"The High Low" Coffee and Vermouth Bar Pops-Up at Ballard's Anchored Ship

[Photos: Sheila M./Yelp and Jon French]

For the past few Friday and Saturday nights, Ballard Ave.'s Anchored Ship has hosted pop-up bar The High Low. Anchored Ship manager Jon French is behind the concept; he makes the cocktails and a friend who works at Amazon by day helps out as barback.

The drink menu is built around coffee and vermouth, a liquor French says a lot of people haven't tried beyond a classic martini. French spent a few months pairing single origin coffees with vermouth to see how the two work together. "It was horrible at first," he says. But after trial and error he was able to refine flavors into simple drinks served neat or on the rocks with a twist.

This weekend's menu includes the Amory Amargo (Burundi iced coffee, Cocchi di Torino, grapefruit bitters) and The Ship (Cocchi Barolo Chinato, seasonal espresso, grapefruit zest.) Additional fortified wine concoctions like The Wayfarer (Dolin Blanc de Chambery, ginger beer, lime bitters) and a few snacks including sobriety toast ("used to soak up alcohol") are also available.

Liquor on the inaugural drink list is all imported from Italy and France, but French plans to test some local booze in the next round of popups. He wraps up the final weekend in The High Low's first month-long series this Friday and Saturday from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. Completely new drink menus will be featured at upcoming pop-ups. They're on the calendar for May 2 through June 29 and July 14 through August 14.

The High Low is exclusively popping up at Anchored Ship through summer, but French plans to try out other locations in the future.
· The Anchored Ship [Facebook]