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Sacramento · California

It grew on the west side of Sacramento. Now it's a tasting bar.

This London plane sycamore grew in a neighborhood on the west side of Sacramento and came down in 2017. We milled it ourselves and built the tasting bar at Hope on Park, in downtown Paso Robles, from it. The credenza behind the bar came from the same tree.

The tasting bar at Hope on Park, with people at the counter HOPE ON PARK TASTING BAR · REAL PHOTO
Photo by Celeste Hope
Register entry
Wood
London plane sycamore
Where it grew
A neighborhood on the west side of Sacramento
Came down
2017
Milled and kiln-dried
By us
Resin poured
October 2023
Installed
April 2024
Became
A two-level tasting bar, and the credenza behind it
Lives at
Hope on Park, downtown Paso Robles

The life of this tree

From a Sacramento neighborhood to the tasting room.

  1. Stop 1 · Sacramento

    The tree

    A London plane sycamore in a neighborhood on the west side of Sacramento. By 2017 it was old and failing: rot at the trunk was damaging the main branches, and it had to come down. It was rescued and taken to the Sacramento Tree Foundation, and we got the log from them.

  2. Stop 2 · Mill and kiln

    Milled and dried

    We milled the log into slabs and kiln-dried them ourselves. This wood can be wildly varied, and this tree was. In places the grain runs tight and straight, almost like a printed pattern, and inside a single slab the color moves through a whole range of hues, like a painting.

    The slab for the front of the bar, lying flat in our shop with the orange resin river poured around a pale island of wood, and the lace-like grain running down the slab REAL PHOTO
    THE BAR-FRONT SLAB, WITH THE RESIN POURED

  3. Stop 3 · The yard

    Picked at the yard

    Austin and Celeste Hope were opening a new tasting room downtown and building it around local artists, with the wine, the design and the feel of the place all carefully curated. They reached out and came to our yard, and we walked it with them, telling the stories of tree after tree and what made each one different. They fell for the grain. The first thing they said was “wow,” and then they kept going.

  4. Stop 4 · The shop

    The build

    Two levels, with a lower counter at one end. The front of the tall section is a single slab with a river of orange resin running across it on a diagonal, around a pale island of wood, and the river is lit from behind. The resin is in shades of the Hopes' signature orange. The tops are live-edge sycamore, with steel at the ends. Behind the bar sits a credenza cut from the same tree: long and low, its front cut from a single slab so the grain runs across the seams, with black resin in the hairline cracks and no handles. We poured the resin in October 2023, and the bar went in at Hope on Park in April 2024.

    The two-level sycamore bar in our shop before finish, with the lower counter in front and the tall section behind
    REAL PHOTO · THE BAR IN OUR SHOP, BEFORE FINISH
    The credenza fronts being fitted to the gray carcass in our shop, with black resin running through the seams between the sycamore panels and a level on top
    REAL PHOTO · THE CREDENZA FRONT BEING FITTED

  5. Stop 5 · Hope on Park

    Where it lives now

    The bar sits out on the sidewalk at Hope on Park, in downtown Paso Robles, the first thing you see as you walk up. Anyone passing by can pull up and taste.

    The finished sycamore bar installed at Hope on Park, with its orange resin river, and the credenza standing behind it in front of the tall black-framed windows
    REAL PHOTO · THE BAR WITH THE CREDENZA BEHIND IT, INSTALLED

The sycamore, up close

Styled settings of the real bar

The sycamore bar at dusk in a styled tasting room, its orange resin river glowing from behind
Close-up of the orange resin river and the pale island of sycamore inside it
A glass of red wine being poured on the live-edge sycamore top

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