DTHL S11: EP06 Vovina – Kirkland, WA

(Scroll down for the video)

We are continuing our mission of supporting small businesses during the pandemic by producing our show. This is a zero-budget show featuring local businesses to go to for food, drink, travel, and adventure! In this blog / episode we are going to introduce you to Katy Ballard, Owner of Vovina. We discuss their craft cocktails, small shareable plates, and operating a business during the pandemic.

Katy Ballard – I’ve had the bar for about six years now the last year’s been the toughest so far, but it’s been a whole lot of fun. We are a craft cocktail bar and small shareable plates eatery, so we offer local beers on tap. We also highlight and feature local Washington wines, as well as wines from throughout the world. And we use all local produce. Lots of organic meats and cheeses as well. Everything is made fresh daily from scratch in our kitchen, and we are famous for our craft cocktails.

Tim Wuolle – Great I’d love to learn some more about craft cocktails.

Katy Ballard – So we’ve been nominated for a lot of awards and in the past couple years. We won the top 10 bar in Washington State. We’ve also been on KING 5, and KIRO 7 and KOMO. They do awards every year we’ve been on those. We’ve been in Kirkland “Best of” Awards.

Tim Wuolle – Do you accept reservations?

Katy Ballard – We’re a tiny place. Only about probably 900 square feet, we only seat about 35 to 40 in our bar and restaurant but we pack a big punch for a tiny place. So right now we’re in phase three and we’re 50 capacity. Because of our size, we don’t accept reservations. It really doesn’t matter any time of year, pre or post covid. We are first come, first serve and you just have to get lucky when you drop in and hope there’s a table available. There’s definitely fewer these days, but we hope to be back to near normal levels sometime this summer. We also have a patio that seats around 20 to 25 people as well, so that helps us out in the summer when the weather’s nice.

Tim Wuolle -Do you have any specials?

Katy Ballard – We do have Happy Hour every day from opening (3:30pm) until 5:30pm and that’s kind of unusual for the area because in this day and age there’s a lot of people that aren’t doing Happy Hours, but also they aren’t doing Happy Hours every day. So ours is seven days a week and we like to be able to offer that to people who might be watching their pennies, or just want to swing by for a drink on their way out to another place, or whatever the reason is we like to be able to offer that. We also have a pub next door called Flatstick Pub that just reopened. They were closed for pretty much the better part of a year, and they don’t have a kitchen, so there’s a way that you can order takeout on our to-go platform. You order from your phone wherever you’re seated in Flatstick Pub, and we will make it and run it over to you there. So we’ve kind of figured out multiple ways to take advantage of of takeout. We never really did takeout before but now you can even get our award-winning cocktails and little takeout bottles to go!

Tim Wuolle – Is takeout something that you think you’re going to keep doing moving forward?

Katy Ballard – I think we are. You know, takeout is a muscle that’s helpful any time. And even though we might not have been considered a takeout place before, a lot of people are kind of getting in the habit of it now. We have a wonderful waterfront location and sometimes people want to come off their boat, order something to-go and take it down to their boat with their friends. It’s just a really nice way to expand the capacity of the restaurant for one, but also expand options for the customer.

Tim Wuolle – Signature cocktails to-go. That’s kind of interesting too. We’ve haven’t seen a lot of places offering cocktails to-go.

Katy Ballard – They come in a cute little reusable bottle that you can take with you and it’s plastic. So it’s perfect for a boat. You can hit it against something and it’s not going to shatter.

Tim Wuolle – What is your signature cocktail?

Katy Ballard – We have something called the jalapeño and it’s muddled jalapeño, cilantro and fresh lime. It’s mixed with vodka and just a little bit of sweet sour and it’s just fantastic. Even people that don’t think that they like cilantro or aren’t big fans of jalapeño or heat are big fans of this cocktail. That’s won a lot of people over. It’s very, very well balanced. It’s served up as a martini-style cocktail and it’s kind of put us on the map.

Tim Wuolle – Is that a cocktail that you would pair with something, or does it just go by itself? Or both?

Katy Ballard – Both. I would say we offer a lot of food that’s kind of designed to go with our drinks and our wine list. So we have things like charcuterie plates, you can get pita and veggies, and three house made dips, all the way up to steak sandwiches and burger sliders and salads. But they all, I would say, support and supplement what we’re doing on the bar side. Because we know that all has to work together. They’re also very shareable. We tend to do plates that people can put on our sort of low slung cocktail lounge-style table and share with their friends. You know, since you asked me about things that we’re doing differently for covid, that actually was a big change that we did. Everything that we offered before was shareable on one plate, and then to share with friends. And when we were open last summer, that just wasn’t really being done, and people weren’t comfortable with it. So we created a new menu with a lot more individual portions and individual servings and plates as well, and things that would be a little less reliant on sharing. You still could share but you didn’t have to share. Particularly if you came with friends and you weren’t comfortable, you know, getting in there to share a plate.

Tim Wuolle – I hope we all get comfortable getting back to sharing food and drink like that again.

Katy Ballard – Yeah it’s just one of the things that you used to do that you take for granted. So another thing that we offer when we get back to normal is we do a music night every week and we have live music. Usually an acoustic guitarist singer-songwriter type style.

Tim Wuolle – Is the music indoor or outdoor?

Katy Ballard – It’s indoor in the winter and it goes outside on the patio in the summer, and it’s usually on Thursday nights. I think we’ll continue with that.

Tim Wuolle -OK, Great! We’ll come back and check it out!

Thanks for reading this blog and checking out the video! Go to discoveringthehighlife.com for news and information and make sure you follow us on social media!

Please Comment and share! And thanks again to Katy Ballard and her team for participating! Go check them out and tell them Discovering The High Life sent you!

Get more info at vovina.net

Follow them on social media @vovinakirkland

Thanks for reading our blog! Please like, comment, and share!

Discovering The High Life is Produced by our sister company Wooly Productions. New episodes every Thursday night so go to discoveringthehighlife.com for more news and information and please subscribe to us on YouTube!

Cheers! – Tim

We are looking for Sponsors!

This is a zero budget show. Sponsors Welcome!

We do not charge businesses to be featured. Through Wooly Productions we’ve been on a mission of supporting small businesses during the pandemic by producing our show. This is is a zero-budget show and is our way of giving back to the community and helping with the recovery efforts during these difficult times. We support businesses by telling their story. We have also have been providing free and low cost photography, design and marketing through our sister company Wooly Productions. If you would like to join us in our mission of supporting our small local business, please consider donating via Patreon or Venmo. Links below.

You can also support our show by making a purchase from our online store! New items coming soon! Get Early Access and exclusive merchandise by joining our

Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/discoveringthehighlife

Venmo. https://venmo.com/discoveringthehighlife

Shop https://discoveringthehighlife.com/shop-2