Rachel’s Ginger Beer Is Now Pouring in the U Village

As of Friday, the third location for Rachel’s Ginger Beer is open in the University Village, serving ginger beer concoctions — virgin and cocktail — along with fried chicken sandwiches from Ma’Ono.

Owner Rachel Marshall tells Eater that this new location fulfills a long-held goal. “We’ve wanted to open in U Village right about the moment we opened our doors in Pike Place Market over three-and-a-half years ago,” says Marshal. “I love everything about the model, one stop shopping for pretty much anything you need/want, a pleasant place to wander from store to store, good-and-getting better dining options, and number one in my brain, a captive audience of 14 million shoppers per year.”

Marshall says to expect a lot of overlap with her other locations: growlers to go, a range of flavored ginger beer, soft-serve floats, cocktails on tap, and boozy frozen slushies. There are some aspects unique to this location, including the range of spicy fried chicken sandwiches from West Seattle’s Ma’Ono and a U Village-exclusive ginger beer flavor, tangerine turmeric.

Marshall will soon have a neighbor in a third location for Eric Banh’s Ba Bar, which Banh says should be ready for business in July. This outpost will complement the original in the Central District and a South Lake Union location that opened in December. The new Ba Bar’s menu will be familiar to fans of the other locations, with Vietnamese dishes like pho, bun bo hue, and other small plates. Naturally, cocktails and pastries will round out the offerings.