Bar Gobo Softly Opens Tonight

It looks like Bar Gobo is a ‘go’ to softly open tonight (Wednesday, August 19th) in the old Tuck Shoppe address at 237 Union Street.

When I poked my head inside the space yesterday afternoon I found co-owner Kevin Bismanis and frontman/sommelier Peter Van de Reep putting the finishing touches on the sparsely appointed and woody little 25 seater. I can’t wait to see how it looks and feels when the wine is flowing and the room is at (allowable) capacity. Here’s a little backstory from my previous post on the project…

If that name sounds familiar it’s because it was a regular wine and food pop-up event at Burdock & Co. (“gobo” is the Japanese word for burdock), one that paired interesting wines and simple cocktails with bar snacks, good music and a Happy Hour vibe. It’s a smart concept for the current times, a stable board to ride the waves of unpredictability that lurk around the autumn corner. It’s also a good fit for the Strathcona/Chinatown location and the 500 sqft space itself, which has been a casual, woody, long bar/banquette situation since its 2012 inception as The Parker.

Bar Gobo will be open Wednesday through Saturday. I’m told they will run soft services for the first two nights (Wed/Thu) from 6pm until 9pm, and then expand to 4pm to 10pm by this weekend. Chef/co-owner Andrea Carlson sent me the opening menu this morning, which I’ve included below over a gallery of the cell phone snaps I hurriedly took yesterday…