Welcome to the Arbutus Bar

Follow along: IG @arbutusbar.pt

Welcome to the Arbutus Bar! I don’t know how long ago I announced a plan to move to Portugal and open a cocktail bar, but we are open! The location is in the enchanted seaside town of Olhao in the very south; the Algarve. Down an alley from the fish market, we share a courtyard with the incredible restaurant, Chácháchá.

Olhao is an end of the world town like Key West or Provincetown. The bikers find it when they are trying to reach the end, artists find it, and you can tell that certain eclectic expats find it when they are seeking a life at the edge. Americans are fairly rare and tourism is mostly the Portuguese from the north followed by Spain and the smart-set of France. At the same time, there are plenty of Brits. You fly in from Faro airport or take the train down from Lisbon.

Arbutus is latin for Medronho. The Portuguese attach that name to both the fruit, the brandy made from the fruit, and honey from the flowers. If you work with Arbutus, you are likely both beekeeper and distiller! The “bitter” honey is considered the greatest of the world and the best examples of the brandy could be called adjacent to tequila; ripe for cocktails! I have explored both the honey and the brandy for nearly 20 years. More can be said here, but I am easing into things.

I had visited Olhao for eight years before my wife set the project in motion. She is a designer that wanted to split her time between remote work and a new career. In the plan, she would design the bar and I would build it. My industry heroes built their own restaurants and bars (i.e. Sal’s Place) and I already had a taste of it, doing a lot of maintenance for everywhere I’ve ever worked.

The real estate we found was previously the office of a terrible local builder (flipper). It was full of code violations and terrible decisions. I had to remove well over a 1000 kg of terrible tile flooring they put over acceptable tile only to find they used their grinders on the original floor! We restored a lot of the damage and fixed the code violations. The landlord was a set designer for the movies and excited to work with a designer and builder.

I made a series of mahogany panels (we painted them!), recessed into the front of the bar that match a door by the church. I was supposed to make all the bar stools, but my wife proposed this challenge. Olhao is famous for doors and a lot of local people took interest because supposedly the last person capable of this kind of work either passed or retired. The local lumberyard has let me know they may request my services in the future…

Old timers wondered what the hell the American was doing as I wheeled large slabs of mahogany down the alley.

When was the last time a bar was built by the owner on site? 1980’s?

The right side of the back bar is flanked by a large perpendicular shelf system followed by a similar antique shelf system (locally thrifted) which frame a hallway back to the bathroom.

For the left side, I built a cabinet with doors below more shelves. These frame a back of house space for a Hoshizaki ice machine and more infrastructure. Tall dramatic curtains close it off, but need be, part of the space can be expanded for more seating.

My cabinets are all built in a 19th century style with with tongue & groove backs and a traditional saw toothed system for adjusting the shelves. These are still seen all over Lisbon and Porto but are mostly gone in Olhao. My electrician remembered them from the 1980’s and told me grocers that had them would wrap your ground coffee in a page from a phone book and send you on your way! We got his stamp of approval for the design!

I designed & built two benches for a nook on the right side of the room. 5 hours a piece (before paint), built at a wild sprint!

I had to open for the season, but I’ll get back to more furniture building this winter when we close for two months. I want all the tables to be cricket tables and the chairs will slowly become Welsh style stick chairs (or possibly a few other styles). The bar stools are designed with one prototype built. The room is covered in paintings, etchings, ormalus’s and other things I collected and that will expand.

We wanted to create a place people would be excited enough about to make the trip!

This may be the world’s most affordable cocktail menu (tax is included and tipping is probably less than 10%). This is my listening menu, where I listen to the clientele and see what they are interested in (and see what I can deliver). One thing we aim to do is support the market (just down the alley) so old school cocktail products like pomegranate grenadine, ginger syrup and mint become a big focal point. There are citrus groves at the edge of town and lemons to us are more important than the gin. When I buy lemons at the outdoor Saturday market, they often come from someone’s back yard! For some astute drinkers, this menu may be a welcome time warp to 15 years ago. The menu is designed to simultaneously attract a clientele we enjoy and reject parts of the industry machine I find annoying.

Will this ever be a 50 best bar? No, that shit is lame.

I hope to see some of you in Olhao at the Arbutus Bar! or maybe follow along: @arbutusbar.pt