Local mixologist Eric Scouten will open his cocktail bar in uptown Saint John next year.
Scouten says it was a combination of many factors, such as the Covid-19 pandemic and a desire to be his own boss, that led him to open his own bar.
“I’m a very passionate person about the industry, so anytime I’ve worked for somebody else, I’ve always let that passion bleed out because I can’t hold it in,” says Scouten, adding he fell in love with Saint John after moving to the city in 2013 and has involved himself in the community as much as possible.
“I want artistic control and I want to know that my passion and energy is a direct benefit to myself.”
Eric Scouten’s cocktail tools of the trade (Image: Eric Scouten)
The still-unnamed bar will be located on Grannan Street, where Rogue Coffee used to operate, and tentatively open in February or March of 2022.
Scouten says the bar’s menu will be very small and change on a weekly basis.
“Menus give people options when they don’t know what they want, which is great. But I would rather talk to my customers and build rapport and find out who they are and what their preferences are personally, in order to guide them into a selection that I think they’ll love, rather than them picking an option that would be adequate,” he explained.
The bar will be open Thursday to Saturday, from 2 p.m. until midnight, with Wednesdays earmarked for reserved private tasting and cocktail events. Bookings for private events and tastings will start soon.
“At the end of the day, I’ve always just wanted a teeny tiny little cocktail lounge where I can be as weird and wacky as I as I please,” said Scouten. “When I found out that that space opened up, it’s too good of a space not to not to jump on it – I just felt like I had to pull the trigger because it was the right space and I think the right time.”
This story was originally published in Huddle, an Acadia Broadcasting content partner.
