New Fremont music venue coming to Brouwer’s Café space

A significant shake-up is coming to Fremont’s live music scene as the sun sets on one pillar venue, making way for a splashy new opening around the block.

When Belgian-themed beer hall Brouwer’s Café closed last summer after filling tulip glasses for 19 years, there was much curiosity around what might become of the unique and expansive space. Its incoming tenants didn’t have to walk far to get an up-close look at the stone-walled room that will house Fremont’s newest music venue: Hidden Hall.

The owners behind Nectar Lounge, a flick of a guitar pick from the old Brouwer’s, and High Dive have taken over the spot tucked a short block off the neighborhood’s main drag. Essentially, Nectar brass — Mario Abata, Andy Palmer, longtime manager Ken Stubblefield and founder Jed Smithson — is sliding its High Dive operation over to the new venue, a sleeker and slightly larger space with more robust sightlines. Hidden Hall will open on April 18. Nectar Lounge will remain open as a separate venue.

“It’s just a really beautiful space,” said Abata, who’s also a talent buyer and partner in the operation. “It feels like an upgrade for what we have always done at High Dive, just bringing the best parts of that over into this newer, improved space.”

Count the high ceilings, a wraparound mezzanine that doesn’t obscure views on the main floor, and those signature stone walls as selling points that lured the veteran show-throwers to their new digs down the street.

Aside from some fresh paint and a newly constructed stage, as well as a new sound system and lighting, the space was already set up like a showroom, making for a relatively simple transition.

“We just had this ‘Oh, (expletive)!’ moment,” said Palmer, also a talent buyer and partner. “It’s built to be a performance space, so we didn’t have to make many changes.”

While the permits are still being finalized, Hidden Hall’s capacity is expected to land somewhere between High Dive (200) and Nectar Lounge (450).

The new beginning marks the end of an era for High Dive, a Fremont staple since 2005 that the team took over six years ago. There won’t be any formal farewell show; after a One Direction-themed dance party April 12, all shows previously booked at High Dive will shift over to Hidden Hall.

“Part of the difficulty of flying the ship as you’re building it is we weren’t able to clearly plan for what this timeline was going to be,” Palmer said of the informal bon voyage.

Founded in 2004 by Smithson, Nectar Lounge has developed into a home base for Seattle’s jam rock scene and adjacent genres like reggae, funk and bluegrass, along with a heavy dose of hip-hop, Latin music and genres from around the world. The crew plans to maintain a similar mix at Hidden Hall, with various tribute shows, dance nights and some cross-venue events between Nectar and their new spot.

“If it’s not broke, don’t fix it,” Abata said of the programming proclivities. “We consider it a premium space and are expecting it to be a really great room for underplays — intimate shows with large artists. So, if anything is going to be a little different, I would expect more of that.”

With Hidden Hall opening around the corner from Nectar, the area will have a newly minted trifecta of venues, as popular pinball bar Add-a-Ball recently unveiled its own live music space.

Between Nectar’s neighborhood bona fides and Hidden Hall writing a new chapter, the venue operators look to be part of Fremont’s old guard and participants in what Palmer sees as a nightlife “resurgence” as a string of openings, closings and ownership changes bring a “new energy” to the historically arty area.

“It’s maintained its neighborhood feel,” Palmer said. “I think a lot of neighborhoods grew up too fast … or burned bright and then burnt out, and now you’ve got empty storefronts. I think that this neighborhood has also gone through some of that, but it’s coming out of that.”