Ballard Scandinavian Aquavit Café

Help to Make the Old Ballard Scandinavian Aquavit Café a Reality!

Café  Rendering

If you've ever visited the Old Ballard Liquor Company, you know that we produce a wide variety of Scandinavian Aquavit in the heart of the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle. 

Aquavit is a versatile, interesting spirit that is often paired with food in Nordic countries, and we'd like to bring that experience to Seattle by opening up a contemporary Nordic café right inside of our working distillery.  The café is a smaller, more casual version of our popular Tumble Swede restaurant that pops up every six months or so.

The menu will focus on lesser-known traditional Scandinavian meals alongside contemporary Nordic dishes (meaning no meatballs or lefse), both with a focus on Aquavit pairings and quality, fresh, local produce.  A balanced variety of Swedish, Danish and Norwegian inspired plates will be available, and we're even building our own curing cabinets for house made charcuterie and smoking.

This isn't the final menu, but it gives an idea of  the concept.

Even though it's called a café , it's technically still a tasting room... just with the addition of food.  The idea is to give people a chance to try aquavit in its native environment: paired with delicious, fresh, inventive Nordic plates.

We're also adding a small grocery component where we will be bottling and selling Ättika, a high-acidity Swedish vinegar that is integral to Scandinavian cooking but is not available in the United States.  We will have locally smoked herring and a few other items available for take out as well.

We've acquired most of the commercial kitchen equipment already, like refrigerators, sinks, major appliances and storage, and have been doing the build out ourselves to save money - about 80% of the work is finished, but we need help to fund the final licensed plumbing and permitting so that we can open in time for the 17th of May holiday (celebrating Norwegian Independence Day).

Cost Breakdown - in order of priority
$2,000 - Licensed Plumber & Plumbing
$500 - Permits and Inspections
$800 - Kitchen Permit
--------------------  Minimum Amount Needed to Open
$3,300  - GOAL MET!

$900 - Furniture (Tables, chairs, stools, bar)
$900 - Serviceware (Plates, Glasses, Silverware)
$900 - Special Meat Curing Permit
-------------------- Non mandatory items
$2,700  - GOAL MET!

$1,000 - Additional Plumbing and Sinks - Funded!
$500 - Dishwasher - Funded! (But contingent on electrician)
$100 - Icemaker - Funded!
$1,500 - Electrician (Lighting, Outlets, Permits)
$500 - Service Refrigerators
$300 - Safety / Crowd Control
$200 - Cashbox and Register
$500 - Grocery Scale
$250 - Grocery Label Printer
$1000 - Grocery Label Designs*
$800 - Meat Slicer
$1000 - Food Processor
$800 - Shop Heater (for Winter)
-------------------- Wishlist Items
$8,450

If we don't make our entire goal, we'll get as many items taken care of as we can, starting at the top of the list and working our way down.  We already found our minimum of $3,300 in order to meet the most basic requirements to open the doors.  We were worried that we wouldn't make it and would have to start with paper plates and plastic cups!

This funding campaign will run for two weeks, to close on May 10th.  At this point, we're on to the wishlist items; the must-haves have been funded and the doors will open - avoiding any unforseen difficulties of course.  Donors will get preferred seating at the café for their first visit ( we expect it to be busy).

Thanks for considering us and be sure to check out the reward levels for donors.  

Skål!

- Lexi and the team at Old Ballard Liquor Co.

Älskar Aquavit mignionette with pacific oysters