Liquor license application filed for The Mighty Oak on Beacon Avenue

Some Beaconians have been morning the loss of The Beacon Pub, the dive bar formerly located at the site of Bar del Corso. Perhaps the new liquor license application we saw today will give you hope.

A “spirits/beer/wine restaurant lounge +” application has been filed by Bar4 LLC (Tim Purtill, Kelly Staton, Lisa Jack, and Mat Brooke) for a business named The Mighty Oak, to be located at 3019 Beacon Ave. S. This is the former location of Sharon’s Lutong Bahay and of Manila Video; the building sold a few weeks ago for $435,000. A liquor license of this type allows an establishment with more than 50% dedicated dining business to sell spirits, beer, and wine by the serving for consumption on the premises; the beverages may be sold on tap or in opened bottles or cans.

Bar4 LLC also own The Redwood, a bar at 514 E. Howell St. on Capitol Hill. Yelp reviews mention peanuts on the floor, hamburgers, cheesy corn nuggets, and sweet potato fries—we don’t know yet what sort of place The Mighty Oak will be, but all of those things are currently lacking on Beacon Hill. (The reviews also mention hipsters. Frequently.)

Some years ago The Redwood was under scrutiny after some of the bar’s neighbors complained about noise. (The Redwood, like The Mighty Oak, is located in a mostly residential area, though one that is considerably denser than North Beacon Hill.) The Department of Planning and Development has since closed the complaint case, and The Redwood continues to operate.

We are attempting to contact the Bar4 LLC folks and will update when we hear more information about The Mighty Oak.

The liquor license application is number 408904. Comments about the application may be e-mailed to the Washington State Liquor Control Board at customerservice@liq.wa.gov.

This is what the Mighty Oak building looked like in 2008, when Google Street View came by and took a photo. It has since been painted green:


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26 thoughts on “Liquor license application filed for The Mighty Oak on Beacon Avenue”

  1. Awesome news – Beacon Hill needs revenue establishments – restaurants, bars etc badly – hope they will be as successful as tenants in old Beacon Pub location!

  2. Awesome. I love The Grand Archives (Mat Brooke) and I love the idea that they may bring the Deep Fried Twinkie to Beacon Hill.

  3. This is exceptionally good news for Beacon Ave S and our neighborhood!

    I had heard a rumor that someone had bought that building and that they were going to put a restaurant/bar in there. Then recently, a friend of mine had a brief conversation with one the workers at the space and the phrase “family friendly” was mentioned.

    So while I’m sure the Mighty Oak will be a “cool” spot. I wouldn’t assume that it will be exactly the same sort of young-leaning hipster bar as the Redwood (not that there’s anything wrong with that sort of bar).

    The positive to me is that the people opening have prior experience running a successful business of this sort.

    When people like this start viewing our neighborhood as a place where it makes sense to open a new business, that’s a good sign about how people are starting to view things up here.

  4. This is so exciting! Last I heard, there was a small (very small) brew pub going in the old ROCKiT space building, but those folks papered up the windows, applied for a liquor license, and I haven’t heard much since.

    I was just lamenting not having a place to gather with friends and neighbors socially in the evening for a drink and a laugh. It’s like the universe heard my pleas! 😉

  5. The alehouse in the old Rockit is still happening. A few delays but construction is underway.

  6. This makes my weekend! Can’t wait for a good burger and pub and good atmosphere. Love the Redwood; will be great to have someplace closer to home.

  7. Oh, and excited to hear that the old Rockit Space alehouse is still happening. Ready for all of it!

  8. Let us not forget that drinking and laughing can already be had at such fine establishments as Baja Bistro, the Station, El Quetzal, Inay’s, and the Valero parking lot.

  9. @Tippe: Yeah!. I saw the lights on in there the other night and hoped that was a sign things had started moving forward again.

  10. @Dylan: With all due respect to the spots you listed above, which are great, I’m pretty sure that only the Baja Bistro and the Valero parking lot currently provide the opportunity for people to drink and laugh after 9pm most nights.

    Ten or eleven people is enough to pretty much pack out the bar at Baja Bistro on any given night. And the Valero parking lot is beer and wine only and kind of chilly on a cold night .

    So I’m looking forward to having a few more options. We may not need 5 bars on Beacon Ave open until 2am every night. But one or two places open until midnight (or at least 11pm), would be a nice change of pace.

  11. With all due respect to those who favor the Valero parking lot, I’m a bit put off by the wide openness of it and the accompanying lack of intimacy. Those in the know who are looking for a cozier atmosphere will all tell you the steps on the north side of the El Centro parking lot are much nicer. The attractive foliage and the more subdued lighting combine to give a feeling of seclusion away from prying eyes that Valero just can’t touch.

  12. I wonder if either The Mighty Oak or what is going into the old ROCKiT Space building will have room for live bands? I’m a little worried about plugging in amplifiers next to gas pumps, so the Valero parking lot isn’t really viable.

  13. The very nice folks at El Quetzal will be opening a new bar in the next week or two. It is located next door in their old location and former art gallery. It looks very nice. I love El Quetzal, they are such great neighbors.

  14. @Nick: I’m looking forward to the El Quetzal bar as well. Here’s hoping it doesn’t close at 8pm m-th, like the restaurant does.

    Here’s hoping they’ll continue to serve some tacos and stuff in the bar after 8pm even if the restaurant side is closed.

    I like that we’re going to have a few different options up here before too longs. The network effects should help everybody.

  15. Has anyone heard any news about Taqueria Frida down the street? The “opening soon” sign has been on the window a long time now.

  16. They were putting up a new sign on the Taqueria space the other day. Perhaps that is a harbinger of things to come.

  17. The Mighty Oak? Hardly
    Why, oh why must we endure an infusion of gortex clad earth muffins and hipster urchins
    on our upwardly aspired centre class ? Wasn’t Georgetown forged out of its ashes for the amusement of the muses of underdeveloped pallets, cuisine-wise, world culture-wise, etc . etc.?
    Madison Park is in descendance. Mighty Oak have you consider the descent into?

  18. Comment #21 reminds us all of how fun it is to write an angry missive, translate it into another language using Google Translate, and then translate it back to English and post it up on the internets.

  19. @rachel and Daniel: I see Rolff’s comment more as the new poetry of the hipster era, when the only muse that matters is the self-consciously cool one standing furthest from the buffet table of convention and style. As such, his post is ironic… which in turn raises fundamental questions of paradox and self-negation, thereby transforming itself into art. Well done, sir!

    Alternately, he spent too much of his evening in the Valero parking lot. 😉

    In all seriousness, I am psyched about these new additions to our dining and entertainment landscape. Hubby and I have lived up here on the hill for close to two decades now, and while we were not-so-secretly happy to see the dive bar close down (haven’t had a single drunk whiz on our phone pole since then, woo!), we’ve also craved a nice, quirky place for beer and nibbles after work. Particularly, as J-Lon suggests, if the El Quetzal bar serves a subset of their regular menu after the main restaurant closes! I love that place like a drug, but the 8pm closing time makes it tough for us to get a mid-week tostada infusion.

    I do love this neighborhood. 🙂

  20. Well, good luck, I am all for new businesses,badly needed on Beacon Hill. The drinking establishments we have are all decent lounges or bars (versus down in the SODO area).
    As I mentioned to someone we also need other substantial types of businesses, lacking on Beacon Hill. Lenny

  21. All the good spirited (pun intended) comments about the Valero parking lot aside, I do have concerns about the addition of another liquor license on that block. I live kitty-corner to the Valero and I can’t help worrying about the negative synergy that might result from the combination of Valero’s reputation and an irresponsibly managed bar across the street from it.

    We have worked so hard over the past 7 years to clean up the Valero corner — planting flowers, block-watching, working with the business to address the problems — it would be crushing to have the progress undone. A recent change in management there has resulted in a remarkable improvement in the energy on the block: the last of the regular drug dealers has moved on; I have not had to call 911 once since September; and I haven’t seen prostitution in years. But the comments above are testament to the reputation of the corner and I worry that the hard-earned improvements could quickly be reversed.

    On the upside: a friendly, well-managed Mighty Oak (ideally family friendly) would contribute to the healthy foot traffic we’ve seen on the block post-light rail and post Quetzal/Corso.

    I wish there were a way to ascertain more about the vision of the BarLLC folks.

    Like most of you, I have been patiently waiting for the revitalization to arrive and am hopeful things are finally coming to life. But I don’t want us to naively assume that adding a liquor-license-holding establishment in that location will equate with a better Beacon.

    Scott

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