Capitol Hill BlogMetis, which also worked on Poquitos, has a great team of talented craftsmen that carefully restored and integrated the many vintage pieces and also built custom tables and benches to complete the look of Rhein Haus.
The building that houses Rhein Haus was originally built as a candy factory and most recently was home to Majale’s (a hookah bar) and Dixon’s Furniture. In the period leading up to the build, the Mētis staff had been getting more and more excited about the beer hall we were going to build – thinking about how the various reclaimed pieces that James and Deming had brought back from their recent trip to Germany might fit together, looking at photos of German and American beer halls… but as is the case with building rehabs and in all phases of construction, before the finish work could start, the workers at Mētis had to work their way up and out of the hole. In this case, “the hole” was a 10,000 plus square foot crawl space that ranged in height from 72″ down to 0″. Looking more like miners than carpenters for much of the time, Mētis set about installing extensive sections of shoring, digging and pouring numerous footings, removing structural members damaged by fire in the distant past, removing and replacing columns compromised by rot, replacing large sections of the floor system, adding sheer walls and accompanying grade beams, etc.. Finally, the day came when saw blades and chisels once again bit into clean wood, when the Mētis staff could turn its attention to building heavy timber mezzanine structures, fabricating raised fir panels and corbels, repurposing found objects to create back bars that looked as though they predated the building itself… For a carpenter, life doesn’t get much better than that!
Team
- Ian Dugas
- Brian McCormick
- Grant Eckman
- Jeff Taipale
- John Sehlhorst
- Luther Chatel
- Matthew Hunsberger
- Matthias Scheiblehner
- Nathan Towl
- Nils Christian
- Pat MacGregor
- Patrick McKnight
- Phil Bailey
- Sebastian Kimura
- Tom McKnight
Collaborators
Rhein Haus was realized in collaboration with James Weimann, Deming Maclise, Rich Fox, Dustin Watson, Matt Fundingsland, Amoreena Miller of Strata Architects and Swenson Say Faget Structural Engineering. Special thanks to Kemly Electric, Fischer Plumbing, Performance Mechanical, Smith and Greene, Clean Crawls, Above and Beyond Drywall, Elgie Gibson Wall Coverings, Crane Painting, Artistic Media Group and Chris McMullen Productions.
Press
Capitol Hill is alive with buzz about the newest Bavarian restaurant and bier hall, Rhein House which opened Sunday.
” — Capitolhilltimes.comWeimann and Maclise worked with Metis Construction for the build-out of the space. Metis, who also worked on Poquitos, has a great team of talented craftsmen that carefully restored and integrated the many vintage pieces and also built custom tables and benches to complete the look of Von Trapp’s.
” — Capitolhilltimes.comThe long beer hall-style tables dominating that space were built by Metis Construction, a firm that has also become accustomed to Weimann and Maclise returning from foreign countries with giant antiquities that must be made sturdy enough to withstand interaction with hundreds of tipsy people a week.
” — Seattle MetCarefully produced food and drink aside, décor dominates. Von Trapp’s elaborate layout is the work of Strata Architects’ Amoreena Miller, who also designed restaurateur Ethan Stowell’s Rione XIII, and Metis Construction, which also handled the buildout at Poquitos.
” — Bizjournals.com-
