Saratoga News

Photograph by Robert Scheer

Mitch Cutler puts decorative moss in the cracks of the railing leading downstairs in Blue Rock Shoot.

Blue Rock Shoot contemplates 10-year-old scotch downstairs

By Sarah Lombardo

Patrons of the Blue Rock Shoot coffeehouse on Big Basin Way may soon be able to order not only a cup of coffee and and a bagel, but also a cigar and a shot of 10-year-old scotch.

Since the departure of the Saratoga Book Market in March, the downstairs portion of Blue Rock Shoot, located at 14523 Big Basin Way, has been getting a once-over. Blue Rock Shoot owner Mitch Cutler said repairs have been done and a new humidor added. Plans are in the works for a kitchen to be added and a new menu created.

"We have a long-range goal of expanding the food and doing more with different kinds of food," he said.

The coffeehouse gained approval for a kitchen and a license to sell liquor on the premises prior to the closing of the Book Market. Cutler said, however, that the coffeehouse plans are not intended to compete with other Big Basin Way restaurants but to complement them. He said he'd like Blue Rock Shoot to be seen as a kind of upscale neighborhood hangout for grownups--a place where some can get coffee and others can get a good drink and enjoy a stogie. Cigars would be enjoyed, as they are now, outside on the patio.

But, he said, the downstairs of Blue Rock Shoot will not be turned into a cigar bar exclusively, as some locals thought.

"We have always sold cigars and we will continue to sell cigars," he said, "but it's hardly our main business. I want to have a place that offers different things."

To that end, Cutler said he and wife and business partner Tracey and business partner Josh White are even planning to create different dining areas downstairs. Cutler said each of the potential eight areas could have different design themes.

The downstairs of Blue Rock Shoot became vacant when the Saratoga Book Market closed its doors March 8 after about two years at the location. The Cutlers opened Blue Rock Shoot itself in March 1996, offering coffee drinks, bagels, sandwiches, and live entertainment on Friday and Saturday nights. Last fall, former La Fondue waiter Josh White became a full business partner with the Cutlers at Blue Rock Shoot.

The Cutlers also own La Fondue restaurant across the street and are working on opening a second La Fondue--a task Cutler said is taking up a lot of time, so plans for Blue Rock are moving slowly.

But Cutler said the real work downstairs at Blue Rock, much of which they are doing themselves, will begin this spring.

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