For years, Angela Robershotte toyed with opening her own bar. In 2024, with her kids nearly grown and flown, she decided to give it a real shot. After all, she had worked in numerous local establishments for years and was already working some 65 hours a week. How much harder could having her own place be? (As it turns out, a lot.) But, thanks to Robershotte’s vision and dedication, the Arcata scene has a new community gathering space: the Wild Hare Tavern.
Reinventing the former home of the storied Jambalaya (later the Jam) right off the Arcata Plaza took hours upon hours of remodeling and revamping. Now, when you walk in, Robershotte’s presence is clear from the fresh flowers in the bathroom to the gleaming bar and friendly greetings. As bartender Alex March commented, the staff are all invested in the tavern being a safe space for all, and it seems to be hitting the mark and Robershotte has earned the nickname Bar Mom for her care of staff and clientele alike.
“Bar mom,” Robershotte said with a laugh when she heard the term. “I think that’s just part of good service. … All our food, all our drinks, our offerings, all our service really, it must be of good quality, or I don’t want it.”
From soup to nuts (literally), everything on the menu is as fresh, locally sourced and as close to scratch-made as possible. The Tavern’s kitchen is led by Kevin Hover who plied his culinary degree at the Fairmont Mission Inn & Spa in Sonoma for several years. Hover is proud of his small menu, as he should be. The hot dogs are Wagyu beef. The meatball sub is stuffed into a Brio ladybug roll. The split pea soup is hearty, nourishing and flavorfully spiced with chorizo. The kale Caesar salad is topped with a beautiful, crisp Parmesan tuile cracker. The potato chips are house made, as is the garlicky fresh basil aioli that comes with the French fries. And the bar nuts? Hover tosses each variety of nut with its own special seasoning — the almonds in his sesame ponzu, the pecans with maple and bourbon, and the cashews with honey, garlic and herbs. They are impossible to stop eating.
The same level of quality and care has gone into the drink offerings. “We don’t have anything super high end, and we don’t have anything super low end, either,” said Robershotte. “The bar is really trying to appeal to our local working-class community and general population of Humboldt, people who appreciate good things but also maybe don’t want to spend on super expensive cocktails.”
With that, the Wild Hare has 12 beers on tap, including Guinness, and other beer offerings in the cooler. They have signature drinks including a classic Old Fashioned and Lemon Drop. They also make a one-of-a-kind drink with local It’s Alive kombucha called a Booch Bomb, inspired by customers asking for cocktails with Red Bull and energy drinks Robershotte refuses to carry. So they used the kombucha as an experiment and voila! The Booch Bomb was born and it is deliciously quenching.
Hosting something for the public every night of the week is also part of Robershotte’s vision. Currently, the schedule is packed: Mondays are game nights (soon to include ping pong and cornhole); Tuesdays are Band Practice, with local live musicians and no cover fee; Wednesdays have become tasting nights, with wine and/or beer education; Thursdays are informally known as birthday party days (Robershotte has been known to bake a cake if she has enough notice); Fridays are either live music or DJ music; and Saturdays are for live music. Although the tavern is family friendly during kitchen hours, most nights are 21 and over only.
Beyond the semi-set schedule, Robershotte is always looking for more ways to include the community and expand the tavern as a gathering space. “We had Hat Day for the Kentucky Derby. That was a lot of fun,” said Robershotte. “I’ve been thinking I want to do Shower Sundays, where we host people’s baby showers or casual bachelorette parties and whatnot.” And who better to celebrate with than your Bar Mom?
This article appears in Humboldt Insider Spring / Summer 2025.