Coffee, corrected (Image: Corretto)

It’s a theme so perfectly Capitol Hill you will be ashamed you never thought of it. Opening next spring at the base of the Hill in the brand spanking new Pine + Minor building, Corretto is planned as an homage to the classic Italian pairing of a shot of espresso and a shot of liquor.

Word of the new bar began trickling out this week as food and drink entrepreneur Travis Rosenthal sealed the lease on the corner retail slot on the ground floor of the big red apartment building that has risen below Melrose Market above and the Pillars Dog Park. He’ll have some lucky neighbors living upstairs.

Rosenthal, who has told CHS in the past he falls into the “work your way up” camp of food and drink financing, is the owner of longtime tapas favorite Tango and its nearby sibling rum bar Rumba which he opened in fall 2012. The investment just up Minor from his other holdings gives Rosenthal a trio of properties in the maturing Melrose entertainment economy.

The Pine + Minor building. It’s red. (Image: CHS)

With a planned opening slated for next spring, Corretto will bring Italian craft cocktails and pizzas, antipasti, sliced meats and cheeses to the space at night. By day, Corretto will be an espresso bar with house-made pastries. The buildout will fill an impressive space: 25-foot ceilings, 20-foot tall windows, a 35-seat mezzanine and — why not? — “a hidden back bar with moving pieces.” Corretto will also boast large sliding glass doors and a canine-friendly 50-seat patio with a view of the dog park below. Bau-bau.

The combination of coffee and booze, of course, isn’t brand new on the Hill. Liberty on 15th Ave E probably is the most dedicated to the cause but the intertwining of the craft coffee and cocktail cultures has resulted in many successful pairings. Rosenthal is looking for people who cross into both these worlds saying Corretto needs “a great coffee manager during the day and also a bar manager at night that is not afraid of an espresso machine.”

Meanwhile, word of the new venture is another reminder of new waves of retail/food and drink space coming to the Hill with the completion of construction projects around the neighborhood. You’ll see one of these ripples beginning in December and January as a new Linda Derschang restaurant, a cookie bakery/Molly Moon’s and Capitol Hill-styled general store open on 19th Ave E.

For now, you can watch for updates on the Corretto Facebook page.