Blind Tiger is open on Main Street but dry for another week

Among the things you can get right now at Blake Lostal’s two-week-old Blind Tiger saloon (3945 Main): a very good Cubano sandwich, a fountain drink, slice of house-made bourbon chocolate pie. 

Lunch.

For dinner, though — and the drinks that go with it — there’s another week to go until this Tiger is fully grown.

“We have our liquor license already,” manager Jason Howland says, “but we’ve decided to wait until next Friday to start serving it, since it’s also when we’ll also be serving dinner specials and having our grand opening.”

So until July 24, this new midtown hangout is building its lunch business, serving from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. amid a phalanx of noisy video games, skee-ball machines and four pool tables. Those clubhouse elements help give Blind Tiger its speakeasy feel. (The name dates back to Prohibition, when “blind tiger” or “blind pig” were both slang for speakeasy.)

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There are still a few kinks to be worked out in the space, which has had an interesting and checkered past. (Former tenants include a coffeehouse, a hair salon and several short-lived bars.) There were more employees in the black-painted storefront than customers when I dropped by this week, including general manager Candice Moore, Howland, kitchen manager Ben Nunez and several bartenders. But the kitchen crew is definitely working.

In fact, Lostal, the red-haired son of a Cuban-born father, takes one sandwich here especially seriously: the Cubano. “I slowly roast my pork for hours,” he says, “and use the traditional yellow mustard, pickles and swiss cheese.”

The sandwich is made on a Farm to Market baguette and cooked on a panini grill. The same Farm to Market is the bread used for other sandwiches here. Lostal is negotiating to have true Cuban-style bread shipped to the bar from Florida. My sandwich came with plantain chips — Chifles platanitos, made in Tampa, Florida. 

The menu right now includes appetizers, sandwiches and side dishes, with the hummus, baked beans and potato salad made in-house. The side dishes and a trio of pies are all made from Lostal’s mother’s recipes.

Lostal says he’ll start booking live entertainment in September.