Main Street in downtown Rochester offers some of the best historical storefronts filled with local favorites that line the block. What we don’t always see, is tucked just beneath some of those beautiful spaces, like the newest bar in town, that you may have not heard of. Nestled in the basement of 336 Main Street, you’ll find one of Rochester’s newest hidden gems, The Eastman - a craft cocktail bar brought to you by Nathan Hamood, the owner of Dessert Oasis and Trevor Wheeler, a 25-year hospitality veteran and former bar manager of another downtown favorite, The Meeting House.
The Eastman draws its name from the historical roots of the space itself, built sometime around 1890 by J.W. Eastman. The basement of 336 Main has gone through many different iterations over the past 100 years or so ultimately ending up with a brand new identity full of art-deco and mid-century modern touches anchored by a stunning bar that seats 16. The detail in the woodworking, the murphy-bed style tables that fold into the wall, the floating door that hides itself in a custom closet (both ingenious solutions by Hamood's father to solve storage issues in such small space) and the hand bent arches framing the doorways were all created by local craftsmen and makers. In the spirit of looking to bring people within their talented community to help execute this project, Hamood and Wheeler reached out out to long-time friends and co-workers Joel Barron, founder of Incredibly Human Studios for assistance with all of their graphic design work and Nicole Mucci, founder of Eye Collected Design, to bring her magic into the interior elements of the space.
That’s something the Eastman prides itself in…supporting local whenever possible. “One of my favorite parts of being in downtown Rochester is connecting to our community and then finding ways to connect those communities to one another”, said Hamood, who has found continued success over the past several years with Dessert Oasis, his coffee shop located just up the stairs. When it came time to decide on a location, staying as close to home as possible just made sense. While some may have seen the small basement space as impossible to transform, Hamood had the vision, and decided to lean into the challenge, ultimately designing one of the most intimate and unique spaces in our city.
Hamood knew that he was going to need someone passionate about the service industry to operate the bar side of the project and later tapped Wheeler, one of the most familiar faces in downtown Rochester, to work alongside him. Wheeler has worked in downtown Rochester for the past five years. He has spent much of that time forming relationships with other business owners and locals who now have become a big part of his menu inspiration. “I make a great effort to keep everything as locally sourced as I can. There are so many great opportunities to collaborate with our downtown neighbors, and I intend to keep doing that as we evolve and create new cocktails.” Wheeler is looking forward to having the Downtown Rochester Farmers' Market back in town, as it will give him opportunities to shop the market for local produce and ingredients, ultimately creating cocktails that don’t take themselves seriously, but taste seriously incredible.
The Eastman is located at 336 Main Street, Rochester MI. Operations hours are Wednesday and Thursday 5-11 pm, Friday and Saturday 5-12 pm. Capacity is 44 guests, the space is available for private events and is ADA compliant. Contact 248.765.1979 to reach them directly.
"One of my favorite parts of being in downtown Rochester is connecting to our community and then finding ways to connect those communities to one another."
