Behind Red Wagon Creamery, there is a little known restaurant with a philosophy we can all agree on: partying is good for you. Party Downtown is celebrating one year in its permanent brick-and-mortar location this month and this is a cause for extra celebration for owners Tiffany Norton and Mark Kosmicki.
Party Downtown started as Party Cart in April 2011 with the idea to provide mostly organic, creative and delicious burgers with a farm-to-table philosophy.
“Mark and I were at a point where we really wanted to work for ourselves,” co-owner Tiffany Norton said. “But of course we didn’t have any money. The cheapest way to start a food business is to start a food cart, so that’s what we did.”
Party Cart’s menu was, essentially, a smaller version of the menu at its current location. Focusing on supporting local farm owners Norton and Kosmicki were friends with, the menu eventually settled on burgers. With the help of Red Wagon Creamery, the two carts joined forces as well as funds to become one location in downtown Eugene.
The setup is truly different from anything I’ve experienced before. In the front, neighboring National Taphouse and Bijou Metro, is Red Wagon Creamery, a (seemingly) independent restaurant. During a visit, I had the pleasure of using the restroom with penny-lined flooring and suddenly realized I was in a completely different building. Different aesthetic, kitchen, and a full-blown bar. This is Party Downtown.
What is really quite exceptional about Party Downtown is the aesthetic that this unique little restaurant has conceptualized. The room is bright and airy with sky blue walls and a Mediterranean-blue floor. A chalkboard menu is posted on the wall because it changes too often to have a printed menu. Delicate terrariums decorate the walls and meals are served on intricate plates. In the back of the Party half of the building there’s a bar, equally aesthetically pleasing (but I’ll get to that later) but with dark wood and a chic vibe. I want to call it hipster, but it seems too truly authentic and lighthearted to be labeled as such.
But hip, indeed.
Party Downtown is an unusual name for a restaurant and apparently is often confused with a party-supply store, Kosmicki said. The name came from an inside joke while he worked on a farm, ultimately derived from a line from HBO show, “Mr. Show”: “Why did you take me, God? Is it because I party?” But it’s not only a joke, it’s a way of life.
“How serious can you get when your place is called ‘Party’?” Kosmicki asked me. “We like to replace it with any other word, nouns and adjectives.”
Party Downtown’s menu changes weekly and seasonally with very few permanent items such as the Son-In-Law Egg (hardboiled and fried egg) and a duck egg dish. The bar’s menu changes less frequently but still keeps with the seasons.
While Norton and Kosmicki are in creative control of the kitchen, the bar belongs to master mixer James West.
“James is like a mad scientist,” Thor Slaughter, a novice bartender, said. “He tinkers endlessly, finding the perfect balance and ingredients for things. The cocktails are amazing because he strives to make sure none of them are busy … James is all about extravagant minimalism.”
The bar provides homemade sodas (not a Pepsi or Coke in the building) and liqueurs, such as the Black Manhattan, made with homemade and aged nocino liqueur.
At Party Downtown, homemade, local and creative is a standard and expectation. Hoping to provide classy meals in a fun environment, the restaurant hopes to branch out to a younger, student community. But if we can all agree on something, it is to party.