Sun Liquor Lounge, the Capitol Hill bar that went on sale for just under $200,000 earlier this year, might have found a new owner in Andre Sayre, a 30-year-old tech worker taking a break to find a new avenue in life.

“I enjoy the community aspect of a little place that everyone knows and loves,” he tells CHS about the planned purchase of the bar. “I wanted to do what I can to keep it around.”

There aren’t a lot of changes planned for the Summit Ave watering hole, the last vestige of Sun Liquor’s presence on Capitol Hill. Not everything from the bar was included in the deal. When the sales goes through, the old space will have a new name — Sol Liquor.

CHS reported this spring about owner Michael Klebeck’s plan to sell the lounge following the 2017 exit of Sun Liquor’s E Pike microdistillery from Capitol Hill as logistics became too much to handle in the densely packed neighborhood. Klebeck founded Top Pot Doughnuts on Summit with his brother Mark in 2002.

Today, Sayre is well into the process of acquiring the bar. He has been living on Capitol Hill just three blocks away from Sun Liquor Lounge for nearly six years now, and before Seattle, he worked in the restaurant and food industry in Santa Barbara, California. After moving here, Sayre worked at Microsoft and Amazon while bartending on the side for places like MoPOP and Benaroya Hall.

“It’s a great place for someone who just wants a simple, good craft cocktail,” Sayre said. “Nothing pretentious. Nothing gimmicky. Just fresh ingredients, a place to chat with friends, take somebody on a date”

The deal remains tentative and nothing has been finalized while elements like a liquor license transfer need to be worked out. He hopes to have a decision in less than a month. Here’s hoping it goes smoothly for him. CHS has tracked a few recent transactions involving liquor license assumptions that have dragged on including one off again, on again deal that has been in the works for months.

If the deal goes through, and he does acquire the bar, Sayre added that he intends to change as little as possible.

“If it ends up going through, I don’t plan to change a thing except two letters of the name. I’d love to keep all the same people, same type of drinks, same ambiance,” Sayre said. “It ain’t broke so I’m not going to fix it.”

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