By Quinn Russell Brown
The Anchor Pub is back again.
The waterfront building, located at 1001 Hewitt Ave. in downtown Everett, has been a bar on and off since 1907.
“Dry periods” and the Prohibition got in the way of business in the first half of the 20th century. Economic downturns, bad luck and bad decisions have gotten in the way since.
The Anchor that opened in January 2009 closed due to slow business last summer. New owners re-opened it this January, but that only lasted a week.
Now three more owners are attempting to unsink The Anchor.
Andrew Lange, 24, had been interested in renting the space last summer. He visited Washington to climb when he was going to college in Iowa.
“I thought Everett was a really cool city,” Lange said. “There’s a lot of development potential here, a lot of people moving here. I decided to move here.”
He arrived in January, the same week the most recent Anchor flopped, and leapt at the chance to take over the bar. He partnered up with his friend, Christian Sayre, and recruited Everett restaurateur Christina Riedel (Sol Food Bar and Grill; Cask and Vine) to join the project.
They opened their Anchor on Aug. 2.
The latest iteration of the bar is a mix of the old and the new. The Anchor has historically been known for “train beers” — $1 schooners of PBR when you hear the train going by — and that’s not going anywhere.
“We still have the train beer,” said Lange, who is in charge of day-to-day operations. “My main goal was to keep as much of the traditions alive, and to keep as much of the history.”
That said, Lange and crew aren’t just trying to be another neighborhood bar. They specialize in craft cocktails, with an emphasis on whiskey, rum and moonshine.
“We have 10 specialty house drinks,” Lange said. “We have a lot of rye drinks. Rye is a type of whiskey that isn’t very popular here yet, but it’s making a big resurgence.”
They’re bypassing all flavored vodka from a bottle, opting instead to make their own using fresh fruit and even bacon. The process involves infusing a liter of 42 Below vodka with juices for seven days, then freeze filtering it to remove particulates.
It’s not all drinking. A brand-new kitchen — the first the building has ever had, and a pipe dream of many past owners — will make The Anchor a seafood restaurant during the day starting Aug. 26.
“It’s kind of like an elevated bar menu, plus a full menu,” co-owner Riedel said. “We’re going to do crab and jalapeno poppers, crab mac n’ cheese, beer-battered salmon, Parmesan-and-cornmeal-crusted cod.”
They’ll also have gourmet burgers and vegetarian options.
Downstairs bar seating is 21 and older. The upstairs area, where there is a stage and a dance floor, is all-ages.
Thursdays are open mic nights. On Sundays, a blues group records a podcast live from the stage. Indie bands will play shows on Fridays and Saturdays starting in September.
“On the days that we don’t have concerts, we’re going to have a DJ,” Riedel said. “It’ll be the only place you can dance other than Bar Myx or Tailgator.”
The Anchor Pub is open 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. Tuesday through Sunday and 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Sundays. It’s closed Monday.
