A new spot to sip a cocktail is coming to downtown Grand Rapids!

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A bar promising a luxury experience is opening up in Plaza Towers at 231 W. Fulton St., across from The B.O.B. and a short walk to Van Andel Arena.

Crain's Grand Rapids reports that Nighwatch Bar will rely on "vintage recipes and high-level service to back its Rembrandt-inspired European charm."

The cocktail lounge gets its name from a painting - Night Watch by Rembrandt.

Nightwatch will bein the southwest corner of the apartment's lobby and will seat 43 people.

Plaza Apartments, Facebook
Plaza Apartments, Facebook
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Owner Rob Hanks has more than a decade of experience in hospitality, having managed at Reserve Wine and Food and Two James Spirits and Sidebar.

Hanks tells Crain's Grand Rapids much of the inspiration for Nightwatch comes from five-star European hotels:

When prohibition set in here in the United States, the bartender was a higher class citizen than most people think of a bartender these days. All of them were effectively out of a job here in the U.S. so they all fled across the world and continued their trade abroad. They’ve helped to bolster all of these drinking cultures across the world, which has really led to a different kind of hotel bar abroad.

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Canva
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In terms of what you can expect for drinks, Hanks is working with recipes from a prohibition-era book, released in 1927. He tells Crain's Grand Rapids,

I have very exacting standards for our cocktails. Anything that’s on the menu is going to be painstakingly vetted.

While an exact opening date has yet to be revealed, the hope is to open at some point in summer 2023.

Follow Nightwatch on Instagram for updates!

If dive bars are more your thing, check out more than ten here in Grand Rapids:

Grand Rapids Dive Bars

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Detroit Bars That Were Once Speakeasys During Prohibition

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