You’re blowing it out of your ear and need to refamiliarise yourself with Title 66.
You’re the one making the accusations, so the burden of proof resides with you. How much money are you willing to put up to pay for that mouth?
Are you saying a bar is already there next to the park? That another bar would simply move into the same space?
If that is the case, why hasn’t someone mentioned it long before now?
How many bars adjoin public parks in Bremerton? As a patron, you should know.
Sharon O’Hara
“cause against “bars” and are willing to distort real issues and promote Gestapo tactics to achieve your goals. Your broad brushing will simply not apply here. What’s next…..will you outlaw hotels, residential homes, grocery stores?””
Talk about ‘Gestapo’ …
What is unreasonable about opposing putting a bar in next to a public park where children play?
You seem to have a strong tendency to smoke and mirrors and distortion.
Sharon O’Hara
…and, Sharon…”You seem to have a strong tendency to” hearing yourself talk redundantly. Got time? Volunteer at a school or children’s event.
I appreciate a lively conversation on this blog, but I think enough has been said on the subject, especially as it seems to have devolved into personal remarks on other commenters. That is not appropriate here, and I’m asking you to please stop.
If you have any news about this spot, feel free to add it, but otherwise, I declare this comment thread dead.
– Angela
Hi Angela-
Kyle here, from the original Cafe D. I was doing a little online research on Heads Up (who I had heard lots of good things about) and fell upon this blog. Quite an exchange going….whew!
For what it’s worth, we operated Destino (from 2003-5) with zero incidents…and we were pretty darn busy there. It’s up to the staff to monitor alcohol consumption, and unless you want to lose your license (and job), servers are generally pretty attuned to that issue. I don’t know of any incidents while Augustino’s was operating either. At any rate, WSLCB is an outfit you don’t want to cross 😉
We miss the neighborhood, and our old customers. It was a good “third-place” to find some positive amidst the chaos that makes up daily life. Whomever ends up running the next incarnation there, I hope it’s a happy match between community and proprietor…
Best wishes,
K