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One of the unfortunate realities of Seattle geography is that it’s impossible to start your evening off at Phocific Standard Time, the downtown cocktail bar serving Vietnamese-inspired drinks, and follow that up with dinner at Ba Sa, the Bainbridge Island standout restaurant. But sibling-owner teams Yenvy and Quynh Pham (of PST, who also own Pho Bac Sup Shop and the Boat and were recently longlisted for a James Beard Award) and Trinh and Thai Nguyen (of Ba Sa) are teaming up for one weekend at the end of March via a popup at PST featuring food from Ba Sa and drinks from PST.
For those unfamiliar, Phocific Standard Time is a semi-hidden bar up the stairs from Pho Bac’s Denny Triangle location. Opened in 2021, it repurposes the flavors the Pham family has long used at Pho Bac to invent some startling cocktails featuring ingredients like pho fat-washed whiskey, coconut milk, and tofu-infused gin.
On March 31 and April 1, PST’s usual menu will be replaced by offerings from Ba Sa, which has become famous since it opened in 2019 for its combining of traditional Vietnamese techniques with local Northwest ingredients. Unfortunately, the Nguyen siblings aren’t bringing everything they offer at Ba Sa to PST, but you’ll be able to get their rich truffle wontons — which you’d normally have to take a ferry ride to experience — alongside novel items like skewers of venison with fish sauce and honey and a chicken sando with ghost buffalo sauce.
“We’ve all been friends for a long time,” Ba Sa chef Trinh Nguyen said in a statement. “We’re super excited to collaborate and pair our food with the outstanding cocktails at PST. Plus, we never get to hang out on weekends.”
The catch is that PST doesn’t take reservations and neither does this pop-up, which may add to the casual, speakeasy-esque vibe the bar cultivates but can lead to fairly long wait times. Our advice is to show up early.
The Ba Sa popup at Phocific Standard Time will run from March 31 to April 1, 5 p.m. to midnight. Reservations are not accepted. PST is located on the second floor of 1923 Seventh Avenue, Seattle, WA, 98101.
