Cat Tale
Cellar Cat: the name
In the beginning there were rats. That was the idea, anyway.
In wineries the folks behind the glitz and glam, the smoke and mirrors, getting up before dawn, dragging hoses, pumping over tanks, hornet stung hornets, the folks actually making wine are called - and call themselves - Cellar Rats. Most of Cellar Cat owners Holly, Jim and Greg's friends were Cellar Rats. Wouldn't it be nice to name a wine-centric restaurant in their honor?
But something about rats and restaurants don't pair well.
Cellar Rat. Cellar Rat.
Holly pondered the problem at the winery she worked at while on her lap purred the winery's cellar cat - Clackamas Cat, named for the county of the cat's birth. Every winery worth its French oak barrels has at least one, if not four or five, cellar cats, theoretically in charge of keeping the rodent population under control, but actually only interested in curling up in the t-shirt displays, lounging on the winemaker's computer keyboard or springing out from behind trash cans.
Cellar Cats. Never in a hurry. Soaking up the good life.
Cellar Cat. The name fit.
Cellar Cat Timeline:
2001 - 2004 Wine-industry goofballs ("professionals")
open the first Cellar Cat "Cafe" in Glen Ellen, Sonoma Valley, California.
The idea:
Assist other real people to buy real wine from real cork dorks.
Turn on the jazz, the art, the charm, side it with fabulous fresh food
TO TAKE HOME.
The Whoops:
Cellar Cat, with its artful warm and cozy, Sonoma creek-side casual, its rotating fine artists,
its zero-big-box wines, its beckoning welcome, WAS home away from home.
Because, apparently there was nowhere to be but There, at Cellar Cat, Then.
Be Here Meow was born.
Cellar Cat Albany
In 2001 partners Holly, Jim and Greg opened their first version of Cellar Cat - Cellar Cat Cafe - in the tiny wine town of Glen Ellen in Sonoma Valley, California. It was a hit. "The Cat" expanded three times in size over the duration of its three short years and was slated for a grand relocation to Sonoma in 2004 when the the project stalled.
Ten years later, living in a rural wine community just north of Napa Valley badly in need of a casual-upscale Cellar Cat type restaurant, Holly, Jim and Greg found the exact right location; a long-vacant roadhouse-type restaurant in the community of Middletown. A year of lease negotiations, however, were unable to secure the location and so in February of 2015 Holly headed home to Oregon to visit her mother and sister. Lunching at a favorite Albany restaurant - Sweet Red - Holly's mother pointed out that the restaurant across the street was once again vacant. Maybe Holly and "the boys" should lease it and do a Cellar Cat in Willamette Valley.
In the Spring of 2015 the lease was signed for the restaurant space in the old Wyatt's building. The doors opened late September of 2015. Three years later, little old Cellar Cat, grown out of their first Albany location, moved two miles north to the wide open and ever-green Spring Hill Golf Club. Here, "The Cat," enjoyed a spacious outside patio and cozy inside fireplace dining room. Cellar Cat received kudos from far and near, not only for the incredible wine list but for its welcoming and attentive hospitality and live, professional concert-style jazz.
2023
Now Gig Harbor residents, Holly, Jim and Greg, after a year location scouting all around the Puget Sound, have found their paradise in fun, funky and fabulous Kingston, home of Westside Pizza's straight-up jazz Saturday nights featuring saxophonist extraordinaire Mark Lewis. The east side, the Seattle side, of the Sound is home to many a marvelous jazz venue, but the west side, from the partner's new home town of Gig Harbor, to Holly's birth town of Bremerton, all the way up to Port Angelus, have few regular live jazz venues, and even fewer stand-alone, privately owned wine shops that hand-select their wines and refuse to sell big box, gag-in-a-bag wines.
In the beginning there were rats. That was the idea, anyway.
In wineries the folks behind the glitz and glam, the smoke and mirrors, getting up before dawn, dragging hoses, pumping over tanks, hornet stung hornets, the folks actually making wine are called - and call themselves - Cellar Rats. Most of Cellar Cat owners Holly, Jim and Greg's friends were Cellar Rats. Wouldn't it be nice to name a wine-centric restaurant in their honor?
But something about rats and restaurants don't pair well.
Cellar Rat. Cellar Rat.
Holly pondered the problem at the winery she worked at while on her lap purred the winery's cellar cat - Clackamas Cat, named for the county of the cat's birth. Every winery worth its French oak barrels has at least one, if not four or five, cellar cats, theoretically in charge of keeping the rodent population under control, but actually only interested in curling up in the t-shirt displays, lounging on the winemaker's computer keyboard or springing out from behind trash cans.
Cellar Cats. Never in a hurry. Soaking up the good life.
Cellar Cat. The name fit.
Cellar Cat Timeline:
2001 - 2004 Wine-industry goofballs ("professionals")
open the first Cellar Cat "Cafe" in Glen Ellen, Sonoma Valley, California.
The idea:
Assist other real people to buy real wine from real cork dorks.
Turn on the jazz, the art, the charm, side it with fabulous fresh food
TO TAKE HOME.
The Whoops:
Cellar Cat, with its artful warm and cozy, Sonoma creek-side casual, its rotating fine artists,
its zero-big-box wines, its beckoning welcome, WAS home away from home.
Because, apparently there was nowhere to be but There, at Cellar Cat, Then.
Be Here Meow was born.
Cellar Cat Albany
In 2001 partners Holly, Jim and Greg opened their first version of Cellar Cat - Cellar Cat Cafe - in the tiny wine town of Glen Ellen in Sonoma Valley, California. It was a hit. "The Cat" expanded three times in size over the duration of its three short years and was slated for a grand relocation to Sonoma in 2004 when the the project stalled.
Ten years later, living in a rural wine community just north of Napa Valley badly in need of a casual-upscale Cellar Cat type restaurant, Holly, Jim and Greg found the exact right location; a long-vacant roadhouse-type restaurant in the community of Middletown. A year of lease negotiations, however, were unable to secure the location and so in February of 2015 Holly headed home to Oregon to visit her mother and sister. Lunching at a favorite Albany restaurant - Sweet Red - Holly's mother pointed out that the restaurant across the street was once again vacant. Maybe Holly and "the boys" should lease it and do a Cellar Cat in Willamette Valley.
In the Spring of 2015 the lease was signed for the restaurant space in the old Wyatt's building. The doors opened late September of 2015. Three years later, little old Cellar Cat, grown out of their first Albany location, moved two miles north to the wide open and ever-green Spring Hill Golf Club. Here, "The Cat," enjoyed a spacious outside patio and cozy inside fireplace dining room. Cellar Cat received kudos from far and near, not only for the incredible wine list but for its welcoming and attentive hospitality and live, professional concert-style jazz.
2023
Now Gig Harbor residents, Holly, Jim and Greg, after a year location scouting all around the Puget Sound, have found their paradise in fun, funky and fabulous Kingston, home of Westside Pizza's straight-up jazz Saturday nights featuring saxophonist extraordinaire Mark Lewis. The east side, the Seattle side, of the Sound is home to many a marvelous jazz venue, but the west side, from the partner's new home town of Gig Harbor, to Holly's birth town of Bremerton, all the way up to Port Angelus, have few regular live jazz venues, and even fewer stand-alone, privately owned wine shops that hand-select their wines and refuse to sell big box, gag-in-a-bag wines.