Boozefish will become Standard Pour in mid-June

Over a year ago, Maija Diethelm, the owner of the popular Boozefish Wine Bar at 1511 Westport Road, told The Pitch that she was looking for a new buyer to take over the bistro she had opened, with very little money but lots of hard work, in 2001. It took nearly a year, but last month, Diethelm — who now has a new job as retail sales and marketing manager for Annedore’s Fine Chocolates at 5000 State Line Road — closed the deal with first-time saloon owner David Sederholm.

Sederholm, a vice president and portfolio manager with the Commerce Trust Company — he worked his way through the University of Montana as a bartender — is in the process of renovating the interior of the Boozefish building. When the new bar and bistro opens, in mid-June, it will be called the Standard Pour, a play on the 155-year-old financial services company Standard & Poor’s.

Sederholm, 60, is not leaving Commerce Trust to tend bar at his new business. He has hired most of his staff already, including longtime 75th Street Brewery manager Craig Mackin to serve as his general manager. Sederholm says he has no plans to hire a chef to operate the small Standard Pour kitchen; instead, he’s looking for an up-and-coming kitchen crew to oversee a menu that he says will be “neighborhood friendly, but a little edgy.”

“We’ll have our own signature neighborhood burger,”  Sederholm adds, “but we hope to surprise people with interesting dishes and dinner specials.”

Sederholm says he “wasn’t looking for an adventure.” The chance to remake Boozefish, he says, “just sort of walked into my life.”

A new adventure was the reason that Diethelm decided to sell Boozefish in the first place. Originally, Diethelm had planned to move to France — her late father lived there his entire life — and spend more time with her family members there. But a part-time job with Annedore’s has turned into a full-time career:  Diethelm and Annedore’s owner Sheri Weedman, calling themselves the “Mac Mamas,” recently launched a new line of colorful macarons at the confectionery, featuring an array of flavors (chocolate, raspberry, citron, pistachio, lavender and vanilla).

“It was bittersweet, selling the business,” says Diethelm, “but I was ready to take a new journey myself. I’ve been going through the transition to the new business with David, and he has a wonderful vision for the venue, which is exactly what I wanted a new owner to have.”

Sederholm lives close enough to his new venture to be able to walk to Standard Pour every night, if he wants to. 

“It’s a great opportunity, and I think it will be an asset to a great neighborhood,” he says. “I loved Boozefish and I think the regulars there will respond to Standard Pour in much the same way.”