The Yard Café opening on Thursday

The Yard Café, brought to you by the owners of Ballard’s The Dray, hopes to open at 8313 Greenwood Ave. N. on Thursday.

The soon-to-be-open Yard Cafe was a popular spot on the Greenwood-Phinney Artwalk last Friday, as people checked out the interior and watched the metal forge artists in the front yard.
The menu features shared plates, such as crab and shrimp stack, quesadillas, orange chipotle, spicy roasted peanuts and pumpkin seeds, red rice, pickled veggies, tortas, tacos and fish tacos. They also will serve fish and steak platters, and a sweet potato enchilada stack.
The Yard features a bar that can open to the covered front deck, and a front yard with picnic tables.
Inside, just outside the bathrooms, is a bank of 100 lockers, reserved for their Founders Club members. For $250, members get a personal 20-ounce beer mug that they can lock inside, a T-shirt, and invitations to special events and the occasional “special surprise” inside their locker (the café’s owners will have a master key to all lockers). Co-owner Travis Eaton says the mug is a dimpled old-style pub mug with The Yard Cafe emblem.

The Yard Cafe Founders Club lockers, with individual keys.
Eaton says The Yard Café’s grand opening celebration is planned for May 29, as part of the closing ceremonies for Seattle Beer Week, which will be held at The Yard. Eaton’s co-owners are Jamie Butler and Andy Walls.