East Hill Wine Bar prepares to open its doors in the East Hill community

The time has finally come for the all-new East Hill Wine Bar to debut this month at 2704 N. 12th Ave. Neighboring the East Hill Bottle Shop, the new East Hill Wine Bar will be a sister business. to owner Ian Kaple’s other restaurant, The Wine Bar on Palafox, which opened in downtown Pensacola in 2010.

The menu is a close cousin of the downtown location with a few additions – mainly due to the larger kitchen space and eye-catching cherry-red brick oven.

This oven produces much more than pizza, including roasted whole fish, baked oysters and freshly toasted baguettes.

“We will have part of the menu that comes from the oven. It will change at least once a month, if not more often,” Kaple said.

When the former East Hill Hardware & Supply space became available, he realized how complimentary it would be to be able to bring a bottle of wine to enjoy at the restaurant, since there are more than 700 varieties at the nearby bottle shop.

The East Hill community is home to Kaple, where he lives and where his daughter goes to school, so growing his restaurant in his community seemed like a no-brainer. So far, he has received a warm welcome from the neighborhood.

“I’ve been looking at this corner for six or seven years,” Kaple said. “They (East Hill residents) are very excited about opening a restaurant/wine bar here without having to worry about parking downtown.”

Much like the downtown location, you’ll also be able to choose from around 40-50 wine options by the glass, as well as a curated bottle list.

In addition to indoor seating, which seats about 65 people, there is a courtyard at the side of the restaurant that Kaple hopes will soon become a place to sip a glass of wine with string lights on the ceiling, heat lamps lit in winter and hand-painted murals brightening the space by Pensacola artist Homer Jolly.

While the space is full of fresh design, it also intentionally carries an “industrial” feel, as a nod to the old hardware store, according to Kaple.

“I wanted to keep it quite industrial, and that’s what I was thinking with the pipes and all that, kind of reminiscent of the hardware store that was here for 35 years,” Kaple said. “We wanted to kind of pay homage to the hardware store and hope to help transform 12th Avenue, that business corridor, into the little downtown of East Hill.”

Jolly helped give the restaurant a sense of downtown by designing a huge mural outside the restaurant, depicting pieces of East Hill life, as well as the main decor inside the restaurant. restaurant and in the outdoor courtyard.

“So the idea of the overall look of the place is to kind of make it look a little more upscale than downtown, but also to fill it up, so that when people walk in, they have this sense of belonging,” Jolly said of the art that will hang in the East Hill Wine Bar’s indoor dining room. “The art was designed to look a little abstract, but a little retro, so the whole feed takes on a little retro look.”

Kaple said he looks forward to welcoming customers to see the place for themselves, hopefully before Christmas.

For more updates and information, follow East Hill Wine Bar, East Hill Bottle Shop and The Wine Bar at Palafox on social media for real life updates and information.

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