Sunset Hill's Baker's Bar Saved by Neighbor Who Started There as a Bartender

Baker's, the cocktail bar tucked into Seattle's Sunset Hill neighborhood, was supposed to close for good. Instead, it's still pouring drinks at 6408 32nd Ave NW, thanks to a former bartender who once worked its taps back when the place first opened and who now owns the building next door.

Molly Ringe worked as a Baker's bartender when it opened in April 2019, according to The Seattle Times. Years later, after the bar's original owners announced in January that Baker's would shut down permanently on January 31 following nearly seven years in business, citing what they called a myriad of factors, according to My Ballard, Ringe stepped in to buy it rather than watch it disappear.

Baker's was originally established in May 2019 by veteran Seattle bartender Brian Claudio Smith, who named it after Charles H. Baker Jr., author of the 1939 drink book The Gentleman's Companion, per Seattle Magazine. Smith had previously managed bar programs at the Sorrento Hotel and Osteria La Spiga before opening his own place on the quiet residential strip.

A Deal Nearly Undone Twice

The sale to Ringe wasn't a clean handoff. It was delayed first by complications with the previous owner and legal matters, and separately by financing falling through, per the Times account. Ringe was also diagnosed with breast cancer during this period, another complication layered on top of an already fraught transition, the paper reports.

Compounding the difficulty was the state's liquor licensing system itself. Under Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board regulations, liquor licenses are non-transferable between individuals, meaning new owners must apply for an entirely new endorsement, a process that typically takes 60 to 90 days. To manage the handoff, Baker's temporarily paused operations from February 1 through February 4 before reopening under a modified schedule on February 5, according to My Ballard.

Todd Rosin, a regular, called Baker's a community center with alcohol, per the Times, and said the bar helped bring neighborhood people together. Todd Armstrong and Rosin had posted online about the bar amid its uncertain future, the paper notes. Baker's, the Times reports, will keep hosting first dates, friends' meetups, and the Todds' birthdays going forward.

From Café Juanita to a 200-Square-Foot Bottle Shop

Ringe's résumé stretches well beyond her stint pulling pints at Baker's. She studied winemaking at UC Davis, worked as a sommelier at The French Laundry, served as wine director at Ray's Boathouse, and put in time at both Café Juanita and The Zig Zag, according to the Times. She's a certified sommelier and grew up on Sunset Hill herself.

Ringe opened Molly's Bottle Shop next door to Baker's at 6406 32nd Ave NW, launching what the Times describes as Seattle's first natural wine shop using a credit card, a detail also noted by LoveToKnow, which reports she later expanded to a second retail location in West Seattle. The Ballard shop itself is a tight 200 square feet, stocking natural wine alongside treats for neighborhood dogs. She learned about natural wine while traveling and now prefers bottles that, in her words, taste like conventional good wine — wines made with minimal intervention from organic or biodynamically grown grapes.

Molly's Bottle Shop has also hosted pop-ups for nascent food businesses and artisans, and Ringe has said independently owned small businesses matter to Seattle's fabric. She works at the bottle shop five or six days a week and plans to keep both operations going, with both Molly's Bottle Shop and Baker's stocking wine from independently owned, ecologically minded wineries.

What Changes, and What Won't

Ringe does not plan to change much at Baker's, according to the Times, though the bar will now provide more space for her wine pop-ups and will support local farmers and purveyors. She's named several nearby favorites that reflect the neighborhood's food scene, including Cafe Munir, Pancita, Maddy's Bakeshop, Pizza Ritual, Miss Pho, The Fresh Fish Co., Beast & Cleaver, and Rupee Bar.

Baker's sits on a distinct stretch of 32nd Avenue NW in Sunset Hill alongside other independent businesses, including wood-fired restaurant Samara, Salmonberry Green Grocer, and Ristorante Picolinos, a lineup Hoodline itself profiled back in 2019. Neighboring business owners on the block have described the micro-commercial strip as a vital gathering space where small businesses lean on local resident support to survive, per KING 5.

That support has proven necessary in dollars, not just sentiment. In July, Ringe launched a GoFundMe campaign seeking between $30,000 and $75,000 or more to help carry Baker's through its first year under new ownership, with funds earmarked for employee wages, equipment repairs, licensing costs, and initial inventory, My Ballard reported. Baker's had also built a reputation for regional collaboration before its ownership change, including a custom Sunset Hill amaro created with Bainbridge Island-based Highside Distilling to reflect Pacific Northwest ingredients, according to Seattle Magazine.

A Neighborhood Bar in a Tough Market

Baker's near-closure landed amid a broader wave of local hospitality turnover. Data from 2025 showed downtown Ballard saw 30 business closures against more than 35 openings amid rising operational costs, per My Ballard's reporting on the trend. That churn underscores just how precarious it can be to keep a craft bar running on a residential strip, even one as beloved as Sunset Hill's, against the weight of Seattle's labor costs and inflation.

Still, for now, Baker's remains what it has been since 2019: a gathering place where neighbors show up, order a drink, and stay a while. With Ringe now behind the bar and next door at her wine shop, that continuity is the point — even if keeping the lights on required a sale that took months, a health scare, and a state licensing process that doesn't move quickly for anyone.