The Blue Tractor is taking over the former Cafe Habana, but what everyone really wants to know is the future location of Cafe Habana. Habana temporarily closed in January, to reopen sometime this summer. Blue Tractor managing partner Dan Glazer wasn’t telling, but he was willing to play Twenty Questions up to a point. The new Cafe Habana will be downtown; it will be in a space that is currently a restaurant; and that place will not be the former Eve in Kerrytown.
Meanwhile, the Blue Tractor, which opened in 2008 (both are part of the 2Mission family of businesses owned by Jon Carlson and Greg Lobdell, who also own Grizzly Peak), has already punched into the wall of Habana and is redoing it in a theme more consistent with the Tractor’s rough and ready barnwood, while the kitchen gets an upgrade and another smoker. By the end of February, the project should be complete, and chef James Wilhelm will roll out his new menu, featuring barbecue from around the world. Glazer hopes to keep Blue Tractor open throughout the remodel, “except for possibly a day here and there.”
Until the new Cafe Habana opens, the Habana Cellar Lounge will stay open. The Thursday salsa night with Julio Rosas’s free lessons was just too popular to put on hiatus. After the new Habana opens, the downstairs bar will begin a remodel and rechristening of its own as part of the Blue Tractor.
Update: After the February Observer went to press, Curtis Commercial Properties announced that 2Mission development is buying the remaining lease of the Parthenon Greek restaurant at Main and Liberty. Plans call for the new Cafe Habana and Cellar Lounge to open there this summer.
