• Courtesy Of Babes Bar
• Babes Bar co-owners Owen Daniel-McCarter and Jesse Plotsky

This spring, the good drinkers of the White River Valley will have another watering hole to visit. When Babes Bar opens in May at 221 Main Street at the old Bethel Depot, it'll offer classic cocktails, local wines and ciders, and coffee, according to co-owner Owen Daniel-McCarter.

Daniel-McCarter is opening the place with his partner — in life and business — Jesse Plotsky. Both have worked at bars, but this is the first food and beverage business for the couple, who will move from their current home in Chicago. There, Daniel-McCarter is an attorney working to increase LGBTQ inclusion through the Illinois Safe Schools Alliance, while Plotsky works in wine at Trader Joe's by day and plays in bands by night.

Why abandon lucrative careers in a cultural center to open a bar in Bethel? First, Plotsky's brother, Andrew Plotsky (of Farmrun and, with wife Rita Champion, Stitchdown Farm), lives nearby. "We've been to visit a few times," Plotsky said, "and it just seems like there's this energy in Bethel, this revitalization of the downtown going on right now. People are putting new energy into new businesses, invigorating the community space and envisioning a future."

The Babes co-owners don't plan a significant food component for the bar, but they intend to engage food trucks to sling eats during the summer and to host cultural programming such as live music and movie nights.