Example of weekly wine tasting - a few of the finest wines in the Pacific North West.

​Cellar Cat co-owner Jim with Bonnie-dog (Bohemian ​Shepherd/Malinois mix - street rescue from Juarez Mexico.)

Cellar Cat: the name 

In the beginning there were rats.  That was the idea, anyway.  

In wineries, the people up before dawn, dragging hoses, pumping over tanks, stung by hornets - i.e.: the folks actually making the wine - call themselves Cellar Rats.  Lifelong pals, Cellar Cat co-owners, Holly, Jim and Greg, preparing to open a wine-centric restaurant in Sonoma County, wanted their restaurant name to pay homage to these hard working friends. 

But how?

Something about rats and restaurants don't pair well.

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 at bay, but in reality lounging around, gifting mice to visiting wine tasters, shedding on and shredding the t-shirts. 

​Chilled out, as an art form.  Cellar Cats.  Cellar Cat.  The name fit.


Cellar Cat Timeline

2001 - 2004
In 2001 Cellar Cat "Cafe" opened- in the tiny wine town of Glen Ellen in Sonoma Valley, California, the idea to help  other real people buy real wine from real cork dorks.  Turn on the jazz, the art, the good times, side it with fabulous fresh food TO TAKE HOME.

It was a hit. 

But 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, BECAME home away from home.  No guest wanted to leave.  So take out got tossed out and replaced with linen table cloths, candle-lit jazz, and a top-drawer chef. 

​Be Here Meow was born. 

2015 - 2018  
In 2015 Holly, Jim and Greg left California and signed a lease in historic downtown Albany, Oregon  in a beautiful 1890's brick river-front building.    Three years later, Cellar Cat moved two miles north to the wide open and ever-green Spring Hill Golf Club.  Here, "The Cat," enjoyed a spacious outside patio, cozy inside fireplace dining room and 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
Holly, Jim and Greg, after investing a full year location-scouting all around the Puget Sound, found their paradise in fun, funky Kingston.   Ferry land. Water world.  Home to trees, artists, music, mountains, quiet.

In February of 2023 a Kingston lease was signed, and in early May, with jazz musicians booked through year's end, all permits in place, couches fluffed, tables set, Cellar Cat almost opened its doors only to have Kitsap County put on the brakes four days before  opening.  Turned out the 69 year old building had never been permitted a "bar" license (despite the many bars).    SEVEN months and nine days later - one week before Christmas - after much, oh so much, ado, the building finally received permission to move forward.  And on the weekend of New Year's eve 2023 marvelous piano man Bruce Cosacchi warmed up the keys of the baby grand piano and Cellar Cat Kingston - jazz, wine and piano bar - was born.

Happy New Year Westside, Eastside, Puget Sound, Washington!  Ahoy orcas!  We love you fabulous (fraught-ridden) ferries, you high-masted sail boats, you stately totem poles, you white-capped Olympics, you massive Rainier.   There is no where on earth to be but here, now.

Meow.

Cheers!

Holly, Jim and Greg​

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