Charles Koh
Ethan Stowell Restaurants is proud to announce that today is opening day for a second location of The Victor Tavern. The new outpost for this urban tavern will be at Second & University at the base of the 2+U office tower near the Harbor Steps, Seattle Art Museum, and Pike Place Market.
Like the original SLU location, this Victor Tavern will cater to downtown residents, workers hitting happy hour at the end of the day, and neighborhood sports fans seeking a great place for a burger while watching the day’s game or en route to the fields. The mood of the new space is an intimate Pacific Northwest Tavern while the food is playful and casual, delivered via fresh seasonal ingredients.
The daily menu features tavern burgers and sandwiches as its focus with small shareable plates, large salads, and a few large plate dinners rounding out the selection. Fans of the original Victor Tavern menu will be happy to find Beef Tartare with fresh horseradish, cornichons and capers, Smoky Tavern Wings with hot sauce and blue cheese dip, Kale & Romaine Caesar with torn croutons and anchovy dressing, and Fried Castelvetrano Olives.
The Victor’s burgers are hand-formed patties of grass-fed natural beef served on a Macrina brioche bun. The menu’s featured burgers include crowd favorites such as the namesake Victory Burger with lettuce, onion, bread & butter pickles, American cheese and secret sauce, Truffle Smash burger with truffles, mushrooms, gruyère and truffle aioli, and the Veg Head with a plant-based burger patty, avocado, Mama Lil’s peppers, lettuce, tomato, onion and aged cheddar. The Victor Tavern chef team will also feature a rotating Burger of the Month featuring seasonal or limited ingredients.
The Victor Tavern’s happy hour runs nightly from 4 to 6 pm and features many of the plates and great deals that have been a hit at the original location. Small plates include the Beef Tartare, Kale & Romaine Caesar Salad, Spicy Calamari, the Victory and Veg Head burgers, as well as Fish & Chips and select dessert offerings. Happy hour beverages include a selection of $10 cocktails alongside $6 draft beers and $7 glasses of wine.
The Victor’s beverage program is executed under the design of ESR’s Executive Beverage Director Erik Carlson. Carlson’s craft cocktail menu features dual categories of Sours, Punches & Fizzes alongside Stirred & Spirit Driven Cocktails. Selections include the Victory Sour with bourbon, lemon, strawberry, egg white, ginger and bitters, Creole Cocktail with rye, Italian vermouth, amer picon, Benedictine and lemon zest, and Port au Prince with a house Caribbean rum blend, falernum, lime, pineapple and bitters.
In addition to mixed drinks, local beers are offered on tap, and the wine offerings include selections available by the glass and bottle. Local craft breweries on tap include such standouts as E9, Stoup, and Pike Brewing. The wines available by both the glass and bottle include selections from the Pacific Northwest and Italy including exclusive ESR wines such as ‘Frank the Tank’ a red Bordeaux blend named in honor of Ethan’s youngest son and bottled in cooperation with Avennia winery out of Woodinville. There are also non-alcoholic options including house-made sodas and Ginger Beer, Coca-Cola family sodas, and sparkling bottled water.
“People are returning to downtown and we are excited to open a space to welcome them back. This new Victor location will feature the same great burgers and simply delicious tavern fare in an intimate but unfussy atmosphere. We want to be the go-to space for a lively post-work happy hour or a great spot to pull up a seat at the bar and watch the night’s game,” says Chef Ethan Stowell, Founder & CEO of Ethan Stowell Restaurants. “Our goals are simple- we want to make people happy for happy hour and to be the place that neighbors and friends can mingle and just hang out on our piazza-style patio secluded from the bustle of 1st avenue.”
Located between 1st and 2nd Avenues across from the Harbor Steps and Seattle Art Museum, The Victor Tavern is making its new home at the base of the 2+U office building. Designed by local architecture firm Heliotrope, the new restaurant features restaurant and bar seating as well as a spacious covered patio that looks out onto a secluded but expansive urban courtyard. A twenty-seat private dining room is located adjacent to the restaurant with a flexible seating plan that is perfect for a work dinner or a large communal feast between friends. The long narrow restaurant creates an intimate space with plentiful natural light from plentiful windows. Accordion doors will open in both the bar and dining room to offer fresh air and tranquil courtyard views during Seattle’s summer months. Modern lighting, earth-tone leather, and mixed materials including unfinished cement and midcentury wallpaper create a contemporary urban atmosphere that will be familiar to fans of ESR restaurant spaces.
A smaller, more intimate urban outpost than the original location, The Victor Tavern indoor seating offers 40 seats between the dining room and bar, as well as 16 bar counter seats. Sports fans will enjoy multiple television screens over the bar that will feature continual sports programming as well as local sporting events. A private dining room offers 20 seats and the courtyard patio offers an additional 30 seats across 10 tables.
Either the private dining room or a communal 12-seat table in the dining room may be reserved for group events accommodating parties as small as 6 or as large as 20 seated guests and up to 40 standing guests.
The Victor Tavern is located at the base of the 2+U Office Tower at 1202 2nd Avenue, Suite D1 in Seattle, WA.
For more information, visit www.ethanstowellrestaurants.com
About Ethan Stowell Restaurants
Founded in 2007, Ethan Stowell Restaurants is a highly acclaimed family of restaurants headquartered in Seattle and founded by Chef Ethan Stowell. Ethan Stowell Restaurants include Tavolàta, How to Cook a Wolf, Staple & Fancy Mercantile, Ballard Pizza Company, Rione Xlll, Mkt., Red Cow, Frēlard Pizza Company, Cortina, Cortina Café, Victory Burger, the San Juan Seltzery, Goldfinch Tavern in the Four Seasons Hotel Seattle, and Wolf in the Nordstrom flagship store in midtown Manhattan. For more information, visit www.ethanstowellrestaurants.com.
