A new tarot-themed bar and cocktail lounge called Hermit’s Keep is planned for the former Angelo’s Piano Lounge at 1686 N. Van Buren St. License applications filed with the city list November 6 as a proposed opening date, pending approvals.
Hermit’s Keep will be owned and operated by Jay Stamates and brother-and-sister duo Zavion “Ink” Thompson and Haley “Fox” Yates. Stamates is the owner of Walker’s Point dive bar Sabbatic and downtown dive bar Stella’s. Thompson is a bartender at Bryant’s Cocktail Lounge. Fox is a bartender at Stella’s.
Social media posts promise “scratch cocktails, desserts, and charcuterie.” License applications propose hours of 3 p.m. – 2 a.m. Sunday through Thursday, and 3 p.m. – 2:30 a.m. Friday and Saturday.
Angelo’s closed in 2024 after more than three decades in business. That bar’s namesake, Angelo Mortellaro, passed away in 2016.
Despite a year of planning and a big “69 steps to Donnie’s” billboard or whatever, a previous bar planned for the space, Donnie’s, never came to fruition.
Looking for a mystic bar fix before Hermit’s Keep opens its doors? Check out Star Bar, an astrology-themed bar that opened in a section of the former Crossroads Collective earlier this summer.
And yeah, I totally snapped the main photo for this article while passing by on the bus. It’s been a busy week.
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