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"I’m excited that Hello Stranger will greet its first customers this Friday, June 1: a bi-level bar at 1724 Broadway (in the former Hill’s Shoes space, just above 19th Street BART) with several booths for lounging, a sunny mezzanine, and a dance floor complete with a disco ball and DJ setup. Owners Summer-Jane Bell, Josh Trabulsi, and Bill Stephens are longtime local service-industry regulars—Bell rose through Oakland bartending ranks to become president of the local US Bartenders Guild chapter, Stephens is Oakland born and raised, and Trabulsi most recently worked at Burritt Room in SF—and they say they’ve pulled the best aspects of bar programs from around the world back home to Oakland. The cocktail program includes an eponymous Hello stranger (spritzy, with passion fruit, Spanish vermouth, and sacred bond brandy), the bitter Hell’s Belles (Wahaka Mezcal, Campari, and Cocchi Rosa, with torched rosemary), and the dank Oaksterdam (Dickel Rye, Henesey Miro Vermouth, and OG Kush Terpenes), plus beer, wine, and nonalcoholic indulgences. Oakland Faders DJs, including DJ Platurn, will spin weekends with parties on Friday and Saturday nights, the venue will display local artists in a gallery space (up first is Alex Abajian of Glow Glass Studio), and starting Friday Hello Stranger will be open 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. Monday through Saturday." - Caleb Pershan