By Megan Robertson

There is always something new happening at Rampant Bottle and Bar.

Outer Richmond residents Charlie O’Leary and Jack Pain opened the wine bar last September on Balboa Street near 36th Avenue, and in the months since they have curated an extensive and eclectic schedule of offerings for westside residents.

In addition to natural wine offerings – depending on when you visit the bar – you may find chefs cooking up Swedish hot dogs, manicurists painting elaborate designs on customers’ nails, fresh oysters being served or boutique coffee being brewed by Poorboy Coffee (formerly on Ninth Avenue and Lincoln Way in the Sunset District).

According to O’Leary and Pain, the wide range of events are directly inspired by the diverse interests of the neighborhood.

“It’s really a special, special little thing going on out here in the Outer Richmond,” Pain said. “There’s so much charm on this strip. It has been really cool to have so much incredible support from the neighborhood. I feel like we’re just a part of the community. Part of the team instantly. It’s been really, really special.”

Rampant joins the likes of the Laundromat and Slake Bottle in bringing curated wine selections and nightlife to this stretch of the neighborhood.

Owners Pain and O’Leary met in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. O’Leary moved to the Outer Richmond in 2020 with plans to start Rampant as a wine-purchasing website. Pain later joined him in the venture and the neighborhood.

As luck would have it, O’Leary ended up living next to the Butterfly Joint, the cafe and children’s woodworking shop on Cabrillo Street and 45th Avenue. O’Leary said that Butterfly Joint owners Danny Montoya and Erin Feher taught him “how to Richmond.”

“I think they’re just so good at … so subtly and modestly cultivating a community there,” O’Leary said. “We’ve kind of taken a page out of their book in trying to do that.”

In August of 2023, O’Leary and Pain moved into their space on Balboa. For a year, they renovated the shop themselves with the vision of creating a space to store their online inventory, while allowing customers to purchase and enjoy wines in person.

“The goal was always to be a gathering place,” O’Leary said. “People know each other’s names, whether that’s someone working or a guest. Now there are guests who didn’t know each other who know each other. It’s very communal.”

This community feel is encouraged with Rampant’s pop-ups. The most continuously offered one is with Poorboy Coffee, every Friday through Sunday, 9 a.m.-2 p.m. The pop-up, run solely by Poorboy creator Brandon Sardi, is holding its own as it joins the plentiful selection of weekend coffee offerings on Balboa.

The Richmond residents discovering Poorboy Coffee join a group of San Franciscans who know Sardi’s business well, both from his online series, “Bootstrapping a Coffee Shop,” which has gone viral with millions of views on Instagram, and from his five-month-long “residency pop-up” last year at Ninth and Lincoln in the Sunset.

Sardi, the Outer Richmond resident and San Francisco State alumnus, established Poorboy Coffee pop-ups in February of last year, with a mere $500 invested in the business. Although he initially focused only on cold-brew drinks, their menu expanded to include espresso drinks and bags of their own roasted coffee beans, which can be ordered online as of last month.

“By telling our story on Instagram and being consistent around the City, we were able to get some attention,” Sardi said. “Our Instagram started growing and we started seeing more people at the pop-ups.”

The pop-up at Rampant began at the start of the year with the focus of bringing specialty coffee to the neighborhood.

“There’s not a lot of specialty coffee in Richmond in particular,” Sardi said. He noted that the only cafe within the same boutique coffee market is the Coffee Movement on Balboa and 19th Avenue, which sees lines of customers down the block every weekend.

“I think (our coffee) kind of meshes well with the product that Jack and Charlie have with the natural wines,” Sardi said. “For the residents there, we’re trying to bring a specialty coffee shop where (we) can make it more accessible in the eyes of the Richmond.”

When coordinating these events and residencies, O’Leary’s philosophy is: “No one’s losing at these pop-up events.”

“We’re fortunate in that the Bay Area – particularly San Francisco and Oakland – has so much food passion and culture, and beverage comes along with that,” O’Leary said. “We’re super lucky that we live in an age where all we have to do is, it’s like, ‘I’ve never met you, I can just send you a message.’ And then all of a sudden, we have this event we’re cooking up, that’s going to be great. That brings two different audiences together.”

Rampant is hosting a number of pop-ups this month, including Swedish hotdogs with Chef Hej Hej on Sunday, Feb. 9, and a wine dinner with Chef Clark Myers, chef owner of Provisions JH in Jackson Hole, on Monday, Feb. 24. On Feb. 16, Carly from Janky Manicure Gloryhole will be doing a free manicure pop-up, with all tips set to be donated to those displaced by the fires in Los Angeles.

“I feel like there’s a handful of boarded up spaces and things like that,” Pain said. “This neighborhood … it’s got the charm. So it’s fun to provide something that people are looking for.”

Rampant Bottle and Bar is open every day of the week except for Tuesdays. Poorboy Coffee is in the space Fridays-Sundays, 9 a.m.-2 p.m. To reserve the space for private events, reach out to hello@rampantwine.com. Poorboy Coffee’s roasted beans can be purchased in-person at Rampant, or online @poorboy.shop. Learn more about Rampant at rampantwine.com.