The First Look Inside Polite Provisions and Soda & Swine

Welcome to Plywood Report, where Eater checks in on restaurants that are still in the works. Have any plywood shots you'd like to see on Eater? Send them to sandiego@eater.com.

Grid View

• 4696 30th Street
• 30th Street Bus Stop Pre-Relocation
• Polite Provisions Bartender's Cocktail Table
• Polite Provisions Main Bar
• Soda & Swine Dining Room
• Soda & Swine Open Demo Kitchen

The latest offering from Consortium Holdings — comprised of local hotshots Arsalun Tafazoli and Nate Stanton — is a duo of spots dubbed Polite Provisions and Soda & Swine that has take over the corner of 30th Street and Adams Avenue in Normal Heights. Soda & Swine, a brick and reclaimed wood homage to the drugstore soda-fountain will likely be the first to open, with an early December target date, followed by the more elaborate libation-only Polite Provisions, whose design cues are taken from an old-timey pharmacy. Both were conceptualized by frequent collaborator Paul Basile, who's building custom fixtures, combining new and vintage signage and installing a glass roof that'll give a solarium-like feel to the two spaces.

They've tapped SF cocktail guru Erick Castro (an alum of Rickhouse and Bourbon & Branch) to curate the drink menu; Polite Provisions will boast 46 taps, dispensing draft beer, of course, but also wine, digestifs, straight-up spirits and cocktails — including their version of a Paloma, made with house-made grapefruit soda and a spice and fruit-infused rye whiskey drink called Rock&Rye. He'll also have a special bartender's table, for custom cocktail classes and demos. Consortium's new culinary consultant, Chef Jason McLeod (Grand Del Mar, Chicago's two Michelin-starred Ria) will oversee Soda & Swine's menu, a concise list — meatballs (from house-ground beef to vegan), a few starters and salads, plus three versions of apple pie — that leaves little room for error. Take a peek at the food and drink menu here.

Tafazoli, an extensive traveler who often brings home dishes he's eaten on the road (the house-made soft-serve ice cream that'll top Soda & Swine's apple pies was inspired by NYC's Momofuku Milk Bar) shared with Eater that he's moving forward with putting in a bottle shop next to his East Village craft beer bar, Neighborhood, and is already onto planning his next endeavor, a food-centric project that'll join his other Little Italy locales, Craft & Commerce and UnderBelly.

Note: if you're planning on taking the bus here, you'll have to walk a few more feet; the group is paying to have the bus stop out front relocated further south on 30th Street, away from Polite Provisions' wall of windows.
UPDATE: the opening is now projected for early February.
·Consortium Holdings Brings "Polite Provisions" and "Soda & Swine" to San Diego [FSR Magazine]
·All Star Castro [Pacific SD Mag]
·