What’s new around town.
Finca is moving to 327 W. 200 S. in November (date?). Early November – 3rd to the 15th is expected.
Our lease was almost up and we were looking for a building to purchase. We were able to purchase the main floor and basement of the Warehouse Condo building – 327 w. 200s. The space was in pretty bad shape but had previously been a restaurant, so most of our changes are cosmetic. It has been a pretty major overall to the look though. All new floors, all new lighting, custom furniture, we added a bar, added a coffee shop ect. However the structure was beautiful and we are trying to match the building’s natural charm and character of the 100 year old building. We hired City Home Collective to help bring out the natural beauty of the building and we are very happy with the results.
The main floor of the building is about 5500 square feet, which is about double the current space. We are leasing about 550 to Charming Beard coffee for their first retail coffee shop, “La Barba by Charming Beard”.
When I develop a restaurant I come about it a couple of ways. Sometimes, I look at the neighborhood and imagine what is missing and develop a restaurant concept around that. Other times, I have a concept first and seek a home for that concept. Finca was developed first (I love Spain and believe it not represented well in the US and of course Utah) and a developer contacted me about our current space and I decided to open at our current location 11th E. 13th S. Although I love the neighborhood, I had always thought Finca was always a better fit downtown. It is an urban concept with a big focus on craft cocktails and obviously tapas, which in my opinion is a great fit for downtown. In other markets the late night scene at Tapas restaurants is thriving, I think being downtown will allow us to offer that.
Also we fell in love with numerous features of our new space. First, we have put a lot of love into our bar program and the current space does not allow us to provide the type of cocktail experience that we would like offer. I was told the Zion curtain would be coming down months after I opened so I designed the current bar with that change in mind. 3 years later and our bartenders are still behind a wall and cannot interact with our guests. Although the law is still in effect, I am designing the new bar to allow our bartenders to directly communicate with guests and have a normal “bar” experience. Also we have a generous lounge area with casual seating for about 30 people.
In addition, we currently host a large amount of private dinning and catering events at Finca. Our current space has a private room for 20 people and our new space has 2 private dining rooms with capacity for 24 in one and 32 in the other.
There is also a large basement with a full bakery/catering kitchen that will allow us to produce dessert, house made sausages and bread for all of our restaurants.
We have already increased our staff.
Opening menu will be the same + an increase if Pintxo offerings. Also we will have a bigger focus on lunch with a traditional pintxo bar lunch experience as well as a full menu. We plan to extend our offerings after settle into the new space a bit. We will be open 11am to Midnight 7 days a week in our downtown location.
There are several pay parking lots surrounding Finca DT, about 50 public pay spots on 200 S. between 300 w and 400 w. Free parking is available on 300 w. and 400 w. as well. We are also considering offering valet on weekends.
= A few months after that, the 11th E. 13th So. location will reopen as Hub and Spoke; tell us about this.
This kind of goes back to how I develop restaurants. I considered some of the limitations of the current space (primarily parking) and also the folks in the neighborhood. There are a lot of families and strollers walking up and down the streets daily. I had hoped we would get a larger percentage of folks walking to the restaurant and bringing there kids to lunch, brunch and dinner. Yet most of our guests drive making it hard to park there, especially in the evenings. As a result, I looked around the neighborhood and although there are some good breakfast spots not too far away, my vision was to offer breakfast, lunch and dinner from 7am-9pm daily and offer our take on that meal period. There are some great BLD (Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner) places around the country and I feel like there is room and need for a different version of an all day restaurant than what currently exists in Utah and Salt Lake. Consistent with our other restaurants, we will focus on local products, house made items – including fresh sausages, house cured bacon, fresh baked pastries and also gluten free options as well. The menu will offer classics, new discoveries and some lighter fare in addition to heartier dishes. We will also offer a kids menu all day. I won’t go into to many more details – but the original concept was an homage to my father. He grew up working in his fathers Diner, The HUB, in Minneapolis, MN. He was a big part in my appreciation for great food and this is a nod to him in both name and concept.
We are also rapidly approaching our opening date for the tavern – East Liberty Tap House, on the corner of Windsor and 9th South. This is another vision I have had for the neighborhood. 9th & 9th has needed a neighborhood watering hole for ages and I can’t wait to share ELTH with them. Smart selection of local and bottled beers. Small menu of updated tavern fare. Great bar snacks and an great patio. We will open a couple weeks after the Finca DT opening, looks like mid to late November. This was a major challenge in regards to licensing and zoning. ELTH will be the first neighborhood bar since the City Council amended zoning regulations for this neighborhood. Good news is we finally jumped through all the hurdles. However, there is currently a 2 year wait list for a Club License (what most people know as a bar), so we draft beer only are for about 15 people where you are not required to purchase food. The remaining 40 seats have a restaurant license, where you can order any type of beverage, yet you must purchase food as well.