photo by: Bremen Keasey

Meadowlark Wine Bar, 1011 Massachusetts, is opening Thursday. The chef and owner Jake Moffitt hopes to introduce people in Lawrence to his two passions: natural wine and food.

Even as life took him away from Lawrence, Jake Moffitt always had an aim for what his life would look like when he came back.

“I always had a dream to move back and open a restaurant, but it wasn’t clear what it was,” Moffitt said.

Moffitt went to college at KU and met his wife, Elizabeth, there, but they then moved to the Pacific Northwest in 2015 so she could attend graduate school. Moffitt worked as a chef anywhere he could, in both large and small kitchens, but in the Pacific Northwest he found a new obsession: wine, especially natural wine.

As he and Elizabeth thought of moving back to Lawrence to be closer to family, that topic of wine stuck in his mind and led him to create Meadowlark Wine Bar. The restaurant at 1011 Massachusetts St. will open its doors Thursday evening, with Moffitt hoping to be able to showcase his two obsessions in an eclectic space that can be as local as possible as well.

“This was the goal, to create a cool, unique, fun space that I feel like people that live here would enjoy,” Moffitt said.

photo by: Bremen Keasey

Jake Moffitt said it was always his dream to open a restaurant in Lawrence after he went to KU and met his wife there. After a decade in the Pacific Northwest, he will open Meadowlark Wine Bar in downtown Lawrence Thursday, with offerings that feature local food and natural wine.

Moffitt said as he went down the “rabbit hole” of wine, he fell in love with natural wine — though he doesn’t love that term. He said people might conceive that term as wine with sediment or “chunks floating” in the bottles, but to him, that’s not what natural wine is. Rather, Moffitt said he was drawn to wines bottled by smaller producers that were “more organic” and had less intervention in the process. Instead of doing things that might speed up the process for the wine to ferment, Moffitt said natural wines just let fermentation “do what it does,” with many vineyards using just grapes and native yeast.

Moffitt feels that this simple style makes each wine unique to its time and place. Seasonal changes like when the grapes were picked or if it was a cold or hot summer can lead to subtle taste differences from bottle to bottle — or even sip to sip.

“I’ve had many bottles where as the night goes — sipping on it — there are changes (to the taste),” Moffitt said. “I find that extremely fascinating.”

Meadowlark won’t just feature wine — it will also have a limited cocktail menu and beers from local brewers, such as Free State’s Oktoberfest brew and Fields and Ivy’s Breezedale Hazy IPA — but Moffitt said the wine will be the centerpiece. He said he worked with wine distributors to bring in kinds of wine that aren’t common in Kansas and hopes people can enjoy some of those unique options that he gravitates toward.

“Even if it seems out of their comfort zone to try some of these,” Moffitt said, “I want them to go down this rabbit hole I found myself in.”

Moffitt’s bar plans to feature wines from “all over,” but he will be sure to feature wines from the West Coast — like bottles from the Hiyu Wine Farm in Hood River, Ore. that are “about as natural as it can get” — that represent his and his wife’s journey.

photo by: Bremen Keasey

The bar at Meadowlark Wine Bar, 1011 Massachusetts St.

On the food side, Moffitt hopes his menu will be “as local as (he) can get.” The bar has a full kitchen, which can be seen from the dining area so customers can watch their food come right to their table. Moffitt said he’s already worked with Mellowfields Farm and Juniper Hill to source local ingredients for his dishes — though he did add that he plans to include seafood on the menu, another nod to the Pacific Northwest.

Moffitt said he hopes to change up his menu “probably weekly.” Part of that is because “he’d get bored” of the same menu, but he also wants to allow his cooks to learn on the job and enjoy the process.

At the moment, the plan is for Meadowlark to open from 5 to 10 p.m. Thursday to Sunday, but Moffitt hopes to eventually open up for another night of service and maybe other special events in the future. Moffitt said he and his family have been working day and night at the restaurant for three months to get it open, and he is thrilled to be able to “kick open” the doors this week and introduce Lawrenceians to some of his obsessions.

“This is my passion,” Moffitt said. “I love wine, I love food.”

To make reservations for Meadowlark, you can visit its website: www.meadowlarkwinebar.com.

photo by: Bremen Keasey

A bookshelf at Meadowlark Wine Bar that features cookbooks. Its owner Jake Moffitt said many of the books featured are from some restaurants or chefs that inspired him.

photo by: Bremen Keasey

A table at Meadowlark Wine Bar, 1011 Massachusetts St. Jake Moffitt, the chef and owner, said that the plates the restaurant came from vintage stores which adds to the bar’s eclectic vibe.

photo by: Bremen Keasey

Scenes from the bar at Meadowlark Wine Bar, 1011 Massachusetts St.