En Rama, downtown Tacoma’s newest cocktail lounge and a Hilltop Kitchen offshoot, will open this week

Downtown Tacoma’s newest cocktail lounge, with a focus on sherry and fresh pasta, is ready to open.

Chris Keil, who previously co-owned Marrow and Hilltop Kitchen, said his newest bar and restaurant, En Rama, should be open by the end of the week with regular hours.

En Rama is opening inside Courthouse Square, which locals might know as the Old Post Office Building. The building hosts an events center as well as the coffee house Lift Bridge Coffee, Infinite Soups and the commercial kitchen for Ice Cream Social.

The space is intimate, with seating for about 25.

The name of the restaurant is a nod to a style of sherry that is minimally filtered. It’s one of several sherry styles Keil will list on a menu that includes sherry by the glass and cocktails with sherry as an ingredient.

“We’re going to have, to start, a limited selection of various styles, all through the dry spectrum from fino to an oloroso and sweeter sherries like the Pedro Ximenez and moscatel. There will be a nice cross section for people to come in and explore that world,” Keil said.

Sherry won’t be the sole focus of the cocktail menu at En Rama, but it will share menu space with house-made tonics and agave spirits, which played a central role on the menu at Hilltop Kitchen.

Expect pricing to be similar to Hilltop Kitchen, with cocktails in the $10-$12 range.

As for the dining menu, it lists fresh, extruded pastas and small plates of cocktail nibbles in the $8-$14 range. Nina McCracken, formerly of Seattle’s (now closed) Spur Gastropub, is the chef.

There’s also a dessert list you’ll want to keep your eye on. Erin Powell, who has baked at some of the city’s finest restaurants, is the pastry chef.

This story was originally published April 24, 2017 at 3:08 PM with the headline "En Rama, downtown Tacoma’s newest cocktail lounge and a Hilltop Kitchen offshoot, will open this week."