Updating Eureka! Headed to Fremont East

The Beat Coffeehouse shuttered on the ground floor of the Emergency Arts building last month and construction work has already begun to bring an "all-American scratch kitchen & craft bar" to Fremont East by mid-2017.

Doubling the former coffee shop space, Eureka! will fill 4,494 square feet and offer 355 square feet of expanded patio seating outside on Fremont Street. Inside the "industrial rustic" dining room, 27 guests will sit around the rectangular, central bar, serving "exclusively American craft" beer. The cocktails will also be mixed with only American-created spirits. To hammer home the point, a tentative design for a blade sign to replace the existing "Medical Center" corner signage will declare "Eat. Drink. American."

Seating will include fixed booths, banquettes and "loose seating" to make it easier to be moved out of the way for live "acoustic" entertainment. Another event already planned, is the Hawthorne, California, chain’s tradition of "Steal the Glass," where a particular craft beer is promoted for the night and customers take home a souvenir glass.

On the menu, dishes inspired by regions around the country, including Southern cuisines, bison from the Plains and Pacific Northwest salmon. Apple pie and butterscotch pudding have been earmarked for the dessert menu.

Emergency Arts will relocate to the second floor, with their own designated entrance and no direct access via the restaurant. Early, but not yet prepared for approval exterior designs also remove the current and very prominent Emergency Arts neon and Fremont Center signage.