Flying Axes, a popular Covington bar, is about to have a new upstairs neighbor.
During the Covington Business Council’s Hard Hat tour last Wednesday, visitors were given a sneak peek of the bones of a new second-story bar, located atop of Flying Axes at 100 West 6th St. in Covington. Owners described it as a modern take on the classic Kentucky bourbon bar.
Flying Axes is located in a building that was previously a firehouse constructed in 1880.
The as-of-yet unnamed bar is anticipated to open in November and is midway through the construction phase, said Mike Brown, co-founder of Flying Axes.
LOST Co, the Cincinnati-based company behind popular Over-the-Rhine bars such as Somerset and Alice, is involved with the project.
“They were kind of looking into coming to Covington and when they came and saw the building, they got really excited,” Brown said. “If you’ve seen their spaces, they are pretty unique. They were kind of blown away with what could happen here.”
Charity Williamson, founder of experimental interior design firm Otherwhere, gave a tour of the space last week, outlining her vision for the interior.
“The inspiration is very Victorian meets psychedelic 70s, which is going to be crazy,” Williamson said.
The space was previously Tickets Sports Cafe. The new bar will feature an open floor plan with a large L-shaped bar that patrons will see upon entering up the stairs. The large windows facing W. 6th Street will give patrons a prime view of Mother of God Holy Roman Church.
The second floor has an outdoor roof deck, which features one of the two field goal posts from Super Bowl XXIII between the Cincinnati Bengals and the San Francisco 49ers. Williamson said she is open to suggestions on how they could potentially incorporate the field goal post into the overall vibe of the space.
Williamson predicts the capacity inside the bar will be approximately 150 people, and the outdoor roof deck will be 100 people.
New wooden flooring will be installed, along with encaustic tiles — ceramic tiles in which the pattern or figure on the surface is not a product of the glaze, but of different colors of clay — decorated with circular patterns to keep in line with the psychedelic 70s theme.
Stylistically, Williamson said she wanted the interior design to capture some of the building’s history as a firehouse.
“We went through a lot of trial and error with conceptualizing the space and trying to figure out the backstory,” Williamson said. “What do we want to see here? We can make it super cool, but we also need to make it very welcoming and unpretentious, which I feel like can be difficult with everything being shiny and new.”
