A neighborhood cocktail bar is coming to Sixth Avenue, but first, step into the bottle shop

Brian Hibbard wants you to drink natural wine, and vermouth, and sherry and amaro and Pineau des Charentes, but he won’t push it if you’d rather have a beer and a shot.

When the time is right, and safety from the coronavirus is on our side, Field Bar will offer that cool yet exploratory setting at 2614 Sixth Ave. in Central Tacoma. For now, Hibbard opens the space as a bottle shop on Thursday, July 16, selling all of the above complemented by beer and cider, as well as foods like tinned fish, cheese, chocolate, oils and vinegars.

A simple shelving setup showcases his affinity for natural wine, still a rare culture in Tacoma.

“I definitely say it, but I don’t wanna push it,” Hibbard told The News Tribune in an interview. Rather than be intimidated, customers should feel welcome to ask questions (or not) about natural wine, which is a loosely defined term for wines made with “low intervention” or no added ingredients such as sulfites and conventional yeast.

In other words, it’s how wine used to be made: simply, as fermented grape juice.

Sometimes called “raw” or “naked” wine, this style of winemaking can carry a connotation of being “funky, weird, young, off,” said Hibbard. “There are definitely natural wines and wines that are all of those things.”

Often, he said, you might have tried natural wine without even knowing it. Hibbard fell in love with it while working as the bar manager at Doe Bay on Orcas Island and then with Molly’s Bottle Shop owner Molly Ringe in Seattle. If you prefer to kick back with something that resembles a big Napa Cabernet, he will guide you to a satisfying choice.

The shop also stands to become one of the few sources in Tacoma for a thoughtful selection of fortified wines. In addition to vermouth and sherry, consider Pineau des Charentes, a classic dessert wine fortified with Cognac; Cappelletti, a wine-based Italian red bitter similar to Campari but much more delicate; and Cardamaro, a soft, sippable Italian wine-based bitter.

The latter will factor into at least one cocktail planned for the bar’s later debut, stirred with aquavit, Cocchi Americano (an Italian aperitivo), Salers (a golden French bitter liqueur) and bay leaf salt.

FIELD BAR FOOD & COCKTAILS

Hibbard, who grew up in Renton and Bellevue and moved to Tacoma last year to open Field Bar after years in the Seattle industry, is generally delighted at being part of “new blood” in Tacoma’s hospitality community. He cut his bartending chops first at Backdoor at Roxie’s after digging into coffee at Caffè Fiore earlier in the decade, where he befriended Dustin Johnson and Alicia Palaniuk. They also moved to Tacoma to open State Street Beer Co. and later Lander Coffee.

When the bar goes live, Hibbard has created a menu of boozy cocktails on the one hand and refreshing takes on the other. In both cases, he doesn’t go overboard, instead letting a few ingredients shine. The Natural Disco, for example, shakes American whiskey (not bourbon) with persimmon, an agave-sweetened citrus cordial and club soda.

The retail setup will, serendipitously, give him time to gauge what appeals to the community.

“I don’t want to turn into a bar until it’s safe,” said Hibbard, opting to “ramp up slowly” and build an audience.

Eventually, chef Ike Hippensteel will join him from Seattle. His background includes time as the sous chef at the late Central Smoke, a Southeast Asian-meets-Southern barbecue restaurant, and as chef de cuisine of a restaurant in Norway. The pair met up north at Oliver’s Twist, reuniting at Brimmer & Heeltap, a gastropub in West Woodland.

Hippensteel’s current plans focus on “classy bar food,” according to Hibbard.

A draft menu of four large ($12 to $15) and six small plates ($5 to $11) includes chicken confit with ras el hanout (the North African spice blend of cinnamon, coriander, black pepper and ginger), castelvetrano olives, rose and pomegranate. A pork belly dish stews in a whey curry with tamarind gel and fried sage, a butter leaf salad shows off pickled grapes and a dijon vinaigrette, and beets get the Urfa Biber treatment, a smoky Turkish red pepper.

“Ike has always had a passion and a natural ability to make beautiful, creative food with limited resources and within limited space,” said Hibbard, noting the small open kitchen adjacent to the bar. “He was the first person I reached out to as I knew our vibes and desires were so in sync.”

That means a “hospitality-first” ethos, with food, wine and cocktails serving as “a medium for others to enjoy each other’s company.”

A ‘NATURALLY OLD’ BAR

Over the course of eight months and several permitting and construction hurdles, Hibbard has transformed the former barber shop into a space simultaneously moody and relaxing. With the help of local carpenter Dylan Treleven, he ripped out the low ceilings to expose original wooden beams and brick. The hefty, brass-handled door was there; the dark wooden bar topped with sandstone was not.

Treleven also custom-designed the doorways and molding that lead to the back-of-house. Schoolhouse lights add a timeless ambiance, alongside dijon-colored wainscotting and teal walls.

“I like classic, timeless design,” said Hibbard. “I would love for people to walk in and say, ‘This is new?!’ I wanted for it to look very naturally old.”

When it finally becomes the bar he set out to build, he hopes to foster a space where nothing matters except getting along.

“I don’t want to be a hoity-toity place at all,” he said. “Field to me represents this big massive field we’re all in together, and we’re gonna have to figure it out. I want people to feel good and comfortable and safe, regardless of where they come from.”

The retail solution to handle COVID-19 restrictions was a last-minute decision. He called his designer two weeks ago to add the words “bottle shop” to the logo, now visible on the can’t-miss windows of the white brick building on Sixth Avenue, sandwiched between Gather Juice Co. and Shakabrah Java.

It’s not nearly as approachable as a bar, he admitted — “bottles are a luxury” — but it’s a cozy place to start.

FIELD BAR & BOTTLE SHOP

▪ 2614 6th Ave., Tacoma, no phone yet, fieldtacoma.com

▪ Details: bottle shop open Thursday to Sunday, 2 p.m. to 8 p.m.; check Instagram for details

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This story was originally published July 16, 2020 at 5:00 AM.