Matador (4546 California Ave SW) in The Junction is the latest 21+ establishment planning to open its doors to customers under drinking age—during certain hours. There’s still some remodeling to do, and until that happens, followed by state liquor board approval, they can’t set a date.
“We want to welcome everyone,” Carly Crane, the general manager for the restaurant, told WSB. Crane says the ownership group of Matador, which runs 12 locations in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and on the East Coast, is bringing the Junction location in line with the majority of their restaurants. The Ballard location has already switched over, and that leaves West Seattle, Redmond, and Tacoma as the only ones remaining at 21 and up.
Don’t expect any big changes inside. “No crayons,” she says, but they will have two high chairs available and a very limited kids’ menu — a choice of chicken tenders or a quesadilla. She says she looks forward to seeing more people from the neighborhood who wanted to dine as a family and could not.
The remodeling involves cutting out part of the floor to show where the restaurant transitions to the bar area, and they don’t have that scheduled quite yet, so the change might not take place until the new year.
Matador will go back to 21+ at 9 pm each day. That leaves 3 or more hours after families go home for adults to order more from the Mexican-inspired menu and enjoy the bar and the 130+ varieties of tequila. Matador opened its Junction location in 2005. This change will make Matador the second West Seattle restaurant/bar to stop being adults-only – as we’ve reported, Whisky West just made that change.
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