Eleven months ago, the Mercury reported that Hey Love, a new '60s- and '70s-style fern bar-inspired cocktail joint from Emily Mistell (Rum Club), Sophie Thomson (Bar Bar), and Nicholas Musso and Aaron Hall (both of Dig A Pony), was slated to open on the ground floor of East Burnside’s Jupiter Next Hotel.

Now, nearly one year later, the team has announced* that they finally have an opening date: Friday, October 12, with executive chef Roscoe Robeson (ChefStable) running the burners.

So what should we all finally expect?

Hey Love:

• Is a small tight space that somehow feels very big, despite it being a busy room full of vintage photos of things that went down in the '60s and '70s, and about 100 potted and hanging plants. (Watering those plants take a full two hours, FWIW.)
• Has a tropical drinks bar program that Mistell calls “approachable, balanced, and unpretentious” (although there’s plenty of technique going on on the back end before those drinks reach your table). Many of those drinks have names like “Sharon is Karen” (cucumber-vodka soda) and “Coconut Bangers Ball…It’s a Wrap” (rum slushy). (Many of said names have inside baseball backstories from the owners who are also longtime friends.) There will also be Cap’n Crunch-infused Old Fashioneds. And pudding shots.

• Employs an imported Suntory Whisky highball machine that spritzes water at five times the standard level. (Think of water with texture. Or Pop Rocks, fairly aggressive ones, in liquid form.) It’ll be used for, naturally, highballs.
• Will feature a menu that Hall calls “tropically inspired comfort food” from around the country and around the globe. (Think bacon broth-braised oxtail with sour orange soy-grated ginger, macaroni and cheese pie slices, pork cheeks with salsa and coconut jus, and grilled curry and maple cauliflower.) Price points range between $6 and $17. And the menu will definitely NOT feature a burger.

• Will feature a FOH dress code that Mistell describes as “Studio 54 in the Caribbean.”
• Will feature DJs on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights.
• Will be open for dinner at 4 pm for the first week of service. After that, Hey Love will serve breakfast, lunch, happy hour, dinner, and late night fare from 7 am to 2 am, daily, all year long.

*Hey Love will open to the public on Friday, but if you’re wandering by this Thursday, feel free to pop in for the bar’s soft opening.

Hey Love: 920 E Burnside, 503-206-6223