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Snowy River grows into Madison Valley with hope its cocktail confetti and decorations will someday flow across the state

Luc is gone (Image: thechefinthehat.com)

(Image: Snowy River Cocktails)

The world of food and drink has changed. In Capitol Hill’s down the Hill neighbor Madison Valley, the area has lost a favorite hangout from James Beard award-winning chef and neighborhood resident Thierry Rautureau. In its place, a franchise concept dedicated to brightly colored, sugar coated cocktails has come to life and is so far weathering the pandemic-era challenges as it sets the stage for a hoped for expansion across the state.

Snowy River wants to share its cocktail decorations to many, hoping to open its decorated cocktail bars across Washington after a start in Bellingham and its first expansion this fall to Madison Valley in the former home of Rautureau’s Luc. The pandemic has not made it easy.

“There’s a lot of good markets out there, which I think Snowy River would do great in, it’s just a question of timing and finding the right location and the right people,” Snowy River owner Stuart Craig said.

A manufacturer of cocktail decorating products, Snowy River’s bars and restaurants are hoped to be a showcase of its creations and a lucrative franchise opportunity. Its Instagram overflows with colorful cocktails that feature glitter, rimmers, salts, and sugars.

“We have been manufacturing and distributing cocktail decorating products across the United States and other parts of the world since about 2017,” Craig said. “We decided by 2020 that it would be great to allow customers to showcase and see our cocktails at work with our cocktail decorating products.”

(Image: Snowy River)

In Madison Valley, Snowy River took over Luc restaurant’s space in September, making it Snowy River’s second location. “It’s always fun to open new locations and new bars. To introduce new cocktail decorating concepts to customers, that’s been great,” Craig said.

Snowy River’s menu is much simpler than Luc’s fussier French bistro fare with burgers and salads plus “sharables” like steak bites, rosemary fries, or fried shrimp. The baked brie might be a good choice to help Luc regulars transition to the new joint.

But the cocktails, of course, are at the center of things at Snowy River Cocktails. The alcohol at Snowy River is bright, colorful, and usually comes with a coating of sugar and glitter. You can order a raspberry drop — it will have cocktail confetti on it. The corpse reviver? Yup, edible confetti and glitter, too. Snowy River says all its colors are made with real fruit and vegetables.

“Not only are our martinis simply scrumptious, but you can also customize them to your favorite color with no change in flavor,” the menu notes.

There are also decorated mocktails if you would prefer.

The restaurant has handled pandemic pressures well, but Craig said it has been a challenge to keep up his plans for a one new bar per year pace.

“It’s an interesting time to be trying to expand a brand and we just keep focusing on the quality of our cocktails, the quality of our food, and the experience that we give our customers,” Craig said.

Snowy River is open for takeout, delivery, and in-person service at 2800 E Madison. Learn more at snowyrivercocktailbars.com.

 

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Fartz
Fartz
2 years ago

Red Onion or die

Beff Jesoz
Beff Jesoz
2 years ago

I read “franchise cocktail bar” and thought the worse. Their website confirms that they’re truly trying to be the quiznos of cocktail bars, with their other location literally open in a strip mall. If i wanted glitter in my cocktail i would go to Unicorn– at least Unicorn can poke fun of itself, self-aware that a bedazzled cocktail is not something to take seriously. I’d take a crusty local tavern over this uninspired, cookie cutter, Joanne Fabrics. I don’t want it in my neighborhood. I think this bar would do great in Bothell.

Crow
Crow
2 years ago

The cocktails are good, the food not so good.