Co-founder Arsalun Tafazoli of local hospitality collective Consortium Holdings is gearing up to reveal the follow-up to Little Italy’s stunning $6.5 million Born & Raised, a new trailblazing project that combines a progressive cocktail bar with a similarly ambitious retail spirits shop. Designed by Paul Basile of Basile Studio, Raised by Wolves is currently scheduled to open in mid-April at Westfield UTC.
Though it’s in a mall, Basile tells Eater he hopes customers can leave the mall setting behind once they step through the wolf head-guarded front doors, framed by intricate filagree inspired by 1800s French Nouveau style. The full-immersion continues inside, where murals of the French countryside by Zoe Design decorate a bottle shop that’s more high-end boutique than traditional liquor store, with bottle of spirits displayed like fine jewels under lock and key. The collection will range from carefully chosen $20 bottles to preciously rare and pricey vintage allotments including bourbon from cult distillery Stitzel-Weller, founded by the legendary Pappy Van Winkle.
For fans of its notable cocktail bars, including Noble Experiement to False Idol, Raised by Wolves is the opportunity to bring the Consortium Holdings experience home. The shop will stock everything from mixers to coasters and cocktail-making equipment and its staff will be the same bartenders expertly mixing drinks in the adjoining cocktail bar, accessed by a hidden rotating platform that will deposit drinkers into a cozy, custom-oak paneled space designed by Basile and associate Kim Tseng. Dominated by a glass rod and brass gazebo that serves as the main bar with a fountain at its center, its roof will be lined in stained glass by Paul Bloomquist with rows of LED lights that will slowly brighten and darken to mimic the outdoors and its transition from dawn to dusk.
The bar, which opens at 4 p.m., will be run by an operations team that includes CH beverage director Anthony Schmidt as well as Erick Castro (Polite Provisions) and Chris Patino of Simple Serve. Schmidt says the menu will span drinks that incorporate more involved, modern techniques that showcase the store’s vintage spirits to classic cocktails such as a margarita or French 75.