Early shop design concepts (Images: The Growl Store)

Early shop design concepts (Images: The Growl Store)

When aspiring entrepreneurs say they want to become the Starbucks of their industry, what they usually mean is they want to bring a relatively niche product to the masses through a chain of branded stores.

Loren Klabunde is hoping to do just that with growlers of local craft beer, starting with his first store on Capitol Hill.

Klabunde told CHS he’s still ironing out the details of his lease at 13th and E Madison, but hopes to open The Growl Store fill station and tasting room by this fall. The news comes after Klabunde launched a crowd funding campaign earlier this year for his growler shop, initially called Growl64, that aims to source all of its draught beer within 100 miles radius of Seattle.

You won’t be able to order pints of beer at the Growl Store, though Klabunde is planning to offer five-beer tasting flights. The focus will be keeping dozens of local-ish beers on tap for customers to take home in 64-ounce glass jugs.

“I’m not trying to compete with bars,” Klabunde said “There’s a lot of beer that’s not in a can or bottle.”

Going in across from Pony next to the Banner Bank on E Madison, The Growl Store will put to use an empty commercial space inside the Citizen Apartments building, which opened in 2012.

The Growl Store will be Klabunde’s first foray into the food and drink industry after starting two tech companies and most recently working as a consultant for Group Health. If the concept takes off like he thinks it will, Klabunde said he wants to expand the shop into other regions while keeping the beer selection local.

conceptual design by the amazing @hollisrendleman pic.twitter.com/L2C7JxpHnt

— the growlist (@the_growlist) March 3, 2015

Craft beer’s growing popularity made it an obvious product choice for a new business venture, but Klabunde said it was a Christmas gift he received in 2013 that inspired the Growl Store concept. The gift was a CO2-powered tap for growlers, called the GrowlTap, which keeps growler beer fresh and carbonated while it sits in your fridge. “It hit me that the growler became a more viable product,” he said.

Growler service has primarily played a side act in Seattle’s beer stores and neighborhood breweries. By putting growlers front and center, Klabunde is hoping to make harder to find craft beers more accessible in an environmentally friendly way.

Distribution has presented one significant logistical hurdle for the business. Many craft breweries have small distribution operations, while some have none at all. Klabunde is planning to do his own pickups for breweries that can’t deliver and has been spending recent weeks making drives out to regional breweries to test routes.

The beer selection will be determined by what local breweries are coming up with, Klabunde said, though IPA’s will be in prominent rotation. So far, Klabunde hasn’t officially announced any specific breweries or beers he’ll have on tap. He told CHS he would start signing up breweries once his lease was finalized in the coming weeks.

The Growl Store will also sell empty growlers, GrowlTaps, cleaning supplies, and growler carrying cases.

Meanwhile, Optimism Brewing continues its work to open at Broadway and Union while Outer Planet brewery is up and running on 12th Ave. Dick Cantwell, One of the original kings of Capitol Hill craft beer, is taking some time this summer to finish a book on beer after leaving Elysian in the wake of the company’s buyout by international beer conglomerate InBev/Anheuser-Busch.

The Growl Store is planned to open at 1222 E Madison this fall. You can learn more at growl64.com.

Capitol Hill food+drink notes

• While one beer-y project moves forward on Madison, another on Broadway appears to have stalled. In February, CHS talked with Witold Szczepaniak about his plans to open the Euro Pub and bottle shop inside a former convenience store on the same block as Dick’s but there’s been little progress on the project that had been slated for a March opening and Szczepaniak hasn’t returned our inquiries about the status of the project.
• Like we mentioned last week, Herb and Bitter is ready to open on Broadway — it’s just going to take a few more days. We’ll have more on the “public house” featuring “three ingredient cocktails” soon.
• Also preparing to open: Monsoon sibling Seven Beef. Watch for an announcement from the E Jefferson steakhouse any day now.
• 

  (Image: Naka)

  Naka is also nearly ready to unveil its kaiseki experience at 15th and Pine and has been offering tantalizing peeks at its creations. On Friday, June 12th, chef Shota Nakajima is giving diners a chance for a $100 test drive at the new restaurant taking over the former Le Zinc space.

• Optimism Brewing? Maybe just a little bit longer:
  A lot of miscellaneous work has been going on since the equipment was installed. None of it is 100% complete yet, but it’s all getting closer. It is starting to feel like a real place to make and drink beer.
• 

  (Image: Byrek and Baguette)

  Have you tried byrek yet? Then get thee to 12th Ave’s Byrek and Baguette — “My home country Albania — byrek. Even in Italy, Croatia, Serbia… If you go in Turkey it’s a big deal, too.”

• Well, how about Vaca Loca? Have you tried the newly opened purveyors of Cuban sandwiches and Latin American plates inside the Broadway Alley yet?
• Zaw pizza confirmed our note last week about the closure of its 15th/Pine location and that it is taking over the Mad Pizza restaurant on First Hill. The chain says it has no plans for changes at Mad.
• Chophouse Row — along with “Chop Shop Cafe & Bar, Kurt Farm Shop, Amandine, and Bar Ferd’nand, as well as neighbors Osteria La Spiga, Cupcake Royale, and Café Pettirosso” — has set June 11th for its grand opening party.
• Why did Travis Rosenthal, owner of longtime Pike date spot Tango and next door sibling rum bar Rumba, sell Broadway’s Corretto? A desire to spend more time with his family and focus on his neighboring Pike ventures… and he also got his commercial real estate agent license.
• Happy 9th birthday to the original Sun Liquor:
  

  (Image: Sun Liquor via Facebook)

• Happy five years to the Highline.
• Capitol Cider turns two:
  

  Capitol Cider opened in June 2013… CHS was there!

  Join us June 13-14 to celebrate our second birthday with a British-themed bonanza, “Trooping the Colours,” in honor of a shared birthday with the Queen of England. Specials include a complimentary English Trifle “birthday cake” with purchase of an entrée (available while supplies last); British Birthday Bangers — 12-oz. English banger over mashed potatoes with grilled onion gravy and minted mushy peas ($24); and toast to another year of good health with our Pimm’s Cup Cocktail ($9), Thatcher’s Green Goblin and Boddington’s Ale.

  To get in the spirit, our staff and bartenders are donning crowns and pearls, and guests are encouraged to enter our Queen of England look-a-like contest (any era/age). Winner receives a Capitol Cider $100 gift card. We will also be raffling a basket of ciders and swag – get one ticket per purchase of any of our specials. Winners of the raffle and Queen look-a-like contest will be announced Sunday night during SundayNight Jazz Flights at 5:30 p.m. featuring Alex Dougdale and the FADE Quartet.  If any “queens” show up for jazz, we’ll have a brief parade at the break.

• Rancho Bravo drive-thru…. coming soon.
• The Seattle Times stops by Machiavelli and notes “the McElroys took on two long-term employees, Jarding and Javier Arevalo, as business partners, and sold them the restaurant in 2013. The best part is that almost no one even noticed.” Almost :)
• Good 2 Go Grocery’s fried chicken, recommended:
  At Good 2 Go, Miller is serving up daily menu of fried chicken, sandwiches and burgers, along with fried catfish and cod, and sides like collard greens, red beans and rice, cornbread, and potato salad.
• The Cafe Juanita pop-up at the former home of Lark on 12th Ave is set to end June 13th.
• Ever hear of “fledgling food-focused media company out of Seattle” Fexy Media?
  SeriousEats.com, the site founded by Ed Levine in 2006, has been sold according to the New York Times. Fexy Media, a fledgling food-focused media company out of Seattle was the buyer; Fexy also purchased Roadfood.com.
• Oddfellows is ready for Pride — $1 goes to Lambert House: