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It's been close to a year since tiki bar master Blair Reynolds (Hale Pele) and Ian Christopher (Coco Donuts) announced Americano, a coffee and cocktail-focused restaurant that will explore the point where fine coffee and craft cocktails meet, with food by celebrated New Orleans chef Chris DeBarr (Green Goddess) and cocktails overseen by Kate Bolton (Eater San Francisco Bartender of the Year 2012). Now Americano confirms it will open its doors this Thursday, March 24, to serve coffee, cocktails, and food, from 7 a.m. to midnight, daily, inside the Burnside 26 building at 2605 E. Burnside St. [Update, March 23, 2016: Due to permitting difficulties, Americano's opening has been delayed, and it tells Eater it now hopes to open next week.]
Reynolds says the whole point is to "bring the bartending aspect back to the barista world." At Americano, "Bartenders are trained on the espresso machine, and baristas know how to make drinks."
Christopher will roast Americano's coffees himself, and Reynolds says the coffees "really explore, not just specific regions, but specific farms." The roasts will change with the seasons, and Reynolds will use them to make cocktails, mostly featuring vermouths and amaros, the bitter digestif.
"We do have some gin and some rye," says Reynolds, but Americano will mostly focus on vermouth and amaros, to share the herbaceous, floral, and spice flavors of the cocktail world. Shakerato, for instance, is a cocktail of espresso, amaro, and cream.
Touting a decor inspired by Italian Futurism and fashioned by local muralists Rather Severe, Americano will have a loungy area with couches, a large horseshoe-shaped bar that seats 15, and around six tables. Americano will serve brunch and dinner, and if you're familiar with chef DeBarr's cooking, you know to expect the unexpected.
DeBarr previously told Eater he'd serve "bitter-circus" food, and Reynolds says of DeBarr's food, "You don't know where it came from; you don't know where it's going, but you know it's arrived." We'll unveil the opening day menus and do a deep dive on DeBarr's food midweek this week.
