Linda Falkenstein
The future home of the Baldwin Street Grille.
The bar at the corner of Baldwin Street and East Washington Avenue (formerly J.T.'s Friendly Tavern and Pug Mahone's) is almost ready to reopen with a new identity as the Baldwin Street Grille.
"We pretty much renovated it top-to-bottom. Floors, ceilings, bathrooms," says owner Scott Ehrlinger. "We'll have a full kitchen. We're just waiting on the wood-fired pizza oven." The oven, custom-made in L.A., is due to be shipped this week; Ehrlinger would still like to shoot for a January opening.
The Grille will feature pizzas, sandwiches and burgers, adopt local sourcing when possible, and also make its own cheese in-house. Ehrlinger, who has studied cheesemaking at the UW, says they'll start with "mozz and farmer's cheese."
Umami Dumpling and Ramen Bar, the noodle shop going in at 923 Williamson St., is now shooting for a March opening. Last September, co-owner Randy Ng had hoped to be open before Christmas. But in an email, Ng reports that they've been taking down walls, installing a kitchen, making ramen bowls, planning the menu and "designing a Nakashima-style bar," the latter inspired by 20th century woodworker George Nakashima.
Underground Kitchen will be open Mondays starting Feb. 1, and will be holding a special seven-course family-style, fowl-centric dinner (ducks, geese, squab, chicken, turkey and pheasant) on Feb. 13 for $50. For more info, call 608-514-1516.
Fiesta 38, the casual South American street-food restaurant on South Park Street, has closed.