Our first clue came from Chuck:

I just walked by a door marked Grizzled Wizard on 45th between the UPS store and the Erotic Bakery. I did a bit of Google sleuthing and found a liquor license application by Savoy Foods and Joseph L. Couden. But my investigative abilities end there. Since you’re a guy in the know, or at least a guy who knows guys in the know, would you be able to find out any more info?

Always up to the challenge, we checked Everyblock and found little more than Chuck was able to discover:

Location 2317 N. 45th St.

Application date January 19, 2010

Applicant SAVOY FOODS, LLC; COUDEN, JOSEPH L

License number 083856

Event type New application

License types Restaurant / lounge — spirits, beer and wine (Less than 50 percent dedicated dining)

Action type New liquor license application

Fine, we grabbed the license number and tried a public records request. The response:

Thank you for your public records request. Please see the information below: Trade Name: The Grizzled Wizard

Privilege Type: Spirits/Beer/Wine Restaurant Lounge

Location Address: 2317-A N 45th Street, Seattle, WA, 98103-6905

Daytime phone: 206-849-0062

Licensee: 359591

Pending Licensee: Savoy Foods

Pending people for license: Joseph Couden This is a pending application. When the license is active, the application documents will be available for a public records request. You may submit another public records request at that time. You might want to call our office first, to ask if the license is active. This closes your public records request. If you have any questions, please call or email me.

Not much more to go on, but at least a phone number! But before we had a chance to call the number, ’round about 10 pm, we saw this come across Twitter:

At my bandmate’s new bar in Wallingford (the Grizzled Wizard). We’re listening to doom metal and watching ‘Day of the Dead’. Totes rad.

Saddle up the horses, boys, we’ve got some riding to do! Baby Z safely in bed, we grabbed our metaphorical hat and headed up to the 45th to get the scoop. Behold, The Grizzled Wizard:

Yes, indeed, that odd little bar next to the Erotic Bakery has re-opened under a new owner, Joe Couden and his friend and bar manager, Kendall McCormick. Friends of the owner of the old bar (which has been closed for three months, and whose name we did not collect, and which was never posted on the outside), they got their liquor license earlier today and rushed to open. With the benefit of a coterie of loyal friends and customers from the establishment’s previous incarnation (and a St. Paddy’s Day opening night), they were already doing business at a fair clip.

The plan, in case you’re wondering, is to operate a simple, neighborhood bar. When the Seahawks are playing, expect the music to be down and the TV’s on. Come the weekends, your basic blow-out. There’s food available now, but just your basic obey-the-letter-of-the-law TV dinners. The operators, both veterans of Fremont’s Swingside Cafe, suggested that maybe down the line, the offerings might expand. The darts and video games are free. The drinks are generous, and the atmosphere is boisterous.

In the process of our investigation, we happened to pull up a bar stool next to a Flash, a long-time Wallyhood reader and commenter who we’d never met in the flesh. He informed us that, in the no-bullshit manner to which we’ve become accustomed in his comments, while he liked Wallyhood, we had “too much kid stuff”.

OK, granted. But there we are, out at night, in a bar, Baby Z safely home asleep. Give us some credit, right?