Homecoming: OOLA Capitol Hill opening new bottle shop, cocktail bar, and restaurant at 14th and Union

(Image: OOLA)

(Image: OOLA)

OOLA Distillery picked up its barrels and still equipment and left 14th and Union three years ago but the Capitol Hill-rooted owners behind the craft spirits maker never did. Now, OOLA is returning to its birth neighborhood with a new bottle shop, cocktail bar, and restaurant.

"Our production facility will remain in Georgetown, but the face of all things OOLA will be on the Hill," founder and head distiller Kirby Kallas-Lewis tells CHS.

With hopes for a July opening if all the paperwork goes well, OOLA Capitol Hill is being readied to open in the former home of Marjorie next to Skillet on the northeast corner of 14th and Union. CHS reported here on Donna Moodie's decision to move Marjorie nine blocks to a new home at 23rd and Union.

For Kallas-Lewis and KT Niehoff, the couple behind OOLA, the new project is a full melding of life, business, and making great gin and whiskey. They were married at Marjorie and still live "a stone's throw" from the corner. Their plans include "fresh herbs, edible flowers and eggs from their chickens" from their "extensive" backyard garden and a promise for "a true farm to table urban oasis."

"Expect to be hosted by KT and Kirby when you come by — this is the definition of ‘owner operated,'" they say in the announcement of the new project.

OOLA was also born at 14th and Union, taking shape in the former La Panzanella bakery on the northwest side of the intersection in 2011. At the time, it was part of a tiny wave of craft spirit makers putting some of the neighborhood's light industrial zoning to use under loosened state liquor laws. But the challenges of production in the densely packed neighborhood outweighed the benefits. In late 2020, CHS reported OOLA's pandemic-rushed plans to move to a larger, easier to manage production facility in Georgetown.

Six months later, paperwork revealed plans for a major mixed-use development still in the works to create a seven-story, 80-unit mixed-use apartment building, with commercial space at street level, and underground parking connecting through the block from 14th and Union to Madison in a puzzle-piece design that will eventually neighbor the structures home to Chop Suey and Diesel. The former La Panzanella bakery property where OOLA was born and formerly home to gay bar Union, Restaurant Zoe, and Bar Sue will be demolished to make room. Union moved four blocks west later that year.

The change on the northeast corner of 14th and Union will be much softer. OOLA Capitol Hill will transform the 1,000-square-foot restaurant with two garage doors opening on a private patio shaded by Japanese Maple trees into its new venue with room for 12 at the bar and 22 on the floor. The new OOLA will showcase "PNW casual fine dining, shared plates, driven by the seasons and paired with cocktails showcasing OOLA spirits."

The bottle shop and small bites will be available daily starting at 11 AM with the full menu available at 5 PM, plus a "stellar happy hour." OOLA Capitol Hill will also host classes and events.

And Kallas-Lewis will finally have a space where he can serve cocktails that center around OOLA's creations with a "simple, elevated, seasonally changing" menu ranging from "‘acoustic’ (no alcohol) to ‘electric’ (full spirit forward) and everything in between."

OOLA Capitol Hill is planned to open around July 15th at 1412 E Union. Learn more at ooladistillery.com.

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