Hercules Powder Keg
— by Jeffrey Wisniewski — 16 January 2008 — 6 comments below »
Many residents have undoubtedly seen the announcement posted on the doors of the corner unit at Sycamore and Railroad. A seafood cafe slash pub is coming to the Waterfront. It will be called the Hercules Powder Keg.
I have confirmed via email that the owners planned on opening in March, but it looks more likely to be sometime in April, at the earliest…
We initially hoped to open at the end of March. But we understand
that there is somewhat of a backlog with the Health Dept., which will
therefore push all our other contractors out a bit. We sincerely hope to
open mid-April, but who knows….
I will post updated information as I receive it.
While I don’t drink, I think this is a very good idea – and a brilliant name! I don’t know who the owner is, but it would be nice to have something that is a bit more social than a real estate office – thumbs up.
Warren Caudle
I am very happy to hear someone decided to provide a service that we all can enjoy. I am a long time resident in promenade and have been very disapointed by all of the real estate offices in our neighbor they took away the joy we all had for our neighbor hood to be a place of small shops that we can eat,shop have a glass of wine and watch the sunset in the summer time.
Thank goodness someone is going to provide a service that we can enjoy I am a long time resident in promenade and I can not wait for the Powder Keg to open. It and was very upsetting to see the only services we were provided was real estate offices and loan agent offices. Seeing all the real estate offices in our neighborhood was very very upsetting my wife and I was so upset when we seen all of the real estate offices we have been considering moving, hopefully the Powder Keg will change things and we will be able to enjoy the neighborhood that we thought we bought into 5 years ago.
I live in the neighborhood and I am sure I will be a regular patron once it opens. The initial menu looks great! I sure hope it opens sooner then later!!!
Hello to everyone at Promenade, Baywood and all the other surrounding homes (our apologies…we don’t know the name of the collective group of homes to the west of Promenade)!
We just wanted to give everyone an update for Powder Keg Pub & Seafood Cafe. As some of you may have seen, a little red “Stop Work” order has been posted on our door. We hope it hasn’t alarmed anyone.
Our architects have submitted our plans three times now to the Contra Costa Health Dept.. Although there are no major changes or corrections that the Health Department wishes us to make, every time we are asked to make a small modification or even clarification, we have to resubmit our plans. Unfortunately, once we do that, the Health Department does not have the manpower to immediately check and return such plans. It goes through the same waiting period as everyone else.
So we are now in our third submittal, and unfortunately, our Health Dept. “plan checker” is on vacation, so we don’t anticipate our plans being looked at again until after April 1st.
Now, in the meantime, while we were submitting all the plans, we decided to get a jump start on the construction since none of the plans changes were structural in nature. Shame on us because even if we left our wall structures open for inspection, we shouldn’t have even started….mea culpa! As a result, the City had to step in and request that we cease all construction requiring permits. Our hats off to the City because as wrong as we were, they educated us, and continue to educate us, and handled this situation with the utmost kindness and professionalism.
But no worries. We are continuing any work that does not require permits so that when the time comes, we can work in full force to get Powder Keg up and running to serve you. However, to our regret, we do not anticipate an opening until mid- to late-May.
Thank you all for your support!!
I, too, think this is a great idea. My wife and I will patronize the Powder Keg and look forward to its opening.
We are longtime residents, 24 years and were the very first to move into the Hercules by the Bay developments. In that time there have been very, very few additions to dining places in Hercules where we thought “That’s a good idea and something this town needs.” I hope this is a harbinger of a new attitude on the city’s part.
To those relative newcomers in Bayview and Promenade, yes, this area south and west of you is Hercules by the Bay. It started in 1984 and includes the Bedford, Chelsea, Historical Homes, and Coventry areas, probably 500 to 600 hundred homes. The Olympian Hills condo development started a little earlier and was distinctly a development of its own. Way back then, the remnants of the Chemical company that gave the town its name were still here and Pacific Refining was operating. The areas across San Pablo Avenue and between it and the freeway were cattle fields.