For the team behind the new Podium bar on Little Raven Street, this is its biggest year yet. In August partners Chad Michael George, Jared Schwartz, and Kade Gianinetti opened a sprawling restaurant, Wayward, in Riverfront Park. They’re getting ready to re-open their winning first bar, The Way Back, in Berkeley by the end of the month. And for the second time this winter, they’ve launched a pop-up bar in an adjacent space to the restaurant.
As with the last, Christmas-themed pop-up — Miracle on Little Raven — this one is a decked-out ode to the biggest event of the season. The Podium offers six TV screens for viewing the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games. It’s got an Olympics-themed cocktail and food menu (see playful country-specific drinks and Korean-style bar snacks). And it provides hockey tables and shot skis for more active viewers, and couches and a chair lift for the relaxed watchers of the group. Eater photographer Jonathan Phillips stopped at the bar mid-week to find a packed house of drinkers and fans.
Status: The Podium is open at 1610 Little Raven Street, Suite 100 starting at 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday through the end of the Winter Games, on February 25. Find more information for the restaurant and pop-up on Wayward’s website.
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This picture of chef Tim Kirk, found behind the bar, is also a spoof on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un
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