Okay, This Wine Bar Thing Is Getting Kind of Ridiculous

Okay, Portland, we get it: Wine bars are cool again. Buzzy local wine celebrity Dana Frank has just announced that she is going to open a natural wine bar called Bar Norman on SE Clinton. With an opening slated for July, this will be the fifth wine bar opening just this year, after Arden Wine Bar in the Pearl, Enoteca Nostrana on SE Morrison, Canard on E Burnside, and the soon-to-open OK Omens in Ladd’s Addition. The wine maven announced her Kickstarter on Instagram earlier this week, and Portland Monthly nabbed a few more details today.

Frank is a pretty big deal: Her Natty By Nature pop-up, which pairs natural wine with old school hip hop, is a hit, and she’s releasing a wine pairing cookbook called Wine Food this fall. Her spot should be pretty casual — think: your wine nerd friend’s dinner party — but she’ll be showing off some outstanding wines in the process. This isn’t Frank’s first brick-and-mortar; she was a part of the opening at Dame, but she’s no longer associated with that spot. She says this 30-seat wine bar should be “deeply personal;” after all, Bar Norman is named for her grandfather.

• Bar Norman: a natural wine bar in southeast Portland, Oregon [Kickstarter]
• Dana Frank [Instagram]
• Wine Star Dana Frank to Open Bar Norman on SE Clinton [PoMo]
• Wine Food [Penguin Random House]
• Natty By Nature [Sprudge]
• Sommelier Dana Frank IN at Holdfast Dining [EPDX]