“Weird heroes and mould-breaking champions exist as living proof to those who need it that the tyranny of ‘the rat race' is not yet final.”
“Before you even step into the building, you have an idea that this place is a little different,” said Seamus Hammond, co-owner of the new bar, which is right next to Al and Vic's and serves as its more distinguished brother.
In between is the James' interior, which few people have had a chance to walk through until very recently.
Rustic and yet refined, the James Bar, which opens the day after Christmas, is a Pabst and a glass of fine wine on the same table, forged in steel and stone and old Montana wood, deliberately designed to honor two sorts of Missoulians: those with class and those who've heard of it.
It is, says Hammond, a place where you can “have a glass of wine, eat a mini-burger and listen to the Clash.”
At more than 2,700 square feet, the James Bar occupies the space of the former Two Sisters restaurant, which closed last February. Hammond, his mother Vicky Hammond and her husband Dick Scharfe, who also own Al and Vic's, bought the space from its former owners more than a year ago.
The trio had originally planned to simply build upstairs from Al and Vic's, but it was much easier - and less expensive - to expand the operation next door.
The bar piggybacks on Al and Vic's liquor license. One of the requirements under state law for an existing bar to expand its liquor license is that it and the new bar have a common door, which the James Bar and Al and Vic's now do. Crack open a cold one in Al's, and you can drink it in the James.
While Al and Vic's, which for 74 years has served Missoula's working class, often wins awards in the “dive bar” category among Missoulian readers, the James Bar is far more refined and yet tries to preserve a Missoula charm.
“We're just trying to enhance downtown,” said Seamus Hammond, a 28-year-old Hellgate High School grad who got his business degree from UM in 2003. “We hear every week in the paper about an ‘enhanced downtown' with more things to do. We wanted to provide more of an urban lounge for the downtown sector.”
All of the wood in the interior - the giant salt-stained trusses, the dining tables, the bar, the stump cocktail tables - is reclaimed Montana wood, most of it coming from within nine miles of Missoula, Hammond said.
Those wooden features are complemented by harder elements - steel floorboards, the stone exterior, an exposed-stone fireplace - making for a bar that's old Missoula and upscale urban, said architect Angie Lipski.
“It's like it's blue collar, but hip blue collar,” said Lipski, a partner at MacArthur, Means and Wells and the principal architect on the project.
Lipski said the Hammonds and Scharfe had a good vision of the bar's aesthetic; it was her job to translate that into the design and materials, using the expertise of Scariano Construction.
“We took the words they all use in their daily life, and we had to translate that into our work,” Lipski said.
Lining most of the bar are mirrors, and there are lots of small corners for intimate conversation. And yet the bar has an open feel, mainly because of the copious use of mirrors, which gives it an almost “voyeuristic” feel, said Lipski.
Many of the ideas came from Seamus Hammond, a bit of a bar buff who picked up a lot of ideas from big-city watering holes in New York and other places.
“I took some of my favorite bars around the country and around the world and tried to meld them together, the things I liked about each one,” he said. “It was a fusion, but I wanted it to be distinctly Montana - a Montana that people hadn't seen yet.”
Vicky Hammond said the James Bar forges a perfect relationship between old and new, culturally and architecturally.
“It's the juxtaposition between the wood and the concrete in here,” she said. “That's why we made it approachable. We didn't make it so fancy that people wouldn't feel comfortable.”
To be sure, this is no fern bar. In fact, it's a little country and a lot rock 'n' roll. On the walls are giant prints of rock legends Janis Joplin (holding a bottle of Southern Comfort), the Allman Brothers, a young Keith Richards and an unbearded Willie Nelson.
There is no space for live music, but Seamus Hammond noted the bar's upscale sound system and said the fare will be pretty much good old rock music, with perhaps some old-school hip-hop thrown in.
The James Bar also has a kitchen that will serve “gourmet bar food,” and head chef Noel Mills plans to throw in some surprises.
So if you've never bitten into a lobster corn dog, now's your chance.
“We're kind of going with a very approachable menu, a lot of stuff that people understand, but a few things that will challenge some people,” said Mills.
Other fare includes shrimp cocktail, slider burgers, classic and spicy garlic french fries, beef, lamb, lobster and veggie falafel, as well as comfort foods like shepherd's pie and macaroni and cheese.
The James Bar opens to the public on Dec. 26 at 4 p.m.
Reporter Jamie Kelly can be reached at 523-5254 or at jkelly@missoulian.com.
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